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Lyr Req/Add: The Cowboy / Cowboy's Soliloquy
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Subject: Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O From: Joe Offer Date: 11 Aug 00 - 09:20 PM A guest posted this in the FAQ. Can anybody help? -Joe Offer- If this is the proper place to ask, I'm trying to find title and words to a song that goes something like this: All day on the praire in a saddle I ride, my fire I must kindle with chips gathered 'round and boil my own coffee without being ground. Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O. Awaiting your answers, thanks in advance.
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O From: campfire Date: 11 Aug 00 - 09:49 PM Sounds like it might be another verse/version of "Chisolm Trail" (that's in the DT) campfire |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O From: SINSULL Date: 11 Aug 00 - 10:04 PM Get Along Little Doggie????? Yippie Ay ye -- Ghost Riders in the Sky. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O From: Sorcha Date: 11 Aug 00 - 10:23 PM I think SS has it, might try looking for "Git Along Little Dogie" also (diff. spelling) |
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Subject: ADD: Cowboy's Soliloquy ^^ From: Sandy Paton Date: 11 Aug 00 - 11:26 PM Nope. I think it's a song Skip Gorman recorded on a Folk-Legacy album (now a cassette - C-76) Powder River, with Ron Kane. It's called "Cowboy's Soliloquy" and Skip learned it from a 78rpm recording of America's first singing cowboy, Carl Sprague, from Alvin, Texas (recorded circa 1924). Here's the text: COWBOY'S SOLILOQUY All day long on the prairie I ride; Not even a dog to trot by my side. My fires I do kindle with chips gathered 'round; My coffee I boil without being ground. I wash in a pool and I dry on a sack; I carry my wardrobe all on my back. For want of an oven, cook bread in a pot, And I sleep on the ground for want of a cot. My ceiling's the sky, my floor is the grass, My music's the lowing of the herds as they pass. My books are the streams, my sermons the stars, My parson's a wolf on a pulpit of bones. And if my cooking is not so complete, You can't blame me for wanting to eat. And show me the man who sleeps more profound Than the big puncher boy who sleeps on the ground. Between me and love lies a gap very wide. Some lucky feller may call her his bride. My friends gently hint, I am coming today, But a man must make money and a woman obey. My books teach me consistence to prize; My sermons, small things I should not despise. My parson remarks from his pulpit above (of bones?) That fortune favors all who look out for their own.
There are other versions, Skip tells us, with more verses, but I don't have time to look them up right now. This is what he recorded for us with a nice melancholy tune. |
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Subject: Cowboy's Soliloquy From: Joe Offer Date: 12 Aug 00 - 03:23 AM Sandy, is it traditional, or is Carl Sprague the songwriter, or what? -Joe- |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O From: Sandy Paton Date: 12 Aug 00 - 12:14 PM I'll have to go through a bunch of books to answer that one, Joe. Since the "Kye Yai Yippies" are missing in Skip's version, and he refers in his note to other extant versions, I suspect what he sings is a reworking of a traditional (or, perhaps more accurately, public domain) item. Can't do it now though. Gotta leave in a wee while for the Adirondack Folk Festival at Schroon Lake, NY. Wish you could join us there! Sandy |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O From: zander (inactive) Date: 12 Aug 00 - 02:58 PM Try the Leadbelly song, ' When the Boys Was on the Western Plains ' Regards, Dave |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O From: Night Owl Date: 12 Aug 00 - 03:04 PM Thank you Sandy!!!! I've been trying to remember the verses to this song since reading Guest's question in FAQ. I learned the song from "Children's Guild" 78rpm records in the fifties. The version I learned has minor differences...I assume the tune is the same.
