The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #7295 Message #2723698
Posted By: Artful Codger
14-Sep-09 - 06:39 PM
Thread Name: Origins: I Ride An Old Paint
Subject: RE: Origins: I Ride An Old Paint
Only a handful of cowboy songs that I've seen have introductory bits that are never repeated (for example, "Doney Gal"). Far more commonly, printed texts just omit obvious repetitions beyond the first or second verse. This can lead some folks to interpret the printed text too literally.
"Tune" is a protean concept in the world of cowboy songs. I've seen tunes to this song which only have two lines or which repeat one line of each couplet or which use an invariant third line. Nor can we say for certain whether singers were consistent about their repetitions. Cowboys often sang a set of words to any tune they knew that would match them--or that they improvised to fit. Some would half-sing, half-recite; the less gifted might just use the words as a recitation. Things weren't as set as we imagine them nowadays.
When I sing it, I combine two separate (but still related) tunes, one with just two lines, the other with an invariant third line--helps avoid monotony and allows others to join in at the end.
This song is one which must've had tons of verses over the years, many of them floating. Lacking a clear narrative line, it just begs for improvisation and borrowing. Some versions provide a little more context for the "horses ain't hungry" couplet. Consider these from Tinsley:
With my feet in the stirrups, my bridle in my hand; Good-bye, Little Annie, I'm off for Cheyenne. ... Oh hitch up your horses and feed 'em some hay, And seat yourself by me so long as you stay.
My horses ain't hungry, they'll not eat your hay; My wagon is loaded and rolling away.
But this is getting a bit far afield from "I Ride an Old Paint", which seems to be a relatively late offshoot of GOP set in a single form with only minor variation in either wording or tune. Maybe one of the GOP threads would be a better choice to continue such digressions.