Get out of the way fat man, you’ve got something to do
Go fill up your hands till they’re shining up at you
You gotta get out while there’s gold in the air
It’s falling like water, coming down from the hills

Go west, young man
Earn a dollar a day just like your family said
You’re rolling your days right on into the night
The head of the line’s going way out of sight
Go west, young man, like your family said

All along the wagons
All along the dusty trail
Seventeen years not over a day
Like children in the wild
Your mother’s milk still wet on your face
And no one to pray for your safe journey home

Out beyond the desert
Across the mountains by the fall
Servants who leave their masters house
Are walking all the way
The golden fields that beckoned you
Are darkened by the years

Go west, young man
If you knew then what you know today
You’d be back where you started a happier man
And leave all the glory to those who have remained

So go west, young man
Go west, young man, like your family said