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24 Jan 00 - 11:27 PM (#167897) Subject: Lyr Add: REINCARNATION (Wallace McRae) From: Arkie Here are the words to a popular cowboy poem which is common at Cowboy gatherings. Don't know how well known it is outside the cowboy circle, but it has been performed by Riders in the Sky and Waddie Mitchell. The poem was written by Wally McRae, a Montana rancher. REINCARNATION
What is reincarnation? The Cowpoke asked his friend |
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24 Jan 00 - 11:50 PM (#167909) Subject: RE: Reincarnation, Cowboy Poem From: Harold W Thank you fro that poem. I have been looking for a copy of it to give to a friend. |
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25 Jan 00 - 04:36 AM (#167950) Subject: RE: Reincarnation, Cowboy Poem From: Joe Offer I thought Lee Hays of the Weavers did this one. Anybody know where I might find a recording? The only one I can find right off is by Riders in the Sky, which is pretty good. -Joe Offer- |
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25 Jan 00 - 03:14 PM (#168208) Subject: RE: Reincarnation, Cowboy Poem From: KathWestra Joe, I'm pretty sure Glenn Ohrlin recorded it. He does it masterfully. Unfortunately I don't have the recording, so can't tell you the title. Maybe somebody else can help out. Kathy |
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25 Jan 00 - 04:16 PM (#168234) Subject: RE: Reincarnation, Cowboy Poem From: Metchosin Hi Joe, its on Glenn Ohrlin's CD "Cowboys Life" which you can find here |
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25 Jan 00 - 06:32 PM (#168298) Subject: RE: Reincarnation, Cowboy Poem From: GUEST,Arkie I consider Glenn's performance of Reincarnation, the best that I have heard. The Rider's in the Sky dress it up too much. Waddie Mitchell has also recorded it I believe, but still prefer Glenn's version. He is the one I got the poem from. He got it from Wally McRae and usually credits Wally when he performs the piece. |
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25 Jan 00 - 06:34 PM (#168301) Subject: RE: Reincarnation, Cowboy Poem From: GUEST,stupidbodhranplayer Robin and Linda Williams used to recite this. |
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25 Jan 00 - 06:41 PM (#168305) Subject: RE: Reincarnation, Cowboy Poem From: Joe Offer Yeah, but in my mind, I keep hearing the voice of Lee Hays reciting this on a Weavers album and doing a darn good job. I swear I've got it on a recording around here somewhere, but I can't find it. Can anybody reassure me that my memory is not as far gone as it seems? Maybe I should clean house.... -Joe Offer, lost, as usual- |
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25 Jan 00 - 06:52 PM (#168312) Subject: RE: Reincarnation, Cowboy Poem From: catspaw49 I think Riders play to a far more "generic" audience and tend to ham it up because of it. I was living in Nashville when they first got going there and they were pretty much regulars on the 5AM TV show that Ralph Emery was doing. Three very talented and really funny guys. That AM show was VERY loose and people really got out of hand sometimes. They did all kinds of wacky crap. This was before TNN and Ralph's more national visibility. Spaw |
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25 Jan 00 - 09:52 PM (#168393) Subject: RE: Reincarnation, Cowboy Poem From: Metchosin While we're on cowboy songs a bit, I received a tape that had a cut of Don Walser singing Cowpoke....absoulutely beautiful. However, I received a CD of his, Texas Top Hand, for Christmas last year and was a little disappointed, not to find more cuts similar to Cowpoke. Can anyone recommend another of his CD's that I might find more in keeping with the song Cowpoke, if there is one? |
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25 Jan 00 - 11:39 PM (#168437) Subject: RE: Reincarnation, Cowboy Poem From: Arkie I've enjoyed the Riders in the Sky for years, and may have appreciated Too Slim's version of Reincarnation if I had not heard Glenn do it first. I am a little upset with Glenn, however, I had to learn of his new CD from Metchosin. I've seen him a dozen times in the last couple of months and not a word. He sure does not push that kind of stuff. He is probably at the big one in Elko about now. Joe - did not see any mention of Reincarnation in the Weavers list of recordings on the Folk Index. Perhaps Lee Hays did it under his own name. Did not look for that. Maybe Frank Hamilton could help here. |
