The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #122112   Message #2674077
Posted By: Q (Frank Staplin)
07-Jul-09 - 02:41 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: It's My Night to Howl (cowboy)
Subject: Lyr. Add: The Drunken Desperado
Lyr. Add: THE DRUNKEN DESPERADO
Credited to Baird Boyd

I'm wild and woolly and full of fleas,
I'm hard to curry below the knees,
I'm a she-wolf from Shamon Creek,
For I was dropped from a lightning streak
and it's my night to hollow Whoo-pee!
2
I stayed in Texas till they runned me out,
Then in Bull Frog they chased me about,
I walked a little and rode some more,
For I've shot up a town before
And it's my night to holler Whoo-pee!
3
Give me room and turn me loose
I'm peaceable without excuse.
I never killed for profit or fun,
But riled, I'm a regular son of a gun
And it's my night to holler Whoo-pee!
4
Good-eye Jim will serve the crowd;
The rule goes here no sweetenin' 'lowed.
And we'll drink now to the Nixon Kid,
For I rode to town and lifted the lid
And it's my night to holler Whoo-pee!
5
You can guess how quick a man must be,
For I killed eleven and wounded three;
And brothers and daddies aren't making a sound
Though they know where the kid is found
And it's my night to holler Whoo-pee!
6
When I get old and my aim ain't true
And it's three to one and wounded too,
I won't beg and claw the ground;
For I'll be dead before I'm found
When it's my night to holler Whoo-pee!

Copied some time ago from
"Songs of the Cattle Trail and Cow Camp," 1919, John A. Lomax, pp. 43-44.
This from a typed copy, may be an error or so.

I vaguely recall the song from long ago, but not sure it was the same. There may be better versions out there.

Other notes-

Hiram College yell-

Hootin', rootin', goin' shootin',
Sons o' guns o' Hiram.
Wild and woolly and full of fleas,
Never been curried below the knees,
Haltered once but never rode,
Look out for us, we're bad!

http://library.hiram.edu/BooksandBytes3-6.pdf

Another line used was ring-tailed son-of-a-bitch.
One of the old dime novels credited Davy Crockett with saying something about rding alligators, etc.