Old Black Joe (A)

(S. Foster) G / g

      G                         C                   G

1.    Gone are the days when my heart was young and gay,

            Hmi              C             D7

Gone are my friends from the cotton fields away,

G                        C             G

Gone from the earth to a better land I know,

  D7                C      G         D   D7    G

I hear their gentle voices calling: "Old Black Joe!"

      G               Hmi            C               G

Rf.   I’m coming, I’m coming, for my head is bending low;

  D7                C      G         D   D7    G

I hear their gentle voices calling: "Old Black Joe!"

2.    Why do I weep when my heart should feel no pain?

Why do I sight that my friends come not again?

Grieving for forms now departed long ago,

I hear their gentle voices calling: "Old Black Joe!"

3.    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 their gentle voices calling: "Old Black Joe!"