Library

Hard Times Come Again No More

Stephen Foster

Style
Old-time
Tradition
American parlor song (1854)
Form
Song
Key
D
Level
1
Played on
Voice

In the public domain. Source

Music

80bpm

Click any note to start from there

History

Stephen Foster wrote this parlor song, and Firth, Pond and Company published it in New York in 1854. It asks people who are comfortable to think of those who are not, and it was popular on both sides of the Atlantic.

It meant more during the Civil War, when soldiers also sang a parody about their rations, "Hard Tack Come Again No More." Edison made the first recording on a wax cylinder in 1905, and folk, old-time and bluegrass singers have kept it in their repertoire since.

'Tis the song, the sigh of the weary, Hard times, hard times, come again no more; Many days you have lingered around my cabin door, Oh hard times, come again no more.
Stephen Foster, 1854