1.
Gone are the days when my heart was young and gay,
Gone are my friends from the cotton fields away,

Gone from the earth to a better land I know,
I hear their gentle voices calling "Old Black Joe"
.

Chorus
I'm coming, I'm coming, for my head is bending low:
I hear their gentle voices calling, "Old Black Joe".


2.
Why do I weep when my heart should feel no pain

Why do I sigh that my friends come not again,
Grieving for forms now departed long ago.
I hear their gentle voices calling "Old Black Joe".

Chorus

3.

Where are the hearts once so happy and so free?
The children so dear that I held upon my knee,
Gone to the shore where my soul has longed to go.

I hear their gentle voices calling "Old Black Joe"

Chorus