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Lyr Add: The Last Wagon (Foster/Critchlow)

19 Apr 99 - 09:42 AM (#71973)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE LAST WAGON (Foster/Critchlow)
From: Peter Fisher

This is one of my favorite cowboy songs. It comes from the singing of Slim Critchlow; it was a poem by Bennett Foster and Slim put it to music, and recorded it in 1968. Unfortunately, there's a word in the second verse that I've never been able to make out. I can't find the song on the web or in Glenn Ohrlin's Hell-Bound Train or anywhere else. So this is a lyric addition with a request for the mysterious word, or even a good suggestion for what would fit.

THE LAST WAGON
Words: Bennett Foster. Music: Slim Critchlow.

Someday when the barbed wire flings its band
Like a fisherman's net round the last range land
The last roundup wagon will roll away
To the last bedground at the end of the day.
Lord, don't let me live to see.

The last [???????] will jingle into
The last corral while the night birds sing
The last cooking fires will flicker bright
By the dwarf mesquite on that roundup night
Lord, where will that bedground be?

And then in the morning from tarp and tent
The roundup crew, on their work intent,
Will answer the call of the wagon boss.
On the dew-wet range, their circles cross.
Lord, where will those circles end?

The drives will come from flat and hill
And the cattle bawl while the irons grow chill
And silent men watch their last herd go.
While notched in the hills the sun sinks low.
Lord, how will you make amends?

Last roundup crew, last wagon boss;
How can you measure the thing that is lost?
What will live on the grass-grown range?
All will be lost and what will be gained?
Lord, how will you comfort me?

Peter

19 Apr 99 - 12:37 PM (#72012)
Subject: RE: LYR Add-Req 'The Last Wagon'
From: Sandy Paton

The word you're after is remuda (horse herd). Ed Trickett recorded Slim's song on For All the Good People, Folk-Legacy CD-121.

Sandy

19 Apr 99 - 01:35 PM (#72035)
Subject: RE: LYR Add-Req 'The Last Wagon'
From: Peter Fisher

Thanks, Sandy. That was my guess, but not being sure what a remuda was, and whether or not it would jingle, I was reluctant to insert it.

Peter

19 Apr 99 - 02:00 PM (#72050)
Subject: RE: LYR Add-Req 'The Last Wagon'
From: Sandy Paton

I imagine they only jingle when they're still saddled. Right?

Sandy

19 Apr 99 - 06:27 PM (#72145)
Subject: RE: LYR Add-Req 'The Last Wagon'
From: Dale Rose

You could have inserted this link from Dave and Cathy's site which gives the lyrics and the album notes, credited to someone named Sandy Paton. Cathy Barton, Dave Para, and Harry Tuft were also on that particular recording. (for the benefit of people other than Sandy, who I presume already knew that)

A plug for their site in general~~all of their great recordings are generously annotated, with a healthy helping of Civil War history as well. Go to Dave and Cathy's site. You won't be disappointed.

20 Apr 99 - 05:01 PM (#72255)
Subject: RE: LYR Add-Req 'The Last Wagon'
From: Sandy Paton

Sure is good to have you aboard, Dale. Keep up the good work!!

Sandy

05 Apr 15 - 09:16 PM (#3699896)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Last Wagon (Foster/Critchlow)
From: GUEST,dono

According to liner notes on one of my Smithsonian Recordings, apparently lots of the old time cowboys sang to the cattle at night to keep them calm, and many wrote their own songs. They couldn't transcribe the tune but they posted the lyrics (poems) in cattlemens' newspapers. Only a few original tunes to those cowboy songs are known, such as those by Badger Clark. The Last Wagon was such a song. I have the Slim Critchlow 45 rpm record. Have no idea how he discovered the original poem.

and Hi Sandy... love your records!

05 Apr 15 - 09:24 PM (#3699897)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Last Wagon (Foster/Critchlow)
From: Dono

According to liner notes on one of my Smithsonian LPs, apparently lots of the old time cowboys sang to the cattle at night to keep them calm, and many wrote their own songs. They couldn't transcribe the tune but they posted the lyrics (poems) in cattlemens' newspapers. Only a few original tunes to those cowboy songs are known, such as those by Badger Clark. The Last Wagon was such a song. I have the Slim Critchlow 45 rpm record. Have no idea how he discovered the original poem.

and Hi Sandy... love your records!

05 Apr 15 - 09:35 PM (#3699899)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Last Wagon (Foster/Critchlow)
From: Joe Offer

Nice to see this thread again, with contributions from two of my favorite Mudcatters, Dale Rose and Sandy Paton. They were such good people. May they rest in peace.
-Joe-

05 Apr 15 - 09:49 PM (#3699907)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Last Wagon (Foster/Critchlow)
From: GUEST,#

http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=23768#266205

The lyrics are posted on that thread, also. Perhaps between the two all the blanks can be filled in.

31 Dec 21 - 11:12 AM (#4130593)
Subject: RE: Lyr Add: The Last Wagon (Foster/Critchlow)
From: GUEST,Dale Page, Cowboy Poet

The Spanish word, "remuda," is indeed the missing word, as Sandy Paton suggested. To Sandy: The verb "to jingle" has nothing to do with noises made by saddled horses. To "jingle" or "jingle up" the horses means that one or more riders rounded up the night-herded horses, probably before daylight, and drove them to the wagon for selection and saddling by each individual cowboy. Saddled horses would NOT be turned loose and require jingling. According to Ramon F. Adams in his "Cowboy Dictionary", a "jingler" is "a horse wrangler" and "jingling" is "a wrangler's term for rounding up the horse band."

From my poem, "Jenny's Colt":

...It's not long 'til I spot the remuda.
Like good troops, they line up and they go
To the headquarters, bucking and kicking.
And then Jenny's colt nickers, "Hello"...

Copyright 2015, "Brush Poppers" by Dale Page
Copyright 2021, "Four Aces and a Queen" by Dennis Russell, Terry Nash, Valerie Beard, Floyd Beard, and Dale Page.