The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #7295 Message #2722921
Posted By: Q (Frank Staplin)
13-Sep-09 - 04:31 PM
Thread Name: Origins: I Ride An Old Paint
Subject: RE: Origins: I Ride An Old Paint
Sandburg- I lead an old Dan Larkin- I lead an old dam
Sandburg- hoolian Larkin- houlihan
Sandburg says he obtained the song from Larkin and Lynn Riggs (writer and playright;'Linn', a mistake in Sandburg). Larkin was a frequent visitor to Santa Fe, and Lynn Riggs lived there for several years, the latter as a member of the artist-writer 'colony' there. Lynn Riggs was the son of a cattleman, part Indian, and knew the range as a boy. Sandburg was not part of the group, but he was a visitor. He could easily have obtained the song before Larkin published her book in 1931.
I agree that 'I lead an old Dan (or an old dam)' is better than 'leadin'. 'Leadin' is often sung, why I don't know.
...two daughters and a son (Gargoyle) I like better than 'song,' but it doesn't rhyme with 'wrong'.
And who was this 'buckaroo' that gave the song to Larkin and Riggs in Santa Fe? ("heading for the Border, .... Tucson or El Paso," many miles apart, as Sandburg writes)? I would guess that he was more than just a wandering cowboy- I would guess that he was Lynn Riggs himself!.
Larkin published "houlihan;" I wonder if that isn't a misprint - however, the Santa Fe 'Colony' was noted for throwing the houlihan, their partys known far and wide, attracting members of the Taos 'Colony' like D. H. Lawrence and others in the Mabel Dodge Luhan coterie! It could have been used by Linn Riggs and picked up by Larkin.