Many thanks to Joe and the other hosts who set this up. Good to do something with my fellow 'Catters again. I sang the following popularly known as the Gol Darned Wheel. I present it here as written by James Barton Adams, The Cowboy and the Wheel in 1897. My version was truncated in deference to many more performers with songs to sing.

The Cowboy and the Wheel - James Barton Adams
From The Denver Evening Post: Thursday, April 29, 1897.

I kin take the toughest broncho in the wild an' wooly West,
An' kin back him an' kin ride him, let him do his level best;
I kin handle any critter ever wore a coat o' hair,
An' I've had a lively tussle with a 'tarnal grizzly bear.
I kin rope an' throw a long-horn o' the wildest Texas brand,
An' in Injun disagreements I kin play a leadin' hand;
But at last I met my master, an' I shorely had to squeal,
When the boys got me a-straddle of a Gol darned wheel.

It was at the Eagle Rancho on the Brazos whar' I fust
Run across the durn contrivance 'at upset me in the dust-
Natrally up an' throwed me, stood me on my cussed head,
"Trumped my ace in lightin' order," so old Ike, the foreman, said.
'Twas a tenderfoot 'at brought it; he was wheelin' all the way
From the sunrise end o' freedom out to San Francisco Bay.
An' he tied up at the rancho fur to git outside a meal,
Never thinkin' we would monkey with his Gol darned wheel.

Arizony Jim begun it, when he said to Jack McGill
There was fellers fo'ced the limit braggin' o' their ridin' skill,
An' he reckoned there's a puncher not a million miles away
As imagined as a rider he was tolerable gay.
Then he ventured the admission that same fellow as he meant
Was a purty handy critter, fur as ridin' bronchos went,
But he'd find he was a buckin' 'ginst a dif'rent sort o' deal
Ef he'd throw his leather leggin's 'crost that Gol darned wheel.

Sich a slur upon my talent made me hotter 'n a mink,
An' I told him I could back it fur amusement or fur chink;
That 'twas nothin' but a plaything fur the kids an' that he mout
Have his idees sort o' shattered if he'd trot the critter out.
Then they helt it till I mounted, an' I give the word to go,
An' the shove they give to start me wa'n't unreasonably slow.
But I never split a cuss-word, never made a bit o' squeal-
I was buildin' repatation on that Gol darned wheel.

The grade was mighty slopin' from the rancho to the creek,
An' we went a galleyflutin', like a crazy lightnin streak,
Went a whizzin' an' a dartin', fust to this side, then to that,
The contrivance sort o' wobblin' like the flyin' of a bat.
I kep' pullin' on the handles, but I couldn't check it up,
Yanked an' sawed an' jerked an' hollered, but the durn thing wouldn't stop.
An' a sort o' sneakin' idee through my brain begun to steal
That the devil helt a mortgage on that Gol darned wheel.

Holy Moses and the prophets, how we split the Texas air!
The breezes made whip crackers o' my somewhat lengthy hair.
An' I sort o' comprehended as, adown the hill we went,
There was bound to be a smash-up 'at I couldn't circumvent.
Them cow-punchers kep' a-yellin', "Stay right with her, Uncle Bill!"
"Hit 'er with the spurs, you sucker!" "Turn her muzzle up the hill!"
But I never made an answer; I jest let the cusses squeal-
My attention was all focussed on that Gol darned wheel.

I've a sort o' dim and hazy recollection o' the stop-
O' the airth a spinnin' round me, an' the stars all tangled up,
Then there come a intermission, which extended till I found
I was lyin' at the rancho, with the boys all gethered 'round.
An' a medico was sewin' on my skin whar' it was ripped,
An' ol' Arizony whispered, "Wal, ol' boy, I guess yer whipped,"
An' I told him I war' busted from sombrero cl'ar to heel-
Then he grinned an' said, "You'd orter 'see the Gol darned wheel."