Lyr Add: SIERRY PETES

Away up high in the Sierry Petes,
Where the yeller pines grow tall,
Ole Sandy Bob an' Buster Jig,
Had a rodeer camp last fall.

Oh, they taken their hosses and runnin' irons
And mabbe a dawg or two,
An' they 'lowed they'd brand all the long-yered calves,
That come within their view.

And any old dogie that flapped long yeres,
An' didn't bush up by day,
Got his long yeres whittled an' his old hide scortched,
In a most artistic way.

Now one fine day ole Sandy Bob,
He throwed his seago down,
"I'm sick of the smell of burnin' hair*,
And I 'lows I'm a-goin' to town."

So they saddles up an' hits 'em a lope,
Fer it warn't no sight of a ride,
And them were the days when a Buckeroo
Could ile up his inside.

Oh, they starts her in at the Kaintucky Bar,
At the nead of Whisky Row,
And they winds up down by the Depot House,
Some forty drinks below.

They then sets up and turns around,
And goes her the other way,
An' to tell you the Gawd-forsaken truth,
Them boys got stewed that day.

As they was a ridin' back to camp,
A-packin' a pretty good load,
Who should they meet but the Devil himself,
A-prancin' down the road.

Sez he, "You ornery cowboy skunks,
You'd better hunt yer holes,
Fer I've come up from Hell's Rim Rock,
To gather in yer souls."

Sez Sandy Bob, "Old Devil be damned,
We boys is kinda tight,
But you ain't a-goin' to gather no cowboy souls,
'Thout you has some kind of a fight."

So Sandy Bob punched a hole in his rope,
And he swang her straight and true,
He lapped it on to the Devil's horns,
An' he taken his dallies too.

Now Buster Jig was a riata man,
With his gut-line coiled up neat,
So he shaken her out an' he built him a loop,
And he lassed the Devil's hind feet.

Oh, they stretched him out an' they tailed him down,
While the iron was a-gettin' hot,
They cropped and swaller-forked his yeres,
Then they branded him up a lot.

They pruned him up with a de-hornin' saw,
And they knotted his tail fer a joke,
They they rid off and left him there,
Necked to a Black-Jack oak.

If you're ever up high in the Sierry Petes,
An' you hear one hell of a wail,
You'll know it's that Devil a-bellerin' around,
About them knots in his tail.

Sierry is pronounced Sigh'-ree. *Line becomes "I'm sick of this cow-pyrography..." in the version in Katie Lee's book, also obtained from Gail Gardner.

Original words by Gail Gardner, written April 1917, reproduced from Ohrlin, Glenn, 1973, The Hell-Bound Train, pp. 69-72. The music shown in the book is the original, by Bill Simon.

According to Gardner, the song was sung by cowboys at the dude ranches and by himself and became widespread. See Katie Lee, Ten Thousand Goddam Cattle, for the history.

The song was stolen by several singers, including Powder River Jack, who claimed it as his own in his booklet, "Stampede." It was first properly credited in German, George, 1929, Cowboy Campfire Ballads. In 1939, German, Cowboy Song Book No. 5, claimed the music as his, not mentioning Simon. Perhaps he did redo the music and one of the tunes used belongs to him. He was a radio singer and performer. A corrupt version under another name appears in Larkin, Margaret, 1931, The Singing Cowboy, without attribution.

In the Dts, there is a smoothed-up version with the title "Tyin' Ten Knots in the Devil's Tail.