The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #67380   Message #1125294
Posted By: Q (Frank Staplin)
27-Feb-04 - 02:03 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Add: The Glory Trail / High-Chin Bob (Clark)
Subject: Lyr Add: THE GLORY TRAIL / HIGH-CHIN BOB (Clark)
No one seems to have posted the original of "The Glory Trail" aka "High-Chin Bob" by Badger Clark. Most of the discussion is in threads with other names. Katlaughing reproduces the story from "Sun and Saddle Leather" by Clark: Tyin' Knots

The lyrics in the DT are 'folk-processed' as stated, and the midi sounds different from the original tune by Billy Simon.

THE GLORY TRAIL (High-Chin Bob)
Badger Clark

'Way high up the Mogollons,
  Among the mountain tops,
A lion cleaned a yearlin's bones
  And licked his thankful chops,
When on the picture who should ride,
  A-trippin' down a slope,
But High-Chin Bob, with sinful pride
  And mav'rick hungry rope.That lion licked his paw so brown
  And dreamed soft dreams of veal—
And then the circlin' loop sung down
  And roped him 'round his meal.
He yowled quick fury to the world
  Till all the hills yelled back;
The top-hawse gave a snort and whirled
  And Bob caught up the slack.'Way high up the Mogollons
  That top-hawse done his best,
Through whippin' brush and rattlin' stones,
  From canyon-floor to crest.
But ever when Bob turned and hoped
  A limp remains to find,
A red-eyed lion, belly roped
  But healthy, loped behind.Three suns had rode their circle home
  Beyond the desert's rim,
And turned their star-herds loose to roam
  The ranges high and dim;
Yet up and down and 'round and 'cross
  Bob pounded, weak and wan,
For pride still glued him to his hawse
  And glory drove him on.'Way high up the Mogollons
  A prospect man did swear
That moon dreams melted down his bones
  And hoisted up his hair:
A ribby cow-hawse thundered by,
  A lion trailed along,
A rider, ga'nt but chin on high,
  Yelled out a crazy song.

Missing line inserted.--JoeClone, 25-Nov-2008.

The original title is a better expression of the pride and quest for glory, which is the subject of the song.

From Badger Clark, "Sun and Saddle Leather," 1915 (and later); pp. 77-80 of the 1952 edition by Chapman and Grimes, which includes "Grass Grown Trails" and "New Poems."
Sheet music by Billy Simon reproduced in Katie Lee, 1976, "Ten Thousand Goddam Cattle," Northland Press, pp. 200-201.