Drive Dull Care Away has only been found once in oral tradition: Sandy Ives noted it from Charles Gorman, on Prince Edward Island. Joe
Hickerson sang and recorded it, and gave it a much wider circulation in the US. It is found in a few British
broadside collections, though we haven't been able to see a copy to compare texts.
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Oh, why should we our lot complain
Or grieve at our distress?
Some think if they could riches gain
T’would be true happiness
But alas how vain is all their strife
Life’s cares it will not allay
So while we’re here with our friends so dear
We’ll drive dull care away:
Away, away, away, away
We will drive dull care away
So while we’re here with our friends so dear
We’ll drive dull care away.
Why should the rich despise the poor?
Why should the poor repine?
When we will all in a few short years
In equal friendship join
They’re both to blame, they’re all the same
We are all made of one clay,
So while we’re here with our friends so dear
We’ll drive dull care away:
The only circumstance in life
Which I could ever find
To conquer care or temper strife
Was a contented mind
With this in store we have much more
Than all things else can convey
So while we’re here with our friends so dear
We’ll drive dull care away:
So let us make the best of life
Not rendering it a curse
But take it as you would a wife
For better or for worse
Life at its best is but a jest
Like a dreary winter’s day
So while we’re here with our friends so dear
We’ll drive dull care away:
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