I'm old Tom Moore from the bummers' shore
1 in the good old, golden days,
They call me a bummer and a gin sot, too, but what cares I for praise?
I wander around from town to town just like a roving sign
And all the people say, "There goes Tom Moore," in the days of '49 –
In the days of old, in the days of gold, how oftentimes I repine
For the days of old when we dug up the gold, in the days of '49.
My comrades, they all loved me well – a jolly, saucy crew,
A few hard cases I will recall, though they all were brave and true.
Whatever the pitch, they never would flinch, they never would fret or whine,
Like good, old bricks they stood the kicks in the days of '49 –
In the days of old, in the days of gold, how ofttimes I repine
For the days of old when we dug up the gold, in the days of '49.
There was New York Jake, the butcher's boy, he was always getting tight
And, every time that he'd get full, he was spoiling for a fight.
Then Jake rampaged against a knife in the hands of old Bob Stein,
And over Jake they held a wake in the days of '49 –
In the days of old, in the days of gold, how oftentimes I repine
For the days of old when we dug up the gold, in the days of '49.
There was Poker Bill, one of the boys who was always in a game,
Whether he lost or whether he won, to him it was always the same,
He would ante up and draw his cards and would you go a hatful blind;
In a game with death Bill lost his breath in the days of '49 –
In the days of old, in the days of gold, in the day-times I repine,
In the days of old and the days of gold, those were days of '49.
3
There was Ragshag Bill from Buffalo I never will forget,
He would roar all day and he'd roar all night and I guess he's roaring yet,
One day he fell in a prospect hole in a roaring, bad design
And in that hole he roared out his soul in the days of '49 –
In the days of old, in the days of gold, how ofttimes I repine
For the days of old when we dug up the gold, in the days of '49.
Oh, the comrades all that I've had, there's none that's left to boast
And I'm left alone in my misery like some old, poor, wandering ghost
And I pass by from town to town, they call me the Rambling Sign
4 --
"There goes Tom Moore, a bummer, sure
5" -- in the days of '49 –
In the days of old, in the days of gold, how oftentimes I repine
For the days of old when we dug up the gold, in the days of '49,
In the days of old when we dug up the gold, how ofttimes I repine,
In the days of old, in the days of gold, in the days of '49.
1
Dylan sings "bummers' shore" (or "bummer's shore") or "bummer shore" here, but I'm not familiar with this term so I can't even speculate on what the parts of the term refer to. In my internet searches I have come across numerous speculations, the most sensible of which seems to indicate that it refers to a sort of village occupied by vagrants.
2
Dylan interjects "Oh, my goodness!" between the end of the fourth verse and the beginning of the chorus.
3
Dylan definitely seems to lose his place in the chorus and he ends up repeating the opening of the chorus, "In the days of old, in the days of gold,...", and simply improvising with "those were days of '49" at the end.
4
Earlier in the song, Dylan sings, "I wander around from town to town just like a roving sign".
5
This sounds a lot like what Dylan actually sings and I have seen this interpretation elsewhere, but I must admit that I find it a little awkward. For one thing, it bears a too-close affinity to "bummers' shore" from the first verse not to be based on it (as do these middle lines of the last verse), which leads me to believe that it is "bummers' shore", in fact, and that the line might be "'There goes Tom Moore of bummers' shore'...".