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26 Jan 00 - 08:53 AM (#168538) Subject: RE: Reincarnation, Cowboy Poem From: GUEST Joe, you are thinking of the Lee Hayes poem wherein he asks to be composted when he dies so he can come back as veggies. I have a recording of the "Reincarnation" poem that I think is different from those mentioned above, but I will have to find it before saying who done it. ??? |
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26 Jan 00 - 06:29 PM (#168825) Subject: RE: Reincarnation, Cowboy Poem From: raredance IN DEAD EARNEST (Lee Hays, 1979)
If I should die before i wake,
The question may be, did Waddy Mitchell ever read Lee's poem and receive inspiration? rich r |
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26 Jan 00 - 08:14 PM (#168881) Subject: RE: Reincarnation, Cowboy Poem From: Arkie I'm glad Lee Hays reincarnation finally showed up. Thanks Rich. Wally McRae supposedly got his inspiration from an older Scottish poem on the subject and adapted it to fit the cowboy imagery. Lee Hays may have created his piece or possibly borrowed from the same place. The Ozark Folk Center folklorist dates the McRae poem to around 1981. Dale Rose found information indicating a date of 1980. Either date would have placed McRae's poem later than that of Hays. |
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26 Jan 00 - 08:21 PM (#168888) Subject: RE: Reincarnation, Cowboy Poem From: raredance Sorry I messed up Waddy MItchell, whose recording I have, with Wall McRae, the author. rich r |
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27 Jan 00 - 10:47 AM (#169144) Subject: RE: Reincarnation, Cowboy Poem From: GUEST,Arkie I messed up too. Dale's information dated the verse at 1982 not 1980. |
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28 Jan 00 - 02:30 AM (#169593) Subject: RE: Reincarnation, Cowboy Poem From: roopoo Michael Martin Murthy does it on his "Cowboy Songs" album. It's on Warner Bros published 1990 on 9 26308-4. The notes on this track "Where do cowboys go when they die/Reincarnation" says that in this version he and Chick Rains wrote the chorus to the poem written by Wallace McRae in 1983. mouldy |
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28 Jan 00 - 03:24 AM (#169598) Subject: RE: Reincarnation, Cowboy Poem From: Joe Offer Ah, Rich, I'm glad you finally proved I wasn't completely daft. I still haven't found a Lee Hays recording, but Pete Seeger does the Lee Hays version on the Precious Friend (click) CD he did with Arlo Guthrie. By the way, both Seeger-Guthrie CD's are terrific. -Joe Offer- |
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03 Jan 11 - 02:36 PM (#3066406) Subject: Lyr Add: REINCARNATION (Wallace McRae) From: Jim Dixon From Cowboy Curmudgeon and Other Poems by Wallace McRae (Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith Books, ©1992), page 49: [I have boldfaced the words that are different from the version posted above. I have not marked differences in mere spelling, formatting, or punctuation.] REINCARNATION Wallace McRae "What does reincarnation mean?" A cowpoke ast his friend. His pal replied, "It happens when Yer life has reached its end. They comb yer hair, and warsh yer neck, And clean yer fingernails, And lay you in a padded box Away from life's travails. "The box and you goes in a hole, That's been dug in the ground. Reincarnation starts in when Yore planted 'neath a mound. Them clods melt down, just like yer box, And you who is inside. And then yore just beginnin' on Yer transformation ride. "In a while, the grass'll grow Upon yer rendered mound, Till some day on yer moldered grave A lonely flower is found. And say a hoss should wander by, And graze upon this flower, That once wuz you, but now's become Yer vegetative bower. "The posy that the hoss done ate Up, with his other feed, Makes bone, and fat, and muscle Essential to the steed. But some is left that he can't use, And so it passes through, And finally lays upon the ground, This thing that once wuz you. "Then say, by chance, I wanders by, And sees this on the ground, And I ponders, and I wonders at, This object that I found. I thinks of reincarnation, Of life, and death, and such. I come away concludin': 'Slim, You ain't changed all that much.' " |