“The Big Combine” Sheet Music (pdf).
“The Big Combine” Karaoke (midi with lyrics).
Lyrics: Jock Coleman.
Tune: “The Big Combine.”
Well, come all you rounders that want to hear
The story of a bunch of stiffs a-harvesting here.
The greatest bunch of boys ever come down the line
Is the harvesting crew on the Big Combine.
There’s traveling men from Sweden in this grand old crew;
Canada and Oregon and Scotland, too.
I’ve listened to their twaddle for a month or more.
I never saw a bunch of stiffs like this before.
Oh, you ought to see this bunch of harvest pippins;
You ought to see they’re really something fine;
You ought to see this bunch of harvest pippins,
The bunch of harvest pippins on the Big Combine.
Well, there’s Oscar just from Sweden; he’s as stout as a mule.
He can jig and dance and peddle the bull.
He’s an Industrial Worker of the World as well.
Says he loves the independence but the work is hell.
Well, he hates millionaires, and he wants to see
Them blow up all the grafters in the land of liberty.
Says he’s going to leave this world of politics and strife
And stay down in the jungle with his stew can all his life.
Oh, Casey Jones, he knew Oscar Nelson;
Casey Jones, he knew Oscar fine;
Oh, Casey Jones, he knew Oscar Nelson;
He kicked him off the boxcars on the SP Line.
Well, the next one I’m to mention, well, the next in line,
Is the lad a-punching horses on the Big Combine.
He’s the lad who tells the horses what to do.
But the things he tells the horses I can’t tell you.
It’s “Limp and Dude and Dolly, you get out of the grain”
And “Get over there, Buster, you are over the chain.”
“Oh, Pete and Pat and Polly, you get in and pull”
And “Get over there, Barney, you durned old fool.”
You ought to see, you ought to see our skinner;
You ought to see he’s really something fine;
You ought to see, you ought to see our skinner;
You ought to see the skinner on the Big Combine.
Well, I’m the head puncher. You can bet that’s me.
I do more work than all the other three,
A-working my hands and my legs and my feet,
Picking up the barley and the golden wheat.
I got to pull the lever and turn on the wheel.
I got to watch the sickle and the draper and the reel.
And if I hit a badger hill and pull up a rock,
Well, they say, “He’s done it, the durn fool Jock.”
I’m that lad; I’m the head puncher;
I’m that lad, though it isn’t in my line;
I’m that lad; I’m the head puncher;
I’m the head puncher on the Big Combine.