THE EYES OF TEXAS
"The eyes of Texas are upon you,
All the live-long day.
The eyes of Texas are upon you,
You cannot get away.
Do not think you can escape them
At night or early in the morn-
The eyes of Texas are upon you
'Till Gabriel blows his horn.

Sung by some 50,000 starry-eyed (all right, who's the bum who said spaced-out?) Texas fans each weekend during football season, and sung at other times when hoisting cool ones. One heck of a lot of live-longs!

Robert Burns- 1786, in his poem "Twa Dogs" -
Or lee-lang nights, wi crabbit leuks,
Pore owre the devil's pictur'd beuks.
and in Mother's Lament-
So I, for my lost darling's sake,
Lament the live-long day.

Emerson in his poem -
Where arches green, the live-long day,
Echo the blackbird's roundelay.

In gardening books- Livelong, a common name for Sedum, and plants of the Antennaria complex.

Silbers' "Folksingers Wordbook," p. 103

(G)I've been workin' on the railroad,
(C)all the live-long day;
I've been workin' on the railroad,
just to (A7)pass the time (D7)away.
Don't you hear the whistle (G)blowin,
(C)rise up so early in the (B7)morn,
(C)Don't you hear the captain (G)shoutin':
(D7)Dinah, blow your (G)horn.

Now as to the song being sung by railroad workers-
"The opening couplet was collected from black railroad workers at Auburn, Alabama,..." (1915-1916), "the earliest evidence for the song's currency in oral tradition." See Norm Cohen, 1981, "Long Steel Rail," Univ. Illinois Press, p. 539.

The song was collected as folk in North Carolina; Frank C. Brown Collection of North Carolina Folklore. Vol. 5, The Music of the Folk Songs, pp. 146-148, with musical score. First two lines:
"I've been workin' on de railroad,
All de live-long day, ....
Anon. singer, no date or place.
(Dinah spelled as Dina)

Cowboys yowled it to the moon, to the disgust of nearby coyotes. Collected by Ellwood Adams and sent to John A. Lomax in the 1920s or earlier. Collected in Utah, sung by an old time plainsman, who said it was "just a few words of an old trail song that they used to sing in the Big Bend country of Texas in the 'cow days.'" (Lomax Papers; E. Adams, St. Louis, MO; quoted by Norm Cohen in "Long Steel Rail, p. 539-540).

I've been out upon the round-up
All the LIVE-LONG day;
I've been out a-punchin' cattle
Just to pass the time away;
Don't you hear the cattle lowing,
We get up so early in the morn;
Don't you hear the foreman calling,
"Cook-ee do blow your horn."

Fuld traces the kitchen verse to "Old Joe, or Somebody in the House with Dinah," published in the period 1835-48; The melody, a variant of "Goodnight Ladies," was first published 1847 as "Farewell Ladies," reaching final form in 1867. Quoted from Norm Cohen's discussion, p. 540. I haven't checked Fuld's references.

An important recording was by the Blankenship Family of North Carolina, sung as a vocal trio with accompaniment, 1931, Victor 23583.