"Hard Times Come Again No More," (sometimes, "Hard Times") is a parlor song by Stephen Foster

Stephen Foster

Stephen Collins Foster , known as the "father of American music", was the pre-eminent songwriter in the United States of the 19th century...

. It was published in New York by Firth, Pond & Co. in 1854 as Foster's Melodies No. 28. Well-known and popular in its day, both in America and Europe, the song asks the fortunate to consider the plight of the less fortunate and ends with one of Foster's favorite images: "a pale drooping maiden".

The first audio recording was a wax cylinder by the Edison Company (Edison Gold Moulded 9120) in 1905. It has been recorded and performed numerous times since.

Lyrics

1.
Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears,
While we all sup sorrow with the poor;
There's a song that will linger forever in our ears;
Oh hard times come again no more.
Chorus:
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.

2.
While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay,
There are frail forms fainting at the door;
Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say
Oh hard times come again no more.
Chorus

3.
There's a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away,
With a worn heart whose better days are o'er:
Though her voice would be merry, 'tis sighing all the day,
Oh hard times come again no more.
Chorus

4.
Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave,
Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore
Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave
Oh hard times come again no more.
Chorus

Legacy

"Hard Times Come Again No More" was still relevant a century and a half after its writing. It was included on the 1991 compilation Songs of the Civil War

Songs of the Civil War

Songs of the Civil War is a compilation album, released in 1991 by Columbia, that presents an assortment of contemporary performers recording period pieces and traditional songs that date back to the American Civil War.-Track listing:...

as recorded by Kate and Anna McGarrigle

Kate and Anna McGarrigle

Kate and Anna McGarrigle, were a pair of Canadian singer-songwriters from Quebec, who performed as a duo until Kate McGarrigle's death on January 18, 2010.-Profile:...

. It was recorded by Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan

Bob Dylan is an American singer-songwriter, musician, poet, film director and painter. He has been a major and profoundly influential figure in popular music and culture for five decades. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s when he was an informal chronicler and a seemingly...

 for his 1992 album Good as I Been to You

Good as I Been to You

Good as I Been to You is singer-songwriter Bob Dylan's 28th studio album, released by Columbia Records in November 1992.It is composed entirely of traditional folk songs and covers, and is Dylan's first entirely solo, acoustic album since Another Side of Bob Dylan in 1964...

. Played in the context of the late-2000s recession, it led off the encores during Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band's 2009 Working on a Dream Tour

Working on a Dream Tour

The Working on a Dream Tour was a concert tour by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, which began in April 2009 and ended in November 2009...

 (and was captured on their London Calling: Live in Hyde Park

London Calling: Live in Hyde Park

London Calling: Live in Hyde Park is a full concert video of Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band in their Working on a Dream Tour performance of June 28, 2009, at the Hard Rock Calling music festival in Hyde Park, London. It was released a year later, on Blu-ray and DVD.The work takes it name...

concert video release). It also was used in the context of natural disasters, such as the performance by Mary J. Blige

Mary J. Blige

Mary Jane Blige is an American singer-songwriter, record producer and occasional actress. She is a recipient of nine Grammy Awards and four American Music Awards, and has recorded eight multi-platinum albums. She is the only artist with Grammy Award wins in Pop, Rap, Gospel, and R&B. Blige has...

 and The Roots

The Roots

The Roots is an American hip hop/neo soul band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are famed for beginning with a jazzy, eclectic approach to hip hop which still includes live instrumentals...

 at the 2010 Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief

Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief

Hope for Haiti Now: A Global Benefit for Earthquake Relief was a charity telethon held on January 22, 2010 from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern Standard Time . The telethon was the most widely distributed telethon in history...

 telethon.

The song is Roud Folk Song Index

Roud Folk Song Index

The Roud Folk Song Index is a database of 300,000 references to over 21,600 songs that have been collected from oral tradition in the English language from all over the world...

#2659.

External links

• "Hard Times Come Again No More", Edison Male Quartette (Edison Gold Moulded 9120, 1905)—Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project.