"All day on the prairie in the saddle I ride
"And when my cooking's not very complete |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O From: Irish sergeant Date: 12 Aug 00 - 07:52 PM I vote for "The Old Chisolm Trail" The syntax and rhythm fit also it is known that cowboys on the trail were asked to add verses at one of the way stations they stopped at to earn their bread. While most versions only show four or five verses, the song has many more and not all of them rated "G" One example: Ten dollar hoss and a fourty dollar saddle, Tired of hearding this crappy ole cattle, Come a Ky yie yippy yippy kie yippy aye come a ki yi yippy yippy Aye. My two cents kindest reguards Neil |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O From: campfire Date: 12 Aug 00 - 11:21 PM Even if it IS a different song, I'm gonna "steal" some of these verses for "Chisolm Trail", since the meter does fit. We make up some of our own, too, and whether or not they're G-rated depends on who is sitting around the campfire ;-) (We still behave for the grandmas.) campfire |
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Subject: Lyr Add: THE COWBOY ^^ From: Stewie Date: 13 Aug 00 - 12:34 AM Here are a couple of other versions of 'The Cowboy' for sake of comparison - from Ed McCurdy and Glenn Ohrlin. Like the version Sandy posted, neither of these has any 'yippie kye ayes', but both have the kindling 'with chips gathered 'round' mentioned in the query. Both these versions are titled 'The Cowboy', but Ohrlin commented that it is also known as 'The Cowboy's Soliloquy'. The McCurdy version has a 6 -line structure. Neither singer credits the piece to anyone – Ohrlin refers to it simply as 'an old song'.
THE COWBOY Glenn Ohrlin's version follows:
THE COWBOY Cheers, Stewie. ^^ |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O From: Stewie Date: 15 Aug 00 - 01:32 AM Here is a note that perhaps answers Joe's query about the provenance of 'The Cowboy' or 'Cowboy's Soliloquy' and may save Sandy the trouble of a bit of fossicking in his library. I didn't have this earlier because a friend had borrowed my copy of White's book. White quoted the first verse of Sprague's rendition and appended this note at the end of his chapter on Sprague:
From 'The Cowboy' (Victor 21402) sung by Carl T. Spague. A full text appears in Clifford P. Westermeier 'Trailing the Cowboy' (Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers, 1955, pp 263-264. Titled 'The Cowboy's Soliloquy', this was taken from a Trinidad, Colorado, newspaper, 'The Daily Advertiser' for April 9, 1885 which credited the poem to Allen McCandless. Richard E. Lingenfelter and Richard A. Dwyer reprint this 1885 text in 'Songs of the American West' (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press 1968, pp 342-43) with the tune from the 1910 Lomax collection 'Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads' (New York: Sturgis & Walton Co, pp 98-99). [Note 1 at page 195 of John I. White 'Git Along Little Dogies: Songs and Songmakers of the American West' University of Illinois Press 1989] Cheers, Stewie.
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O From: Joe Offer Date: 15 Aug 00 - 03:03 AM Oh, no....more tunes to transcribe. Anybody have some time, and a copy of books by Lomax, Lingenfelter-Dwyer, or Ohrlin? I have a stack of songbooks on my desk, each with a bookmark for a song I have to transcribe - and I have to do actual, employment-type, paid work this week. If you'd like to transcribe one of these tunes in MIDI, Noteworthy, or ABC, I'd be grateful. -Joe Offer- |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O From: Sandy Paton Date: 15 Aug 00 - 02:05 PM Great job, Stewie! I just found it in Lomax, under the simple title: "The Cowboy" (under which there are three songs in the book!). That's what I get for expecting "Cowboy's Soliloquy" to be the generic title. I sure appreciate being relieved of the continuing search. Sorry I can't help you with the tunes, Joe. Far beyond my capabilities. Well, only one identifiable Mudcatter at the Adirondack Festival: good to see you MidChuck! Sandy |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O From: Sandy Paton Date: 15 Aug 00 - 02:06 PM Great job, Stewie! I just found it in Lomax, under the simple title: "The Cowboy" (under which there are three songs in the book!). That's what I get for expecting "Cowboy's Soliloquy" to be the generic title. I sure appreciate being relieved of the continuing search. Sorry I can't help you with the tunes, Joe. Far beyond my capabilities. Well, only one identifiable Mudcatter at the Adirondack Festival: good to see you MidChuck! Sandy |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O From: campfire Date: 15 Aug 00 - 07:30 PM Well, for some reason, ever since this thread appeared, every time I'm driving my car, I find myself