Lyr Add: Sift Along, Boys (cowboy song)

Subject: Lyr Add: SIFT ALONG, BOYS (cowboy)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 May 04 - 02:35 PM

SIFT ALONG, BOYS

Sift along, boys, an' don't ride slow;
Hain't got time, but a long ways to go.
Quirt 'em on the shoulders an' rake 'em on the hip;
I've cut out the T. B. X.; now scatter out- zip!

Bunch the herd, boys, all in the rail;
Hog-tie an' brand 'em, then beat 'em on the tail;
Quirt 'em on the shoulders an' rake 'em on the hip;
Whip 'em up an' down the sides; now scatter out- zip!

Bunch the herd, boys, and don't ride slow;
Hog-tie an' brand 'em an' don't let any go;
Then hit the trail for grub an' watch the pancakes flip;
Lay aside your chaps an' quirt; now scatter out- zip!

No information. Does not seem to have been collected by either the Fifes or the Lomaxes. From the Botsford Collection of Folk-Songs (Rochester Univ.). "Songs of the Americas," ed. Florence Hudson Botsford, 1922 (YWCA) and 1930 (Schirmer NY), pp. 8-9 with sheet music 4/4 con moto.

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Subject: RE: Lyr Add: SIFT ALONG, BOYS (cowboy)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 May 04 - 12:17 PM

Anyone have any information on this song?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: SIFT ALONG, BOYS (cowboy)
From: wysiwyg
Date: 13 May 04 - 12:32 PM

Sift or shift?

~S~

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: SIFT ALONG, BOYS (cowboy)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 May 04 - 01:00 PM

Sift in the Botsford text.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: SIFT ALONG, BOYS (cowboy)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 13 May 04 - 02:59 PM

Found a cowboy poem by Edwin Ford Piper, "Whoa, Zebe, Whoa," verse 2:

The boys are off for town tonight-
It's a-riding, Zebra Dun!
Playing poker and a-getting tight-
Sift along, O Zebra Dun!
Bunch of girls at Brown's Hotel
Knows the steps and dances well-
Rattlesnake Pete and his fiddle-
Lope along, O Zebra Dun!

http://www.bartleby.com/273/88.html

W. S. Braithwaite, ed., Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1920.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE DOGIE SONG (from Lomax)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Jul 04 - 06:28 PM

Found a version (under my nose) in Lomax, John A., 1910, "Cowboy Songs," p. 303, and Lomax and Lomax, 1938, "Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads," pp. 51-52; printed without comments.

Lyr. Add: The Dogie Song

The cow-bosses are good-hearted chunks,
Some short, some heavy, some long;
But don't matter what he looks like,
They all sing the same old song.
On the plains, in the mountains, in the valleys,
In the south piece where the days are long,
The bosses are different fellows;
Still they sing the same old song.

"Sift along, boys, don't ride so slow;
Haven't got much time but a long round to go.
Quirt him in the shoulders and rake him down the hip;
I've cut you *toppy mounts, boys, now pair off and rip.
Bunch the herd at the old meet,
Then beat 'em on the tail;
Whip 'em up and down the sides
And hit the shortest trail."

*Most reliable cow horses.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Sift Along, Boys (cowboy song)
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 02:18 PM

Kind of the same tune as Sam Bass, only it's slightly percolated to sound peppier.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Sift Along, Boys (cowboy song)
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 02:40 PM

Interesting that the Lomax verses are to a different line length and rhyme scheme than the refrain.

The Botsford verses match the scansion of the chorus. I mention it because the Lomax verses do not.

Makes me wonder whether the Lomaxes cobbled together the chorus with verses from somewhere else? If they really go together, the singer would have to change rhythm every time when shifting from verse to chorus and back.

The only way to make the Lomax verses match up is to sing each set of two lines as one. For example, lines 1 and 2 go to the first line of the tune, and so on. That turns it into word salad, but you can sing the song that way if you take it slowish.

Altogether an odd pairing.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Sift Along, Boys (cowboy song)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 14 Dec 06 - 03:15 PM

No notes by Lomax in either the 1938 or the 1925 reprint of John A. Lomax "Cowboy Songs." I think that the song was added to one of the 1915 to 1919 editions and did not appear in the original 1910 volume.
Somewhere there is a post that dealt with the additions to the 1910 volume.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Sift Along, Boys (cowboy song)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 25 Dec 06 - 07:12 PM

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