Lyr Req: That's How the Yodel Was Born (D B Green)

Subject: That's How the Yodel Was Born
From: Mountain Dog
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 01:01 PM

A mention in the recent yodeling thread about the Riders in the Sky put me in mind of this request. Does anyone have the words - or a link - to "That's How the Yodel Was Born", Ranger Doug Green's yodeling tour de force?

I loved it from the moment I first heard it and used to play it by request (sometimes my own!) during a stint as a country-western DJ in West-bah-Gawd-Virginia, but as the record belonged to the station, it dropped out of my collection when I moseyed on...

I've checked COWPIE and DigiTrad, to no avail. Any help would be appreciated.

P.S. Dale Rose, if you're out there, this wouldn't be something hidden in the recesses of your voluminous collection and/or memory, would it? You've amazed me before by turning up obscure nuggets...

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: That's How the Yodel Was Born
From: Sorcha
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 01:37 PM

Click here for all the lyrics I could find, and some interesting info, including how the Riders arranged it. There was another thread that mentioned it, but no more lyrics in it.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: That's How the Yodel Was Born
From: Mountain Dog
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 01:52 PM

Thanks, Sorcha

That snippet certainly qualifies as the crux of the song and I appreciate the link, too.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: That's How the Yodel Was Born
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 02:05 PM

There are several of those snippets around along with some really neat info about yodeling from Ranger Doug. I can't yodel, but I sure love "Riders" and admire their talent. Some of Ranger Doug's stuff is on Sourdough Slim's site HERE.

Like Sorch, an yourself, I've been to all my favorite search engines and can't find a thing that has all the lyrics (gawd help me I was even at a Slim Whitman Fan Page). I think that Dale may have something or Gene. Your best bet may be a transcription as the song appears on quite a few albums. Sadly, my RITS stuff was all on tape and the only one I have left that's playable is the Christmas one.......and I can't find it. Kim is also a fan of theirs and may have it.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: That's How the Yodel Was Born
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 02:54 PM

OK, I'll work on a transcription. I've got the CD playing right now. -Joe Offer-

Subject: Lyr Add: THAT'S HOW THE YODEL WAS BORN (Green)^^
From: Joe Offer
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 03:23 PM

THAT'S HOW THE YODEL WAS BORN
(Douglas B. Green)

When you hear a cowboy yodelin' a song of open range
Your heart leaps up to hear his stirring tale
But did you ever wonder at the end of his refrain
Why his voice leaps in a mournful wail?
Well, the story as is told to me
Was handed down through history
Of a singin' cowboy brave enough to try
To ride the meanest old cayuse
It bucked him off right at the chute
Left him spinnin' way up in the sky.
The bronco jumped up and the cowboy came down
They met at the old saddlehorn
It made a deep impression, you could say it changed his life
And that's how the yodel was born.

(insert yodel here)

(Transcribed from a Riders in the Sky recording)

Copyright 1983, Songs of the Sage, BMI
Douglas B. Green is "Ranger Doug" of Riders in the Sky.

@cowboy @humor
filename[ YODLBORN
JRO
Apr01 ^^

---

I went to a Riders in the Sky concert several years ago. I made a stop in the rest room before the concert. the guy at the next urinal was wearing makeup and a pink cowboy shirt, and I have to admit his appearance made me feel a bit uneasy. When the concert started, I found out that the guy at the urinal was Ranger Doug. I guess that's my claim to fame - I once met Ranger Doug in a rest room in Roseville, California.
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: That's How the Yodel Was Born
From: Mountain Dog
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 04:25 PM

Thank you, Joe! Great work.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: That's How the Yodel Was Born
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 08:56 PM

I recorded this one on my Bar Rooms and Ballads CD, and had the distinct honor of having Ranger Doug and Too Slim come to one of my shows one night, and then tell me that they loved my version of it. Then we sat and talked yodeling shop during my break. Afterwards Ranger Doug sent me some tapes of Swiss-style yodeling. It doesn't get any better than that! I love those guys. All the best.

Seamus

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: That's How the Yodel Was Born
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 09:19 PM

In the early eigthies, I was living in Nashville and Ralph Emory had an early morning show (like at 5:30 or so) and we'd have it on most mornings while fumbling around with coffee and breakfast. He had a "cast" of regulars which included the likes of Lorrie Morgan, then just starting out, and some semi-regulars who were just getting goung in Nashville and that group included Riders in the Sky. It was such a loose show that it fit them perfectly and I can't recall anything they've done that has been so spontaneously funny as the stuff they did on Emory's show.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: That's How the Yodel Was Born
From: Mountain Dog
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 10:16 PM

One of my favorite bits that they used to do in concert - and perhaps still do - is their dead-on send up of "Ronco-style" infomercials: "Toolkit in a Holster", expounding on the 1001 uses for that handsome Colt hogleg that every good cowboy carries on each hip! Great stuff. ('spaw, do you know if that bit originated back in the days you're speaking of?)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: That's How the Yodel Was Born
From: catspaw49
Date: 08 Mar 01 - 11:18 PM

I remember parts of that one as well as Palindrome, Too Slims first "Cac-Tie" and a few others. In the years since, I'll see something and recall a piece of it from back then. Too Slim was constantly doing Chuckwagon bits that got WAY over the top.....but it was an early morning show and the audience in TV land (us) expected things to go that way. Ralph had "Outhouse Races" every now and again and the RITS took part in one (maybe more). But the one I remember was with Keith Bilbry (now on TNN announcing/introing) as the "rider" for the RITS and the damn thing turned over and Keith got pretty well scraped up.

What you saw also on that show was how bright these guys really are.

Spaw