About On Top of Ol Smokey#
How many funny versions of this song do you know? Kids seem to collect them, and the joke ones often get sung more than the real words. The original is an American mountain folk song, a sad little warning about a false-hearted lover, and nobody knows who first made it up.
It is one of the shortest tabs on the site, four lines and only twenty-two notes, so a beginner can get through the whole thing in one go. The range goes from C to high C with no sharps or flats, and nothing on the 12-hole ocarina beyond the main finger holes. Syllables sit under the notes, so it is easy to sing along, and easy to swap in whichever silly words your family prefers.
On Top of Ol Smokey Lyrics#
On top of Old Smokey,
All covered with snow,
I lost my true lover,
For courting too slow.
For courting’s a pleasure,
But parting is grief,
And a false-hearted lover,
Is worse than a thief.
A thief will just rob you,
And take what you have,
But a false-hearted lover,
Will lead you to your grave.
The grave will decay you,
And turn you to dust,
Not one girl in a hundred
A poor boy can trust.
They’ll hug you and kiss you,
And tell you more lies,
Than crossties on a railroad,
Or stars in the sky.
So come ye young brothers,
And listen to me,
Never place your affection
In a green willow tree.
For the leaves they will wither,
The roots they will die,
And you’ll be forsaken,
And never know why.
On Top of Ol Smokey Ocarina Tab#
| COn | CTop | EOf | GOld | CSmo- | Akey | |
| AAll | FCov | Gered | AIn | GSnow | ||
| CI | CLost | EMy | GTrue | GLov- | Der | |
| EFor | FCour- | Eting | DToo | CSlow |