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Artist/Band: Hank Snow
Lyrics for Song: The Cremation of Sam McGee
Lyrics for Album: The Singing Ranger, Vol. 3 [Bear Family (Germany)] [1994]



(Robert W. Service)



There are strange things done in the midnight sun

By the men who moil for gold

The Arctic trails have their secret tales

That would make your blood run cold.



The Northern Lights have seen queer sights

But the queerest they ever did see

Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge

I cremated Sam McGee.



Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee

Where the cotton blooms and blows

Why he left his home in the South to roam

'Round the Pole God only knows.



He was always cold but the land of gold

Seemed to hold him like a spell

Though he'd often say in his homely way

That he'd sooner live in hell.



On a Christmas Day we were mushing

Our way over the Dawson trail

Talk of your cold through the parka's fold

It stabbed like a driven nail.



If our eyes we'd close then the lashes froze

Till sometimes we couldn't see

It wasn't much fun but the only one

To whimper was Sam McGee.



And that very night as we lay packed tight

In our robes beneath the snow

And the dogs were fed and the stars o'er head

Were dancing heel and toe.



He turned to me and Cap says he

I'll cash in this trip I guess

And if I do I'm asking that you

Won't refuse my last request.



Well, he seemed so low that I couldn't say no

Then he says with a sort of moan

It's the cursed cold and it's got right hold

Till I'm chilled clean through to the bone.



Yet taint being dead it's my awful dread

Of the icy grave that pains

So I want you to swear that foul or fair

You'll cremate my last remains.



A pal's last need is a thing to heed

So I swore I would not fail

And we started on at the streak of dawn

But God, he looked ghastly pale.



He crouched on the sleigh and he raved all day

Of his home in Tennessee

And before nightfall a corpse

Was all that was left of Sam McGee.



There wasn't a breath in that land of death

And I hurried horror-driven

With a corpse half hid that I couldn't get rid

Because of a promise given.



It was lashed to the sleigh and it seemed to say

You may tax your brawn and brains

But you promised true and it's up to you

To cremate those last remains.



Now a promise made is a debt unpaid

And the trail has it's own stern code

In the days to come though my lips were dumb

In my heart how I cursed that load.



In the long, long night by the lone firelight

While the huskies round in a ring

Howled out their woes to the homeless snows

Oh God, how I loathed the thing.



And every day that quiet clay

Seemed to heavy and heavier grow

And on I went though the dogs were spent

And the grub was getting low.



The trail was bad and I felt half mad

But I swore I would not give in

And I'd often sing to the hateful thing

And it hearkened with a grin.



Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge

And a derelict there lay

It was jammed in the ice but I saw in a trice

It was called the Alice May.



And I looked at it and I thought a bit

And I looked at my frozen chum

Then here said I with a sudden cry

Is my crematoreum.



Some planks I tore from the cabin floor

And I lit the boiler fire

Some coal I found that was lying around

And I heaped the fuel higher.



The flames just soared and the furnace roared

Such a blaze you seldom see

And I burrowed a hole in the glowing coal

And I stuffed in Sam McGee.



Then I made a hike for I didn't like

To hear him sizzle so

And the heavens scowled and the huskies howled

And the wind began to blow.



It was icy cold but the hot sweat rolled

Down my cheeks and I don't know why

And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak

Went streaking down the sky.



I do not know how long in the snow

I wrestled with grisly fear

But the stars came out and they danced about

Ere again I ventured near.



I was sick with dread but I bravely said

I'll just take a peep inside

I guess he's cooked and it's time I looked

Then the door I opened wide.



And there sat Sam looking cool and calm

In the heart of the furnace roar

And he wore a smile you could see a mile

And he said please close that door.



It's fine in here but I greatly fear

You'll let in the cold and storm

Since I left Plumtree down in Tennessee

It's the first time I've been warm.



There are strange things done in the midnight sun

By the men who moil for gold

The Arctic trails have their secret tales

That would make your blood run cold.



The Northern Lights have seen queer sights

But the queerest they ever did see

Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge

I cremated Sam McGee...


Album Lyrics: The Singing Ranger, Vol. 3 [Bear Family (Germany)] [1994]


Hank Snow
"The Singing Ranger, Vol. 3 [Bear Family (Germany)] [1994]"


