The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #20039   Message #2412833
Posted By: Q (Frank Staplin)
13-Aug-08 - 04:26 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie
Subject: Lyr Add: I'VE GOT NO USE FOR THE WOMEN (G Autry)
"I've Got No Use For the Women" was recorded by Travis B. Hale in 1927, Crowder Bros. 1938, Tune Wranglers 1937. (Traditional Ballad Index).
Fife and Fife, 1969, "Cowboy and Western Songs," use a text from the collection of Stella Hendron, Idaho; they comment that there is little variation to the many texts that they have collected. ("No Use for the Women," no. 65, pp. 177-178 with music and chords.

Autry may have used the title "I've Got No Use For Women." The following lyrics are from the site of Kristin Hall. They are not the same as those I posted from the Myra Hull Collection, Kansas State Historical Society. They seem to be somewhat garbled and need checking against the Autrey recording. I have 'guessed' in some seemingly obvious corrections. I don't like posting inaccurate lyrics, but a few of the lines are distinctive.

The song, of course, is derived from "The Dying Cowboy," or "Bury Me Not ....,"
and as DaveO says, is from a different viewpoint.

Lyr. Add: I'VE GOT NO USE FOR WOMEN
"Words and Music Gene Autry"

I have got no use for the women, a true one may never be found.
They'll stick a man for his money and when it's gone, they turn him down.
They're all alike at the bottom, selfish and g(r)asping for all.
They'll stand by a man while he's winning and laugh in his face when he falls.
2
My pal was a straight, young cowpuncher, honest and upright and square.
But he turned to a gambler and gunman and a woman sent him there.
He fell with his (in with) evil companion(s), the kind that's better off dead,
When a gambler insulted her picture, he hauled off and filled him with lead.
3
All through the long night they trailed him through mesquite and thick chaparral.
And I couldn't help crusing that woman as I saw him pitch, stagger and fall.
If she'd been the pal that she should have, he might have been raising a son.
Instead of out there on the prairie to die by a cruel Ranger's gun.
4
Death's slow sting did not trouble, his chances for life were too slim.
But where they were putting his body was all that worried him.
He lifted his head on his elbow, the blood from his wound flowed bright red.
He gazed at his pals grouped around him and whispered to them and said:
5
"O bury me out on the prairie, where the coyotes may howl over my grave.
Bury me out on the prairie and some of my bones please save.
Wrap me up in my blanket and bury me deep in the ground.
Cover me over with boulders of granite, gray and round."
6
So we buried him out on the prairie where the coyotes can howl o'er his grave.
And his soul is now a-resting from the unkind act (cut) she gave. Any one, (And many) another young puncher as he rides past that pile of stones
Recalls from the sinful woman and think of his moanful bones.
(Recalls that sinful woman and thinks of his moldering bones).

O bury me out on the prairie,
Where the coyotes will howl o'er my grave.

http://kristinhall.org/songbook/USFolk/IveGotNoUseForWomen.html

I could not find data on the Autry recording.