singing "Come-a-ki-yi-yippee-yippee-yay!" I even caught myself singing it at work!!! HELP!!!!!!1 campfire |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O From: Irish sergeant Date: 16 Aug 00 - 06:28 PM Hey Campfire if you're singing it at work, will you be my hero?!? I get strange looks because I sing Civil War songs at work Kindest reguards, Neil |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O From: Dicho (Frank Staplin) Date: 10 Dec 01 - 01:28 PM This should be with the Old Chisholm (Chizzum) Trail, but the yippie request was here. The phrases of the chorus originally had meaning. The problem? The language is Spanish! Song- Coma ti yi yippy, yippy yea, yippy yea. Spanish- Como esta alla epa, epa eh, epa eh? English- How are things over there? hey, eh? Hey eh? Song- Yippi-yi yea, yippi yi yo Spanish- Epa eh alli, epa eh yo English- Hey, over there, Hey, it's me! Song- Epi yi yo ca yea Spanish- Epah eh alli, epa eh I yo English- Hey over there, you're gonna fall Song- Yippi yi yea, yippi yi yo Spanish- Epa eh alli, epa eh I yo English- Hey over there, Hey it's me Song- Yippi yi yo ca-yo Spanish- Epi eh alli, epa eh i yo English- Hey over there! Oh! He's fallen! Now, isn't that simple? (Or at least ingenious) From "Cowboys-Vaqueros. Origin of the First American Cowboys" by Donald Gilbert y Chavez, PO Box 1351, Belen, NM 87002. Reproduced by the University of New Mexico. http://www.unm.edu/~gabbriel/index.html A glossary of Vaquero-cowboy lingo is included; an important supplement to "Western Words" by Ramon F. Adams. Among the words: The correct origin of dogie, from Spanish dogal, or motherless calf. The derivation from dough-guts, or doughie, is incorrect.
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O From: Steve in Idaho Date: 10 Dec 01 - 01:52 PM Dicho - I think your translation is too literal. If you read the Spanish with a bit of a "loose" translation it is pretty close to the English words. Since most Texas Cowboys spoke Spanish I am guessing they would have used a slang version of the language as opposed to the school book type. At least my experience with cowboying was anything but a scholar's version. I'd also argue that any of the above songs could be claimed by anyone would be untrue. They were words and tunes put together by hundreds of Cowboys pushing cows for a living. I can remember my Dad singing these things with similar verses that he had learned from some of the older hands who had direct links to these guys. None of them had much of an education from school but they all knew the trail and its life. Riding night herd one had to be able to sing - it kept the cattle calm and the rider thinking of other than the hard life of the trail. It also allowed for the replacement watch to know where you were at. Spud Murphy would also be one to talk to about these things. Steve |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O From: Dicho (Frank Staplin) Date: 10 Dec 01 - 02:35 PM Not my translation! Note that I pointed out this comparison as "ingenious." I don't know if Gilbert y Chavez wrote it up with tongue in cheek or not. I come from pioneer NM-CO families so was exposed to a lot of western lore, some true, some false. I don't believe that anyone in this thread "claimed" the Chisholm Trail, Get along Little Dogies or The Cowboy were written by particular persons or ventured a date of origin- certain versions are pointed out that have been collected by various authors, or arrangments made by certain performers. Certainly verses of the Chisholm Trail go back to post-Civil War days and the old cattle drives. Git Along Little Dogies was collected as early as 1893 by Owen Wister and is surely older. Some versions of The Cowboy show an exposure to Shakespeare, but there were a number of educated young people from England and the eastern United States who were among the early settlers and cattlemen of the west. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O From: Steve in Idaho Date: 10 Dec 01 - 03:26 PM Laughing!! - Certainly didn't mean to come across harsh! I can't speak a work of Spanish but have acquired horses and food in Mexican camps with my "loose interpretation" of what I think the right words are! Most of the English nobility and higher educated folks out west were owners. The average cowboy was not well educated. I know that many owners did read some of the Shakesperean works on evenings of opportunity and that those that could read did. Soup can labels could become lessons passed around camps until it wasn't readable anymore. Books were very highly prized by cowboys - just as they are today. These old tunes are part of my history - my Grandfather and Father taught some of them to me while we were "working cattle" in the desert of Southern Idaho. And we, like those before us, changed the words to suit us and our situation. Nothing like the smell of burnt hair, bawlin calves, dogs fighting over fresh rocky mountain oysters (and the blood that goes with the job), and the little spurts of blood in the air like a hypodermic needle out of a freshly dehorned cow to make us sweat. And the laughter of the men and boys! And the roping - man when the roper was on! Jerk their little feet off - and us kids muggin them calves on the ground. Irons heated in the fire and the smell of leather and dust. The last year I did this was only a couple of years ago but it seems like my life has been driven by the cycle of the seasons. Too much - Waxing nostalgic - Steve |
