GO WEST, YOUNG MAN
Bert Kalmar / Harry Ruby

as recorded by
Bing Crosby & The Andrews Sisters
with Vic Schoen & his Orchestra
March 26th 1947 Los Angeles


Before you go to Buffalo,
To Baltimore or Borneo,
To Eastern Pennsylvania or Sudan,
Go west, young man!
If you go to that land, sonny,
You will have a lot of money
If you bring the money with you when you come
To the lone prairie,
Yippee-ye, yippee-ye, yippee-ye-ye-ye,
Yippee-ye, yippee-ye, yippee-ye!

Before you read a travel ad
And scamper off to Trinidad,
To Albany New York or Yucatan,
Go west, young man!
In the east they live on doughnuts,
In the west the natives grownups,
And I'll guarantee you'll go nuts if you come
To the lone prairie,
Yippee-yi, yipeei-yi, yippee-yi-yi-yi,
Yippee-ye, yippee-ye, yippee-ye!

Go west, young man,
Go where the air puts hair on your chest, young man!
You can ride a buckin' bronco or a pony,
You can cut a calf in half and make baloney!
Go west, young man,
Go right up there and give 'em the very best you can!
Don't go north, don't go south, don't go east, have a care,
Don't go up, don't go down, don't go here, don't go there,
If you are fond of hunting, there's no place that can compare,
You may not a bag a lion or a tiger or a bear,
But if you wanna jackass there are plenty of them there,
Go west, young man!

In sunny California when the clouds are breakin' loose,
And you complain about the rain, they give you this excuse,
It isn't raing rain you know, it's raining orange juice,
Go west, young man!
The judges there are very fair, they always are of course!
A cowboy and his missus went to court for a divorce,
The cowboy got the children and the missus got the horse,
Go west, young man!
Go out and till the soil there,
Dig for gold and you'll find oil there,
When the snow flies
As the crow flies,
Go, westward ho!
If there's a cattle shortage, which can happen, like as not,
And they can't find a hunk of meat to chuck into the pot,
They sit around and beef about the beef they haven't got,
Go west, young man!
Yippee!




(Transcribed by Peter Akers - November 2018)