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
To cross the mountains by the lake.
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.

Go West young man
Go West young man, like your family said