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Subject: Lyr/Tune Add: THE COWBOY (McCandless, 1885) From: Lin in Kansas Date: 10 Dec 01 - 10:58 PM Ahhh, rats, Joe...I was just about to go fix supper. OK, here's the Miditext from Songs of the American West, compiled & edited by Richard E. Lingenfelter, Richard A. Dwyer, and David Cohen; published by the Univ. of Calif. Press (1968), Berkeley and Los Angeles. The lyrics are somewhat different from ANY of those listed above, so I've included them, too. If you want the Noteworthy file I can send it via email. Lin
THE COWBOY, I
He started in business clear down at bedrock,
MIDI file: Cowboy.mid Timebase: 192 Name: THE COWBOY, I This program is worth the effort of learning it. To download the March 10 MIDItext 98 software and get instructions on how to use it click here ABC format: X:1
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O From: Dicho (Frank Staplin) Date: 10 Dec 01 - 11:29 PM Excellent, Lin. You have a note that music is from Lomax 1910, p. 98. It is on pp. 67 and 69 of the 1938 revision, which more of us have, I think. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O From: Lin in Kansas Date: 11 Dec 01 - 12:43 AM Thanks, Dicho--Songs of the American West actually cites a whole bunch of variants: Stanley (1897), 32; Lomax (1910) 96-99; Montana Cowboy Band (1912), 14; Siringo (1919), 14-15; Thorp (1921), 4-6; Larkin (1931), 130-132; Clark (1932), 17; Patterson and Dexter (1932), 12-14; Allen (1933), 69-71; Lomax and Lomax (1938), 67-70; and Westermeier (1955), 263-264. I should have known, with this bunch, that I needed to list them all. Sigh...AND I see I screwed up, AGAIN...somehow I managed to leave off the first verse, and stick the last verse in twice....arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Apologies everyone. JoeClone, can we fix this??? Here's the first verse (please delete the present "first verse").
All day over the prairies alone I ride, Geez, it's hell sometimes trying to be scholarly!!! Malcolm, how do you do it? :-D Lin |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O From: Spud Murphy Date: 11 Dec 01 - 01:26 AM Y'all got four different songs mixed up in this: (1)Chisholm Trail-(Come-a-ti-yi-yippy, yippy aye yippy aye (2)Git Along, Little Dogies-(Whoopie-ti-yi-yo, git along little dogies) (3)The Cowboy('s Soliloquy) (4)The Cowboy, I (1) & (2) I learned from my dad in 1931-32 when I was six years old and singing with him. (3) Is a song often sung by 'Haywire Mac' McClintock (KFRC Radio, San Francisco). (4) A stranger to me. Don't recall as I ever heard it before. (But my memory isn't all that good, either.) Spud |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O From: GUEST,harold Date: 29 Sep 09 - 02:04 PM Its cloudy in the west and it looks like rain come a ki yi yippy yippy yi yippy yea Got a $40 dollar hat and a $20 saddel going out west to punch some cattel come a ki yi yippy yippy yi yippy yay Does any one have all the words |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O From: Artful Codger Date: 29 Sep 09 - 04:16 PM Harold, that sounds like "The Old Chisolm Trail", a different song, and nobody has all the verses because cowboys improvised thousands of verses to this song. According to several collectors, the vast majority of them are too raunchy for print, though I think you can find some unexpurgated samples in The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing. Search the Forum and DigiTrad for more information on this song--there must be multiple threads on it already. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 29 Sep 09 - 05:33 PM Yep, for "Old Chisholm Trail," see thread 67126: Old Chisholm Trail Several in that thread, including "Eleven Slash Slash Eleven," plus links to a couple in the DT. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Yippie Kye Aye, Yippie Kye O From: Amos Date: 29 Sep 09 - 05:55 PM Harold: Click on the link for the Old Chisholm Trali up above. Your excerpt is missing a line: It's cloudy in the east an' it looks like rain An' mah gawdamn slicker's in the wagon again Come a ti tyi yippee, etc. But as mentioned there are hundreds of verses. A |
