The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #106439 Message #921907
Posted By: Jim Dixon
30-Mar-03 - 02:19 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Ringo (English & French)(Lorne Greene)
Subject: Lyr Add: RINGO (from Lorne Green)
This must be the second song that dmorris wanted. Do you think it's too late to send an e-mail?
This is one of those "spoken" songs; recited in sync with a musical accompaniment. Is there a name for that type of "song"? I don't think it would be right to call it merely a "poem" because there IS a relationship between the words and the music--
Sound samples can be found at Yahoo! Music.
Lyrics copied from http://www.olyringo.com/fighter.htm
RINGO
(Don Robertson and Hal Blair)
They lie in Boot Hills all through the West: the outlaws, the gunslingers, the Billy-the-Kids and worse; say, a fellow like the coward that shot Bill Hickock in the back. There's always one like that in every time of history. Most of them were varmints, but every once in a while in one of them, there may have lived a man.
He lay face down in the desert sand,
Clutching his six-gun in his hand,
Shot from behind. I thought he was dead,
For under his heart was an ounce of lead;
But a spark still burned, so I used my knife
And late that night I saved the life of Ringo.
I nursed him till the danger passed.
The days went by. He mended fast;
And then from dawn till setting sun
He practiced with that deadly gun,
And hour on hour I watched in awe.
No human being could match the draw of Ringo.
One day we rode the mountain crest,
And I went east and he went west.
I took to law and wore a star,
While he spread terror near and far.
With lead and blood, he gained such fame,
All through the west, they feared the name of Ringo.
I knew someday I'd face the test:
Which one of us would be the best;
And sure enough, the word came down
That he was holed-up in the town.
I left the posse out in the street
And I went in alone to meet Ringo.
They said my speed was next to none,
But my lightning draw had just begun
When I heard a blast that stung my wrist.
The gun went flying from my fist,
And I was looking down the bore
Of the deadly forty-four of Ringo.
They say that was the only time
That anyone had seen him smile.
He slowly lowered his gun and then
He said to me, "We're even, friend;"
And so, at last, I understood
That there was still a spark of good in Ringo.
I blocked the path of his retreat.
He turned and stepped into the street.
A dozen guns spit fire and lead.
A moment later he lay dead.
The town began to shout and cheer.
Nowhere was there shed a tear for Ringo.
The story spread throughout the land
That I had beaten Ringo's hand;
And it was just the years, they say,
That made me put my guns away;
But on his grave they can't explain
The tarnished star above the name of Ringo.
[Recorded by Lorne Green in 1965; also by Jimmy Dean.]
Moved from this thread, where it was lost in a mix with Desert Pete.
-Joe Offer-