1.
Gone are the days
When my heart was young and gay
Gone are my friends
From the coton fields away
Gone from the earth
To a better land I know
I hear their gentle voices calling old black Joe

R.
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 deported long ago
I hear their gentle voices calling old black Joe

3.
Where are the hearts
Once so happy and so free?
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