Subject: LYR ADD: Come to the Bower - Damron & Henderson
From:
GUEST,Sarah2 (at work)
Date: 14 Mar 01 - 01:05 AM
Fred,
If you really want to wake 'em up, get your hands on a recording of "Come to the Bower" by Allen Damron. It's a song he wrote with Tim Henderson about the battle of San Jacinto.
At San Jacinto, there were about 5 or 7 men with instruments, and I think we're talking about a fife and several fiddles. Helluva martial band. And it seems there was only one song they all knew, a slightly off-color item named "Come to the Bower." So that's what they played during the charge. But that's not the song Allen and Tim wrote. It's lyrics go like this:
Come to the Bower (Allen Damron and Tim Henderson)
Jose Maria Gillero,
He was a cousin of mine,
Good with riata and spur,
The young senoritas and wine.
But we heard that the tyrant was coming
And Jose said he felt he must go.
For the honor and glory of Texas,
He died at the Alamo.
Refrain: Playing, "Come, come, come to the bower,"
As over the hill at the Bastard* we go
Playing, "Come, come, come to the bower,"
And yellin, "Remember the Alamo!"
It's a long way back east to the mountains,
To Virginia and old Tennessee,
A land full of lawmen and fences,
Got a little too crowded for me.
And I heard tell of wide open spaces,
Where you ride free and lonesome for days.
Oh, I see now them Texans weren't lyin' --
Think I'll just help to keep it that way!
Refrain
Now, ma handed down the long rifle,
And I never had held it before.
She said, "Your pa died with Fannin at Goliad,
"And I reckon that makes this your war."
Now this army is plumb sick of runnin',
And they act like they ain't scared to die:
Look at Houston himself nappin' under yon tree;
If he ain't worried, neither am I.
Refrain
***
*Santa Anna was known to fly into a rage if anyone mentioned that his parents were never married. Naturally, all the Texans called him "The Bastard." People just aren't very sensitive to others' feelings, sometimes.
Sarah
|
sj
