Days when I was Hard Up, The

DAYS WHEN I WAS HARD UP
As Sung by Edward Corvan
Air - "John Anderson my Joe"

In the days when I was hard up, not many years ago,
I suffered that which only, the sons of misery know; 
Relations, friends, companions, they all turn'd up their nose.
And they rated me a vagabond, for want of better clothes.

In the days when I was hard up, and wanted food and fire, 
I used to tie my shoes up, with little bits of wire:
When hungry and cold, cast on a rock, I couldn't get a meal,
How oft I've beat the devil down, for tempting me to steal.

In the days when I was hard-up, I used to bolt the door.
For fear the landlady should say, you can't lodge here no more; 
In my own back parlour, about ten feet by six.
In the workhouse wall just opposite I've counted all the bricks.

In the days when I was hard-up, for furniture and rags.
I've often on a summer's night held communion with the bugs; 
I never hunted them with forks, nor smashed them on the wall.
For I thought the world was wide enough, "there's room enough for all"

In the days when I was hard-up, I bow'd my spirits down, 
And often did succumb to friends to borrow half a-crown;
How many are there in this world with evil eye to scan, 
They see the shabby suit of clothes, but they never see the man.


SPOKEN: I pity the poor man, but pity is a poor offering, yet some people in this world bestow a great deal of it; at the same time, they contrive to keep their hands in their pockets. “In the days when I was hard up;” that’s the time I tried my friends, that is, I tried to find ’em, but I never found one yet; appearances were against me; so I plucked up my courage; recollections of the past gathered round me, and I began to forget the difficulties, the hardships, and ups and downs of life I had been forced to submit to; yet the experience I have had will teach me a lesson, and learn one to respect and assist a fellow creature in distress. But, let a man be a friend to  himself, and he will never need friendship from others.

In the days when I was hard up I found a blissful hope.
Tis all a poor man's heritage, to keep him from the rope,
But I've found a good old maxim, and this shall be my plan, 
If I wear a ragged coat, I'll near it like a man.

In the second half of the 19th century The Days when I was Hard Up was widely sung throughout the English speaking world. It was written to be sung to the tune of Robert Burns’ John Anderson my Joe, but its not clear who wrote the lyrics. It was widely published in broadsides, songsters and song books, particularly in the US in the 1860s, for example it appears in:

• Beadle’s Dime Song Book No.5 (New York, 1860)
• Nightingale Songster (New York, 1863)
• Jim Ward, The Clown’s Comic Songster (Philadelphia, 1864)
• Banner Songster (New York, 1865)
• Henry De Marsan’s New Comic and Sentimental Singer’s Journal No.7 (New York, c1868)
• We Parted by the Riverside Songster (New York, 1869)
• Comus and Cupid Songster (Chicago, c1869)

Whilst the lyricist has not been identified as yet, we can be reasonably confident that the variant given above is the way that Ned Corvan sang it in the Tyneside Halls of the 1850s- it was published in 1853 by Newcastle printer William Stewart – “Number 17” in a series of 22 song sheets, each with a single song of Corvan’s. Most of the songs in the series make it clear that the lyrics were written by Corvan, whilst this one just states “As sung by Edward Corvan“. All the other songs in the series are written in the Tyneside dialect. These facts together suggest that perhaps the songsheet is Corvan’s interpretation of someone else’s song, but we can’t rule out Corvan as a possible author.

Another early broadside variant was published by the Poet’s Box (Glasgow) in November 1855 removes the last verse with its reference to hanging and includes an additional verse, perhaps one more appealing to a respectable audience:

In the days whin I was hard up, a blissful hope I had,
Amidst alt my misfortunes, I’d ne’er do what was bad.
For integrity and honesty, I always would maintain;
For the road that never bad a turn, must surely be Long Lane.

The next verifiable sighting of the song was in North America in 1857, in the Richmond Dispatch:

The earliest UK report of an amateur performance of a song called Days when I was Hard Up – was in 1865 at a Penny Reading at the Silloth Assembly Room (Carlisle Journal, 19 Dec 1865)

Some later versions include this chorus :

Hard up, oh, hard up. I never shall forget
The day when I was hard up—I may be well off yet.

The title appears in Stephen Foster’s The Song of all Songs:

“In the days when I was hard up” with “My Mary Ann,”
“My Johnny was a Shoemaker,” or “Any other Man!”
” The Captain with his whiskers” and “Annie of the Vale,”
Along with “Old Bob Ridley” “A riding on a rail!”

Stephen Foster, The Song of all Songs (1863)

Sheet music for the twentieth century variant sung by Skyland Scotty & Lulu Belle Wiseman can be found at archive.org

As yet I have not found a commercial recording, but you can hear a snatch of it in a recording by John A Mullins of West Virginia in the Louis W. Chappell collection

Sources:

• Entries in the Roud Indexes at the Vaughn Williams Memorial Library: https://archives.vwml.org/search/all:single[folksong-broadside-books]/0_50/all/score_desc/extended-roudNo_tr%3A4621

• Ballad Index
• Lyrics: Dave Harker (2017) Cat-Gut Jim the Fiddler: Ned Corvan’s Life and Songs available from archive.org
• Newspapers.com Richmond Dispatch, Sat, 08 Aug 1857
• British Newspaper Archive: Carlisle Journal – Tuesday 19 December 1865

Last Updated on April 14, 2025 by John Baxter | Published: April 14, 2025