Lyr Add: Poor Lonesome Cowboy

Subject: Lyr Add: Poor Lonesome Cowboy
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Mar 12 - 03:05 PM

Poor Lonesome Cowboy from Lomax, Cowboy Songs, is in the DT, with music, but has no thread.
It was sung with some Spanish words by Jack Humphrey, Arizona, in 1963, and the Spanish verses quoted here were often heard alone in New Mexico in the 1930s.

Lyr. Add: THE POOR LONESOME COWBOY

I ain't got no father, I ain't got no father,
I ain't got no father, to buy the clothes I wear.
2
I ain't got no mother, I ain't got no mother,
I ain't got no mother, to mend the clothes I wear.
3
I ain't got no sister, I ain't got no sister,
I ain't got no sister to come and play with me.
4
I ain't got no brother, I ain't got no brother,
I ain't got no brother to drive the steers with me.
5
I ain't got no sweetheart, I ain't got no sweetheart,
I ain't got no sweetheart, to sing and talk with me.
6
I'm a poor lonesome cowboy, I'm a poor lonesome cowboy,
I'm a poor lonesome cowboy and a long way from home.
7
Yo no tengo dinero, yo no tengo papel,
Yo no tengo dinero, now ain't that hell!
8
Yo no tengo dinero, yo no tengo papel,
Yo tengo mujer, now ain't that swell!

money
cigarette paper
woman

Said to be a night-herding song. P. 147, text only.
Austin & Alta Fife, 1970, Ballads of the Great West, American West Publishing Co., California.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: Soy Pobre Vaquero
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 18 Mar 12 - 03:39 PM

Lyr. Add: SOY POBRE VAQUERO
(Poor Lonesome Cowboy, Gordon Coll.)

Soy pobre vaquero,
No tengo padre,
Ni hermana, ni hermano,
O no. O no. O no.
2
Soy pobre vaquero
No tengo madre,
Ni hermana, ni hermano,
O no. O no. O no.
3
Soy pobre vaquero,
No tengo gato,
Ni perro, ni caballo,
O no. O no. O no.
4
Soy pobre vaquero,
No tengo dinero,
Ni tequila, ni tabaco,
O no. O no. O no.

No father, nor sister, nor brother.....
No cat, nor dog, nor horse....
No money, no tequila, no tobacco.

Gordon Collection, 3756, Library of Congress. With musical score for Poor Lonesome Cowboy/Soy Pobre Vaquero, pp. 229-230.
Slow rhythm, dirgelike night-herd song.

Austin E. and Alta S. Fife, 1969, Cowboy and Western Songs, Bramwell House reprint, 1982.