Origins/lyr/tune: Ragtime Cowboy Joe

Subject: music copy of Ragtime Cowboy Joe?
From: Chap
Date: 02 Feb 01 - 03:08 PM

Anybody have a copy of the music for Ragtime Cowboy Joe? I've listened to the midi file on site but can't quite pickup the timing. Can anybody help me or direct me to where I could get a copy of the music? Chap

Subject: RE: Tune Req: music copy of Ragtime Cowboy Joe?
From: MMario
Date: 02 Feb 01 - 03:19 PM

mirror site with music

Subject: RE: Tune Req: music copy of Ragtime Cowboy Joe?
From: Inukshuk
Date: 02 Feb 01 - 05:00 PM

Thanks Mario. I've been looking for the verse melody to this one for a long time.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: music copy of Ragtime Cowboy Joe?
From: MMario
Date: 02 Feb 01 - 05:07 PM

expect to hear it on paltalk sometime then....*grin*

Subject: Ragtime Cowboy Joe - lyrics, tune, verses
From: Genie
Date: 20 Apr 09 - 02:22 PM

I couldn't remember the verse melody either, but I found a couple of YouTubes of the full song.

This one lets you hear the tune and the lyrics to the verses very clearly:

Ragtime Cowboy Joe - Flying J Wranglers

Subject: RE: Tune Req: music copy of Ragtime Cowboy Joe?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 20 Apr 09 - 03:13 PM

In Israel, in the town of Haifa, a fellow named Joseph lost his cool and shot Mayor Newton of that town dead. He then ran looting through the streets. After the police shot him dead, they looked into his past and found out that he sometimes worked on a farm, and also, that his mother had lived in Barcelona, Spain in a convent -- for many years. A song was written about it. I only recall one of the lines. It went something like: "Haifa lootin', Newton shootin' son of a nun from Barcelona---Part time plowboy, Joe!"

ARTHUR D. THIEME
(Illinois--Where our politicians make our license plates!)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: music copy of Ragtime Cowboy Joe?
From: Genie
Date: 20 Apr 09 - 03:20 PM

Jacui's not here, Art, so I'll say it for her:

Art, cellar!

Subject: RE: Tune Req: music copy of Ragtime Cowboy Joe?
From: Genie
Date: 20 Apr 09 - 03:21 PM

PS, now put a link to your post in Severn's thread. It'll cheer him up! : D

Subject: RE: Tune Req: music copy of Ragtime Cowboy Joe?
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Nov 14 - 12:56 AM

Anybody know where to find sheet music for this song? It's not in Levy, and I can't find it in the American Memory Collection at the Library of Congress.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: music copy of Ragtime Cowboy Joe?
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 28 Nov 14 - 01:46 AM

Hello, Joe. I haven't found the sheet music, but I did find this info, which might prove helpful. This is what ragtime pianist Perfessor Bill Edwards has to say about 'Ragtime Cowboy Joe.'

"Lewis F. Muir, Maurice Abrahms (M) and Grant Clarke (L) - 1912: I actually grew up thinking that this was an original song by David Seville and the Chipmunks, and the older I got the less likely I thought that it was actually a ragtime era piece. Then I got a request from a fan to post it here. My first thought was that the request that fell outside the parameters of what I generally do. Ooops. Not only is it an authentic ragtime tune, it was penned by no less than three of the better songwriters from the era. Notably, Muir would write the tune for Robert E. Lee that same year. Actually, with the original verses intact, it's a cute and clever novelty piece."

I downloaded Bill Edwards' MIDI of the song, but it is unusable for me - a welter of notes and rests of bizarre lengths.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: music copy of Ragtime Cowboy Joe?
From: GUEST,#
Date: 28 Nov 14 - 08:33 AM

http://libcudl.colorado.edu/sheetmusic/large_image.asp?oid=396158&loc=Images/Rag/RagRagtimeCow/RagRagtimeCow03.jpg

Start at page 3.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: music copy of Ragtime Cowboy Joe?
From: GUEST,#
Date: 28 Nov 14 - 08:41 AM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KeNRwvXnzJ8

That YouTube of a 1912 production of the song may help also.

Subject: RE: Tune Req: music copy of Ragtime Cowboy Joe?
From: GUEST,#
Date: 28 Nov 14 - 09:52 AM

Good team work :-)

Subject: RE: Tune Req: music copy of Ragtime Cowboy Joe?
From: voyager
Date: 28 Nov 14 - 11:01 AM

Thanks Mudcat !
This is my wife's favorite song.

Cheers
voyager

Subject: Lyr Add: RAGTIME COWBOY JOE (Clarke, Muir, Abraham
From: Joe Offer
Date: 28 Nov 14 - 02:41 PM

Thanks, # and others. That helps a lot.
-Joe-

---

This is my transcription of the 1912 sheet music. I've put italics where it differs from the DT version ["pretty good horse" is an addition, not in the sheet music].

RAGTIME COWBOY JOE
(Grant Clarke, Lewis Muir and Maurice Abrahams)

Out in Arizona where the bad men are,
And the only friend to guide you is an Evening Star,
The roughest, toughest man by far
Is Ragtime Cowboy Joe.
Got his name from singing to the cows and sheep.
Every night they say he sings the herd to sleep
In a basso rich and deep,
Crooning soft and low.

CHORUS:
He always sings raggy music to the cattle
As he swings back and forward in the saddle
On his horse (a pretty good horse)
That is syncopated, gaited,
And there's such a funny meter
To the roar of his repeater.

How they run when they hear that fellow's gun
Because the Western folks all know,
He's a high-faluting, scooting, shooting
Son-of-a-gun from Arizona
Ragtime cowboy Joe.

Dressed up ev'ry Sunday in his Sunday clothes,
He beats it for the village where he always goes,
And ev'ry girl in town is Joe's
'Cause he's a ragtime bear.
When he starts a-spieling on the dance hall floor,
No one but a lunatic would start a war,
Wise men know his forty-four
Makes men dance for fair.

Subject: RE: Origins/lyr/tune: Ragtime Cowboy Joe
From: Joe Offer
Date: 06 Jun 22 - 07:24 PM

Fun song - Interestingly, this song never sounded to me like ragtime music....

Subject: RE: Origins/lyr/tune: Ragtime Cowboy Joe
From: Sol
Date: 06 Jun 22 - 08:06 PM

"Ragtime Cowboy Joe" was my Dad's party piece. He sang it at my wedding. Many thanks for posting all the lyrics.

Subject: RE: Origins/lyr/tune: Ragtime Cowboy Joe
From: leeneia
Date: 08 Jun 22 - 11:27 AM

I found the sheet music on the IMSLP site. See if this works.

https://imslp.org/wiki/Ragtime_Cowboy_Joe_(Various)

If not, google this; "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" sheet music

and beat your way through the underbrush.
=====
Joe says it never sounded like ragtime, and I agree. It doesn't have any of the off-beat tied notes of ragtime. Yes, it has long tied notes, but they are on the first beat, the conventional place. It does have lots of dotted eighths, but those are the characteristic of swing, not ragtime.

The song is from 1912, so it's safely PD.

Subject: RE: Origins/lyr/tune: Ragtime Cowboy Joe
From: voyager
Date: 08 Jun 22 - 03:12 PM

A favorite song in our family .... passed down from Mother-in-Law to daughters (and my wife).