Old Black Joe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (April 2007)

Sheet music cover

Old Black Joe or Poor Old Joe is an American folk song composed by Stephen Foster (1826-1864) in 1860.

Paul Robeson recorded a famous version of this song in the 1930s.

Statue of a slave and Stephen Foster listening to him play for inspiration at Carnegie library in Pittsburgh

[edit] Lyrics

1st verse
Gone are the days when my heart was young and gay,
Gone are my friends from the cotton fields away,
Gone from the earth to a better land I know,
I hear those gentle voices calling Old Black Joe.

Chorus:

I'm coming, I'm coming,

for my head is bending low,

I hear those gentle voices calling

Old Black Joe.

2nd verse
Why do I weep, when my heart should feel no pain,
Why do I sigh that my friends come not again?
Grieving for forms now departed long ago.
I hear those gentle voices calling Old Black Joe.

Chorus

3rd verse
Where are the hearts once so happy and so free?
The children so dear that I held upon my knee?
Gone to the shore where my soul has longed to go,
I hear those gentle voices calling Old Black Joe.