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Subject: RE: req/ADD: The Cowboy / Cowboy's Soliloquy From: GUEST,murry Date: 14 Oct 09 - 08:43 PM THIS SONG WAS IN A COLLECTION ON A 10 IN. 78 RPM RCA RED SEAL RECORD SUNG BY JAMES MELTON, I ALSO HEARD IT SUNG BY FRITZ KRUGER IN A FACULTY REDITAL AT WEST CHESTER UNIVERSITY CIRCA 1963 |
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Subject: RE: req/ADD: The Cowboy / Cowboy's Soliloquy From: Artful Codger Date: 24 Oct 09 - 05:04 AM "Cowboy's Soliloquy" was included in Thorp's Songs of the Cowboys as "The Biblical Cowboy". He noted, "Sent me by Jim Hagan, of Tulsa, Oklahoma." It was also recorded by Carl Sprague in the late 20s (1929?): Victor 21402 . C. T. SPRAGUE . Cowman's Prayer / The Cowboy His recording of it is available on the CD compilation When I Was a Cowboy, Volume 2. |
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Subject: RE: req/ADD: The Cowboy / Cowboy's Soliloquy From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 24 Oct 09 - 02:03 PM Not in Thorp's "Songs of the Cowboys," 1908. Added to his 1921 volume. The song has no 'yippies or youpies'. Sprague's recording was Victor 21402 (I think this can be found online and will provide the date). First published as "Kansas Cowboy," Dodge City, KS, April 25, 1885. Musical Score in Fife and Fife, 1969, "Cowboy and Western Songs," pp. 331-332. Reprint Bramhall House, 1982. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: THE COWBOY'S SOLILOQUY From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 24 Oct 09 - 02:44 PM The Cowboy's Soliloquy 1 All day o'er the prairies alone I ride, Not even a dog to run by my side; My fire I kindle with chips gathered round, And boil my coffee without being ground. Bread lacking leaven I bake in a pot, And sleep on the ground for want of a cot; I wash in a puddle and wipe on a sack And carry my wardrobe all on my back. 2 My ceiling the sky, my carpet the grass, My music the lowing of herds as they pass; My books are the brooks, my sermons the stones, My parson's a wolf on a pulpit of bones. But then if my cooking ain't very complete, Hygienists can't blame me for living to eat. And where is the man who sleeps more profound Than the cowboy who stretches himself on the ground? 3 My books teach me constancy ever to prize, My sermons the small things I should not despise, And my parson remarks from his pulpit of bone That "The Lord favors those who look out for their own." Between love and me lies a gulf very wide, And a luckier fellow may call her his bride; But Cupid is always a friend to the bold, And the best of his arrows are pointed with gold. 4 Friends gently hint I am going to grief, But men must make money and women have beef, Society bans me a savage and dodge, And Masons would ball me out of their lodge. If I'd hair on my chin I might pass for the goat That bore all sin in ages remote; But why this is thusly I don't understand, For each of the patriarchs owned a big brand. 5 Abraham emigrated in search of a range When water got scarce and he wanted a change; Isaac had cattle in charge of Esau, And Jacob "ran cows" for his father-in-law. He started in business clear down at bedrock And made quite a fortune by *watering stock, David went from night-herding and using a sling To winning a battle and being a king. And the shepherds when watching their flocks on the hill Heard the message from heaven of "Peace and Good Will." Pp. 331-332, with musical score, Fife and Fife, 1969, "Cowboy and Western Songs, A Comprehensive Anthology." Reprint Bramhall House, 1982. A well-written poem, text from Kansas Cowboy, Dodge City, KS, April 25, 1885. Melody from Victor 21402, Carl T. Sprague. After the Civil War, many former soldiers, from South and North, went west to try their luck. Some were literate but broke, some, especially from among the defeated soldiers of Texas, began as cowboys, but heeding the advice of "parson wolf," learned how to re-establish their fortunes. *watering stock, of course, has two meanings. |
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Subject: RE: req/ADD: The Cowboy / Cowboy's Soliloquy From: Artful Codger Date: 25 Oct 09 - 05:21 AM Um, April 9, 1885 (when it was printed in the Daily Advertiser, Trinidad, CO, as Lin mentioned above, quoting Lingenfelter &o.) predates April 25th by a few weeks. Other sources also mention that it first appeared "in a Colorado newspaper". It was so often reprinted without attribution that, despite the poem's popularity, McCandless's name soon faded into obscurity until his authorship was reestablished in relatively modern times. Judging from several versions purporting to transcribe the original text, the poem was not divided into stanzas. As a song, it has been divided into both six-line stanzas (evenly) and eight-line stanzas (with either a long last stanza or an orphan couplet). Sprague only recorded the first four stanzas. I avoid an orphan couplet by omitting the one that begins "He started in business"; it strikes me as a weak pun and a distraction from the main point being illustrated. |
