Hank Snow - The Spell Of The Yukon 1968 lyrics

I wanted the gold, and I sought it I scrabbled and mucked like a slave Was it famine or scurvy -- I fought it; I hurled my youth into a grave I wanted the gold, and I got it -- Came out with a fortune last fall, -- Yet somehow life's not what I thought it And somehow the gold isn't all No! There's the land. (Have you seen it?) It's the cussedest land that I know From the big, dizzy mountains that screen it To the deep, d**hlike valleys below Some say God was tired when He made it; Some say it's a fine land to shun; Maybe; but there's some as would trade it For no land on earth -- and I'm one You come to get rich (damned good reason); You feel like an exile at first; You hate it like hell for a season And then you are worse than the worst It grips you like some kinds of sinning; It twists you from foe to a friend; It seems it's been since the beginning; It seems it will be to the end I've stood in some mighty-mouthed hollow That's plumb-full of hush to the brim; I've watched the big, husky sun wallow In crimson and gold, and grow dim Till the moon set the pearly peaks gleaming And the stars tumbled out, neck and crop; And I've thought that I surely was dreaming With the peace o' the world piled on top The summer -- no sweeter was ever; The sunshiny woods all athrill; The grayling aleap in the river The bighorn asleep on the hill The strong life that never knows harness; The wilds where the caribou call; The freshness, the freedom, the farness -- O God! how I'm stuck on it all The winter! the brightness that blinds you The white land locked tight as a drum The cold fear that follows and finds you The silence that bludgeons you dumb The snows that are older than history The woods where the weird shadows slant; The stillness, the moonlight, the mystery I've bade 'em good-by -- but I can't There's a land where the mountains are nameless And the rivers all run God knows where; There are lives that are erring and aimless And d**hs that just hang by a hair; There are hardships that nobody reckons; There are valleys unpeopled and still; There's a land -- oh, it beckons and beckons And I want to go back -- and I will They're making my money diminish; I'm sick of the taste of champagne Thank God! when I'm skinned to a finish I'll pike to the Yukon again I'll fight -- and you bet it's no sham-fight; It's hell! -- but I've been there before; And it's better than this by a damnsite -- So me for the Yukon once more There's gold, and it's haunting and haunting; It's luring me on as of old; Yet it isn't the gold that I'm wanting So much as just finding the gold It's the great, big, broad land 'way up yonder It's the forests where silence has lease; It's the beauty that thrills me with wonder It's the stillness that fills me with peace