Some of the major questions that Hit Parade has been exploring through research, community storytelling, and live rehearsals have been about the exploration, settlement, expansion, and growth of San Francisco as both a city and an idea. Looking back to the economic agendas and dreams that drove the settlement of San Francisco in the mid 1800s, we have been asking what it is that we can learn from that period to better understand the city’s current expansion, its shape-shifting dreams and of course, its’ changing demographics.
Here are A.J. Waterhouse (lyrics) and Maurice Levi (composer), writing in 1898, looking back at “The Halcyon Days of ’49”:
It’s all very well, the story to tell,
Of the days that are growing old
When the men of might first turned to the light
That shone from the country of gold
It is very well to praise the halcyon days
When our world was so virgin and fair
But I wish to remark ‘twas not all a lark
‘Twas a different thing to be there
…
Of the days of old and the days and the days of gold
The poet may merrily sing
A lack of pay dirt was the thing that hurt
And it wasn’t so seldom a thing
[Full sheet music courtesy of SFPL Sheet Music Collection]