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Subject: RE: req/ADD: The Cowboy / Cowboy's Soliloquy From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 25 Oct 09 - 02:47 PM I somehow missed Lin's post- I did use 'search' but didn't hit it because of the different name; I should have scanned this thread. My sloppiness! My grandfather, between 1895-1905, printed newspapers in several little mining camps and towns in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico; these little papers often used filler from others or from periodicals. Here, it looks like the Dodge City paper 'borrowed' the Trinidad item. "Cowboy, I," seems an improbable title; I wonder what title was used in the Trinidad paper. No other is mentioned in Lingenfelter and Dwyer. I don't have the Stanley and Siringo references. |
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Subject: RE: req/ADD: The Cowboy / Cowboy's Soliloquy From: Artful Codger Date: 25 Oct 09 - 09:23 PM I think "The Cowboy, I" just means "The Cowboy, [variant] one". And since Lin at first placed a later verse at the start of the text, Spud spuddied the waters by listing it as a separate song from "The Cowboy's Soliloquy". There are actually only three songs that have gotten confused here, with the main one--now listed in the thread's title, thanks to Joe--having at least three titles: "The Cowboy's Soliloquy" (McCandless's title), "The Cowboy" (as collected by Lomax) and "The Biblical Cowboy" (as collected by Thorp). |
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Subject: RE: req/ADD: The Cowboy / Cowboy's Soliloquy From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 09 Nov 09 - 04:31 PM A fourth title- "Cow Boy Carol," in Siringo. "By Wm. Thompson and C. C. Clark, Two Cow Boys." This one essentially is the McCandless song, some of the lines in different order, and partly rewritten, grammar not the best. A last verse is added: As great things as these, we can't expect to make, But will vote for Frisco, the banner town of this state. The county seat of Morton, we will help to make it. If any place else gets it, we'll go over and take it. Chas. A. Siringo, 1919, "The Song Companion of a Lone Star CowBoy," pp. 14-15. The Norwood Edition, 1975 |
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Subject: RE: req/ADD: The Cowboy / Cowboy's Soliloquy From: Artful Codger Date: 09 Nov 09 - 05:04 PM Yeah, I always wondered about that verse in the Siringo collection; no relation to the rest of the song at all, and I can't imagine that anyone actually sang it like that, except maybe at rallies as a stand-alone verse to the same tune they used for the McCandless song. Most of Siringo's texts seem to have been taken wholesale from Lomax or Thorp, with only a couple unique songs or versions. |
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Subject: Lyr Add: THE COWBOY (from J. A. Lomax) From: Jim Dixon Date: 21 Nov 09 - 02:25 AM From Cowboy Songs: And Other Frontier Ballads collected by John Avery Lomax (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1920), page 96: THE COWBOY ALL day long on the prairies I ride, Not even a dog to trot by my side; My fire I kindle with chips gathered round, My coffee I boil without being ground. I wash in a pool and wipe on a sack; I carry my wardrobe all on my back; For want of an oven I cook bread in a pot, And sleep on the ground for want of a cot. My ceiling is the sky, my floor is the grass, My music is the lowing of the herds as they pass; My books are the brooks, my sermons the stones, My parson is a wolf on his pulpit of bones. And then if my cooking is not very complete You can't blame me for wanting to eat. But show me a man that sleeps more profound Than the big puncher-boy who stretches himself on the ground. My books teach me ever consistence to prize, My sermons, that small things I should not despise; My parson remarks from his pulpit of bones That fortune favors those who look out for their own. And then between me and love lies a gulf very wide. Some lucky fellow may call her his bride. My friends gently hint I am coming to grief, But men must make money and women have beef. But Cupid is always a friend to the bold, And the best of his arrows are pointed with gold. Society bans me so savage and dodge That the Masons would ball me out of their lodge. If I had hair on my chin, I might pass for the goat That bore all the sins in the ages remote; But why it is I can never understand, For each of the patriarchs owned a big brand. Abraham emigrated in search of a range, And when water was scarce he wanted a change; Old Isaac owned cattle in charge of Esau, And Jacob punched cows for his father-in-law. He started in business way down at bed rock, And made quite a streak at handling stock; Then David went from night-herding to using a sling; And, winning the battle, he became a great king. Then the shepherds, while herding the sheep on a hill, Got a message from heaven of peace and goodwill. |
