Lyr Add: See Them Buzzards

Subject: Lyr Add: SEE THEM BUZZARDS (from Oscar Brand)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 08 Sep 15 - 11:20 AM

SEE THEM BUZZARDS
As recorded by Oscar Brand on "Laughing America" (1970)

1. I had a friend and his name was Joe,
And we went a-herdin' cows when the sun was low.
The cattle stampeded and we couldn't get ahead.
Now my friend Joe is dead.

CHORUS: Oh, see them buzzards; see them buzzards flyin' low.
Oh, see them buzzards flyin' over Joe.
Oh, shoot them buzzards; shoot them buzzards flyin' 'round,
And bury poor Joe in the ground.

2. My leg is broken and I can't get away,
But the boys'll be here by the end of day.
It won't help Joe as he lies on the ground
Where the big longhorns knocked him down.

Oh, see them buzzards....

3. Joe had a girl and she was true.
When she hears about this, she won't know what to do.
She loved him well in her simple way.
If she were here she would say:

"Oh, see them buzzards...."

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: See Them Buzzards
From: Mrrzy
Date: 08 Sep 15 - 11:21 AM

I remembered this gem JUST in time to sing it before leaving the cowboy-themed camping thing yesterday, very surprised not to find it in the Trad or ever discussed in the Forum.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: See Them Buzzards
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 08 Sep 15 - 11:57 AM

Dear MRZY....

THIS is a real gem....thank you for adding it.

Do you recall, when, where and how you first "crossed paths" with this?

Sincerely,
Gargoyle
Blessings on you and the family

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: See Them Buzzards
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Sep 15 - 12:21 PM

Detail.CFM?messages__Message_ID=1249135

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: See Them Buzzards
From: Mrrzy
Date: 08 Sep 15 - 01:19 PM

My parents had the record, and this is one dad liked to sing in the car. THe girl says Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh before see them buzzards...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: See Them Buzzards
From: Mrrzy
Date: 08 Sep 15 - 01:22 PM

The tidbit from the above link, THANK YOU guest I sought for instances of this song within the forum and didn't find it, says that Pete Seeger held that a guy who had himself called Frank O. Frank wrote this song but claimed he hadn't.

Does anybody have the Laughing America album on vinyl? There might be liner notes...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: See Them Buzzards
From: Mrrzy
Date: 08 Sep 15 - 01:27 PM

OK, found the liner notes online here.

They say about this song:

Occupational hazards have, in like manner, occasioned musical derision. The tarrier who is blown up by a dynamite explosion is docked for the time he was up in the sky. The paratrooper sings, "Gory, gory, what a helluva way to die", and the moonshiner intones, "If the law don't come to me, I'll drink till I die". The cowboy sings SEE THEM BUZZARDS. This song, apprehended from Frank Beddo and his collection of Bejar Ballads, sounds more like a high-toned lark than a pure product of the folk. But, as a charter folk-member, I hereby propose it for membership into our generous songbag. Its heart is in the right place.

Could Frank Beddo be the Frank (O. Frank) who gave Frank as his last name only when pushed, from the above Pete Seeger quote?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: See Them Buzzards
From: Mrrzy
Date: 08 Sep 15 - 01:28 PM

Forgot the blicky for the liner notes themselves, sorry, they were supposed to be at the word "here" in the opening sentence above.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: See Them Buzzards
From: GUEST,#
Date: 08 Sep 15 - 01:31 PM

https://www.google.ca/search?q=Laughing+America+album+on+vinyl&rlz=1C1CHNY_enCA587CA587&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAWoVChMIlp-e1PrnxwIVxICSCh33BAMz&biw=1440&bih=785#tbm=isch&q=%22Laughing+America%22+album+on+vinyl&imgrc=VtAN3qdqLqPTxM%3A

There are liner notes available there, but I don't know how to blow it up.

It's in Google Images with a google of

Laughing America album on vinyl

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: See Them Buzzards
From: GUEST,#
Date: 08 Sep 15 - 01:32 PM

Cross posted, sorry.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: See Them Buzzards
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Sep 15 - 02:23 PM

You can hear the Oscar Brand recording of the song here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHFtKl40Sys

The lyrics on the Brand recording are just a bit different from what Mrr posted:


SEE THEM BUZZARDS
[Recorded by Oscar Brand (Laughing America album)]

I had a friend and his name was Joe,
And we went a-herding cows when the sun was low;
The cattle stampeded and we couldn't get ahead,
Now my friend Joe is dead.

CHORUS
Oh, see them buzzards, see them buzzards flying low;
Oh, see them buzzards flying over Joe.
Oh, shoot them buzzards, shoot them buzzards flying 'round,
And bury poor Joe in the ground.

My leg is broken and I can't get away,
But the boys'll be here by the end of day;
It won't help Joe as he lies on the ground,
Where the big long horns knocked him down.

CHORUS

Joe had a girl and she was true,
When she hears about this she won't know what to do;
She loved him well in her simple way,
If she were here she would say:

CHORUS

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: See Them Buzzards
From: Mrrzy
Date: 08 Sep 15 - 03:27 PM

Thanks, Joe! I did pull these out of the back of my brain...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: See Them Buzzards
From: GUEST,Lighter
Date: 08 Sep 15 - 04:46 PM

Clearly not "sung by cowboys" on the trail, however much one might wish it were so.

Albert Frank Beddoe and "John D. Beddoe" seem to have written it - all out of their own heads - for the "folk opera," "Go Lightly, Stranger," book by Thomas W. Beddoe, copyright 1953.

The same work included "Copper Kettle" - also, evidently, out of their own heads own head.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: See Them Buzzards
From: GUEST,Stevebury
Date: 06 Oct 16 - 05:50 PM

I just found this song -- words and music -- in "Oscar Brand's Folk Songs for Fun," Hollis Music Inc., New York NY, 1961, pp 190-191

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: See Them Buzzards
From: Mrrzy
Date: 07 Oct 16 - 10:14 AM

I had it by Oscar Brand, somewhere, but not that album. I think it was the one with Dunderbeck.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: See Them Buzzards
From: Mrrzy
Date: 07 Oct 16 - 03:07 PM

I don't think anybody thinks it's an actual cowboy song by cowboys. It's a cowboy song by tenderfeet.