1. I Love You Because
2. I Care No More
3. Fraulein
4. Return to Me
5. Mansion on the Hill
6. Limbo Rock
7. Tammy
8. Wheels
9. Tiptoeing
10. Poison Love
11. Hold Me Tight
12. I Saw the Light
13. Difficult
14. Little Stranger (In a Manger)
15. Christmas Roses
16. Silent Night
17. C-h-r-i-s-t-m-a-s
18. White Christmas
19. Frosty the Snowman
20. God Is My Santa Claus
21. I Ain't Been Anywhere
22. Rome Wasn't Built in a Day
23. Invisible Hands
24. Sweet Hour of Prayer
25. Jesus Wept
26. These Things Shall Pass
27. His Hands
28. Farther Along
29. Gloryland March
30. I Saw a Man
31. This Train
32. I See Jesus
33. Shopworn
34. I'm Glad I'm on the Inside Looking Out
35. I'll Go Marching Into Glory
36. How Big Is God
37. Lord's Way of Saying Goodnight
38. Promised to John
39. My Adobe Hacienda
40. No Letter Today
41. I Dreamed of An Old Love Affair
42. For Sale
43. Rose of Old Monterey
44. Moonlight and Skies
45. You and My Old Guitar
46. Down the Old Road to Home
47. I'm Sorry We Met
48. Teardrops in My Heart
49. Ridin' Home
50. Heartbreak Trail
51. Cool Water
52. Tumbling Tumbleweeds
53. At the Rainbow's End
54. Chant of the Wanderer
55. On the Rhythm Range
56. Following the Sun All Day
57. Blue Side of Lonesome
58. Green, Green Grass of Home
59. Once More You're Mine Again
60. There Goes My Everything
61. All the Time
62. It Kinda Reminds Me of Me
63. Blue, Blue Day
64. He Dropped the World in My Hands
65. Call of the Wild
66. There's a Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere
67. You're the Reason
68. It's a Little More Like Heaven
69. Galway Bay
70. Lili Marlene
71. Geisha Girl
72. Melba from Melbourne
73. Cuba Rhumba
74. Queen of Draw Poker Club
75. Now Is the Hour
76. In the Misty Moonlight
77. From a Jack to a King
78. She Wears My Ring
79. Mary Ann Regrets
80. White Silver Sands
81. Lonesome 7-7203
82. Gonna Find Me a Bluebird
83. Sweet Lies
84. Handcuffed to Love
85. Bummin' Around
86. I've Cried a Mile
87. You Take the Future (And I'll Take the Past)
88. Flying South
89. Miami Snow
90. At the First Fall of Snow
91. You're as Welcome as the Flowers in May
92. January
93. Springtime in the Rockies
94. Roses in the Snow
95. Beyond the Reef
96. Trade Winds
97. Don't Sing Aloha When I Go
98. Oahu Rose
99. The Wayward Wind
100. Walking the Last Mile
101. Old Rover
102. Put Your Arms Around Me
103. Little Joe
104. Cross the Brazos at Waco
105. Nuevo Laredo
106. Adios Amigo
107. Maria Elena
108. Senorita Rosalita
109. Dangerous Dan McGrew
110. Ballad of One Eyed Mike
111. My Friends
112. I Wish My Heart Could Talk
113. Wreck of the Old '97
114. Crazy Little Train of Love
115. Blue Yodel, No. 10
116. Father Time and Mother Love
117. Rockin' Rollin' Ocean [With Wave Effect]
118. Rockin' Rollin' Ocean [Without Wave Effect]
119. Casey's Washerwoman Boogie [Instrumental]
120. Hawaiian Sunset [Instrumental]
121. The Man Who Robbed the Bank at Santa Fe
122. The Texas Plains
123. Patanio (The Pride of the Plains)
124. A Legend in My Time
125. A Petal from a Faded Rose
126. The Change of the Tide
127. Mockin' Bird Hill
127. If It's Wrong to Love You
127. The Blue Canadian Rockies
127. Sonny Boy [Instrumental]
127. Unchained Melody [Instrumental]
127. Beautiful Dreamer [Instrumental]
127. Brahms' Lullaby [Instrumental]
127. Blue Tango [Instrumental]
127. Dark Moon [Instrumental]
127. I Can't Stop Loving You [Instrumental]
127. The Convict and the Rose [Instrumental]
127. The Waltz You Saved for Me
127. Lay My Head Beneath a Rose [Instrumental]
127. Whispering Hope [Instrumental]
127. Sentimental Journey [Instrumental]
127. Am I Losing You? [Instrumental]
127. I Get the Blues When It Rains [Instrumental]
127. Sweet Marie [Instrumental]
127. Birth of the Blues [Instrumental]
127. The Christmas Cannonball
127. A Letter to Santa Claus
127. The Face on the Barroom Floor
127. The Cremation of Sam McGee
127. The Spell of the Yukon
127. The Ballad of Blasphemous Bill
127. The Last Mile of the Way
127. Dear Lord, Remember Me
127. The Runt
127. The Prisoner's Dream
127. Mother I Thank You (For the Bible You Gave)
127. Rocking Alone in an Old Rocking Chair
127. To You Sweetheart, Aloha
127. My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii
127. On the Beach in Waikiki
127. Pearly Shells
127. The Whispering Tradewinds [Instrumental]
127. Among My Souvenirs [Instrumental]
127. The Seasons
127. All Nite Cafe
127. The Tip of My Fingers
127. A Wound Time Can't Erase
127. The Name of the Game Was Love