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Subject: RE: req/ADD: The Cowboy / Cowboy's Soliloquy From: GUEST,Rainbowbrooke Date: 23 Jul 10 - 09:22 PM The song "Cowboy's Soliloque" has been sung in my family since the 50's. My mom remembers singing it around campfires as a child during summer trips. I remember singing this on family song nights when my aunts, uncles, & cousins were all gathered together at my grandparents homes as far back as the mid 70's. We sang a modified version of the verses above. Although it's shorter, I know it's a "live" version, cause my husband & I now sing it almost nightly to my two young children. I'v included our version below... All day on the prairie in the saddle I ride. Not even a dog, boys, to trot by my side. My fire I must kindle from chips lyin' round, and boil my own coffee without bein' ground. Refrain: I wash in a pool. I dry on a sack. I carry my wardrobe all on my back. For want of an oven I cook bread in a pot, and sleep on the ground, boys, for want of a cot. My books are the brooks, my sermons the stones, and my preacher is the wolf on his pulpit of bones. Refrain: My lights are the stars. My hearth is the grass. My music is the lowing of the herds as the pass. Now if my living don't seem very complete, well, you can't blame me for wantin' to eat. And show me a man who sleeps more profound than the poor puncher boy who sleeps on the ground. Refrain: I wash in a pool. I dry on a sack. I carry my wardrobe all on my back. |
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Subject: RE: req/ADD: The Cowboy / Cowboy's Soliloquy From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 23 Jul 10 - 09:50 PM The 1885 version is much more interesting than the Lomax re-write. |
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Subject: RE: Cowboy's Soliloquy From: Artful Codger Date: 31 Jul 10 - 05:16 PM In the introductory essay "Cowboy Poetry Then and Now: An Overview" for the book Cowboy Poets and Cowboy Poetry, David Stanley asserted that this section of the poem, My ceiling [is] the sky, my carpet the grass, My music the lowing of herds as they pass; My books are the brooks, my sermons the stones, My parson's a wolf on a pulpit of bones. takes its imagery "from Shakespeare's As You Like It, in which Duke Senior, living in banishment in the Forest of Arden, exclaims: And this our life, exempt from public haunt, Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything: I would not change it. (II, i, 15-18)" Stanley cites this as evidence that McCandless was well-read, which I think is evident from the quality of the poem, though the one-line borrowing from Shakespeare need not indicate any direct familiarity. How many folks can quote famous lines from the Bard while thinking that Mercutio is a luxury sedan? The theme of the passage is exceedingly common in cowboy poetry, and the imagery may well have circulated orally prior to McCandless borrowing and expanding upon it in his poem. According to Stanley, McCandless worked on the Crooked L Ranch in the Texas panhandle. I haven't encountered any other poems by him. |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: The Cowboy / Cowboy's Soliloquy From: GUEST,Idaho Ratts Date: 17 Dec 12 - 10:43 PM I love these postings. For 60 years I have been singing that first verse to everyone I could find (even in record shops, searching for the origin. My brothers and I used to play it on a 10" 78rpm record and an old windup phonograph abandoned out in the barn. Maybe that was the James Melton RCA version. The version from my memory also had the "saddle". Definitely had the "dog boy" (I couldn't hear an "s" on boys). And also used the "gathered." Thus the version off that record that my memory keeps: All day on the prairie in the saddle I ride Without even a dog boy to trot by my side A fire I must kindle with sticks gathered round And boil my own coffee without being "drowned". (That's right, my 6 year old ears in the late 1940's heard it that way. I concede that the true word was "ground," but for 60 years I had it wrong--and maybe better? |
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Subject: RE: Lyr Req/Add: The Cowboy / Cowboy's Soliloquy From: GUEST Date: 03 Dec 13 - 11:22 PM This is the version my Dad used to sing! He is older now and I would like the words so I can sing it to him. Roy Rogers or somebody like that used to sing it. Can I get your whole version of the song please? Thanks!!! |
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