This is a very disappointing version; but since I'm trying to ensure we have all the songs from Carl Sandburg's 1927 American Songbag, (page 20), here's Sandburg's version:


OH, BURY ME NOT ON THE LONE PRAIRIE

1 Oh, bury me not on the lone prairie,
Where the wild kiyotes will howl o'er me;
Where the rattlesnakes hiss and the wind blows free,
Oh, bury me not on the lone prairie.

They heeded not his dying prayer,
They buried bun there on the lone paririe,
In a little box just six by three,
His bones now rot on the lone prairie.

Sandburg's notes: This arrangement is from a song known to boys of the Crossroads Club at the University of Oregon. After a recital and reception there one evening three years ago, we held a song and story session lasting till five o'clock in the morning. Nearly all nations and the seven seas were represented. A contingent from the Black Hills of South Dakota sang this version of The Cowboy' Lament. They put their arms on each other's shoulders, stood in a circle, and cried the lines almost as a ritual from lonesome flat lands, the arms on each other's shoulders signifying that no matter how tough life might be they could meet it if they stood together. They pronounced "wind" with a long "i" as in "find" or "blind," and said the cowhands always sang it in that classical manner.