The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #153646   Message #3609279
Posted By: Lighter
12-Mar-14 - 09:58 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Ranger's Command (Woody Guthrie)
Subject: RE: Origins: Ranger's Command (Woody Guthrie)
Through a miracle of electronics, the library has provided me with a scan of "A Two-Gun Cyclone." It's a colorful read all right.

Denton gives full texts (no tunes) of three songs: "The Death of Utah Carroll," "Sioux Indians," and "Death of a Maiden Fair" (p.142):

There was a maiden fair, who lived on the plains,
She helped me herd the cattle, through cold storms and rains.
She helped me herd the cattle through one whole roundup,
And she drunk red liquor from the cold and bitter cup.

She drunk the red liquor which affected a man's soul;
She was fair as a lily and as pure as the snow.
We taught her the trademark, by the rangers' command,
To hold a six-shooter in each of her hands.


Will post the two other songs shortly.
To hold a six-shooter and never to run
As long as a bullet was in each of her guns.
We camped in the canyon in the fall of the year,
Intendin' to stay there with a herd of fat steers.

The Indians approached us in the hour of midnight--
She rose from her warm bed with a gun in each hand.
Come all you brave cowboys, let's win this fair land,
A keen clap of thunder and down came the rain.

In came a bullet and dashed out her brain.
I dashed in my saddle with a gun in each hand,
Come all you brave cowboys, let's win this fair land,
Come, all you brave cowboys, if it takes your life--
For they have murdered my intended wife.



Will post the two other songs shortly.