Lyr Add: Git Along, Little Dogies (Wister)

Subject: Lyr Add: GIT ALONG, LITTLE DOGIES (Wister)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 06 Mar 04 - 11:24 PM

"Git Along, Little Dogies," in a version close to that in Lomax, 1910, is in the DT. Notes on the song have appeared in scattered threads in Mudcat, but the earliest version known is not posted in its entirety.
This song was first noted down by Owen Wister in his Journal, February, 1893, at Brownwood, Texas. "I have come upon a unique song... and I transcribe it faithfully. Only a cowboy could have produced such an effusion. It has the earmark of entire genuineness." The lyrics are reproduced in John I. White, "Git Along, Little Dogies." The identical lyrics (with music as sung by Frank Goodwyn) are in Fife and Fife, "Cowboy and Western Songs," pp. 206-207.

Lyr. Add: Git Along, Little Dogies

As I walked out one morning for pleasure,
I met a cowpuncher a-jogging along.
His hat was thrown back and his spurs was a-jingling,
And as he advanced he was singing this song.

(Chorus)
Sing hooplio get along my little dogies,
For Wyoming shall be your new home.
It's hooping and yelling and cursing those dogies,
To our misfortune but none of your own.

In the Springtime we round up the dogies,
Slap on the brands and bob off their tails.
Then we cut herd and herd is inspected,
And then we throw them on the trail.

In the evening we round up the dogies
As they are grazing from herd all around.
You have no idea the trouble they give us
As we are holding them on the bedground.

In the morning we throw off the bedground,
Aiming to graze them an hour or two.
When they are full, you think you can drive them
On the trail, but be damned if you do.

Some fellows go on the trail for pleasure,
But they have got this thing down wrong.
If it hadn't bin for these troublesome dogies,
I never would thought of writing this song.

Music in Fife and Fife follows exactly the words by Wister, but the music in White has slightly different words, including "Whoop-ee-ti-yi-yo."

Owen Wister, according to Lomax and Lomax, 1938, also wrote that the refrain is sometimes sung:

Hi-o, git along, you damned little dogies,
Wyoming shall be your new home;
And 'twas swearing and cursing and damning the dogies,
To our misfortune and none of their own.

Lomax and Lomax give a first verse and chorus (with music) of "Owen Wister's version" but the words differ in part from those given above (different source than Wister's Journal?).

As I walked out one morning for pleasure,
I met a cowpuncher a-jogging along.
His hat was thrown back and his spurs they was jingling,
And as he advanced he was singing this song.

Singing whoop-ti-o, git along my little dogies,
For Wyoming shall be your new home,
And it's driving and damning and cursing those dogies
To our misfortune but none of their own.

Andy Adams, in "Log of a Cowboy," 1903,p. 313 has this fragment:
"...someone in the lead wig-wagged his lantern; it was answered by the light in the rear, and the next minute the old rear song,--
Ip-e-la-ago, go along little doggie*,
You'll make a beef steer by-and-by,--
reached us riders in the swing, and we knew the rear guard of cattle was being pushed forward." *mis-print?

Lomax and Lomax, 1938, provide sheet music for a tune "given me at the Texas Cattlemen's Convention, Fort Worth, Texas, 1910, by Mrs. Trantham, a wandering gipsy minstrel. The words were woven together from five fragments."

There are some differences in emphasis and stress when the music in Fife and Fife is compared with that in Lomax.

Comparison is made with an Irish (originally?) song fragment taken from White and reproduced in thread 52845 (Looking for Irish in Tex-Mex...): Irish-Tex-Mex

An article by Sharlot M. Hall in "Out West" for March, 1908, has the "beef" verses used by Lomax in 1910, in different form. Hall said it was an "Old Trail-song of the 'Eighties."

Get along, get along, little dogie,
You're going to be a beef steer by-and-by.
Your mother she was raised way down in Texas,
Where the jimson weed and sand-burrs grow;
Now we'll fill you up on prickly pear and cholla,
Till you're ready for the trail to Idaho.
Oh! you'll be soup for Uncle Sam's Injuns;
It's "Beef, heap beef" you hear 'em cry;
Get along, get along, little dogie,
For the Injuns they'll eat you by-and-by.

After the Indians were herded up and the buffalo were gone, cattle were driven up to locations in the northern tier of States, Wyoming, etc., to keep them from starving. This was only partly successful; many of the Indians still died of starvation and disease.
How long these drives to provide beef lasted, I don't know, but I have postcards showing the distribution of beef to Indians at the slaughter point at Cheyenne Agency, South Dakota, 1903.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: GIT ALONG, LITTLE DOGIES (Wister)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 06 Mar 04 - 11:55 PM

In a letter to Alan Lomax (Lomax and Lomax, 1934, "American Ballads & Folksongs," p. 389), Owen Wister wrote: "Here is the second verse of the 'Little Doughies';

"In the mornING we throw off the bedground,
Aiming to graze THEM an hour or two,
When they are full you think you can drive them
On to the trail, BUT be damned if you do.
Singing Hoop-li-O; (ô)
Get along my little doughies,
FOR Wyoming will be your new hOme. (ô)
And it's driving and damning and cursing those doughies
To our misforTUNE but none of their own.

"It took me about half an hour to make sure of the capricious melody. We sat under a live oak in McCulloch County, Texas, some twenty miles frm Brady City, in March, 1893. I made the boy sing it until I had taken the notes down with the words under them. He sang in 6/8 time, andante, dwelling according to whim on certain unexpected syllables. Those I have either underlined (for a short hold) or marked with a circumflex indicating a note often prolonged through several measures" (I have used caps for short hold and cap O for ô, circumflex).

Mr. Wister adds:
"Just from habit I write 'doughies.'"
Wister's tune is given in the second example as printed on pp. 386-387 of Lomax and Lomax, 1934, "American Ballads & Folk Songs."

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: GIT ALONG, LITTLE DOGIES (Wister)
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Mar 04 - 12:25 AM

Get a long little dogie, a short one won't do!

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: GIT ALONG, LITTLE DOGIES (Wister)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 07 Mar 04 - 03:46 PM

Lingenfelter and Dwyer, "Songs of the American West," use the 3/4 tune "Rocking the Cradle," sheet music with chords p. 365. The tune is close, but is too smooth for the song.
Carl Sandburg, 1927, "The American Songbag," pp. 268-270, has sheet music arranged by Charles Farwell Edson, also based on the 6/8 Irish tune but with holds on notes, which better fits the song.

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: GIT ALONG, LITTLE DOGIES (Wister)
From: SueB
Date: 07 Mar 04 - 03:50 PM

I can't get a long little dogie -

I can't even get one that's short...

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: GIT ALONG, LITTLE DOGIES (Wister)
From: GUEST,guest mick
Date: 08 Mar 04 - 01:56 PM

Does anybody know the etymology of the word "dogie"?

Subject: RE: Lyr Add: GIT ALONG, LITTLE DOGIES (Wister)
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 08 Mar 04 - 02:45 PM

Etymology of Dogie has appeared somewhere in a thread, but it would take a search to find it.

Dogie 1 (preferred). Derived from Spanish dogal, a motherless calf. See Lingo and Definitions, Chapter 9, "Cowboys-Vaqueros, Origins of the First American Cowboys," Donald Gilbert y Chavez. Cowboys Vaqueros

This excellent booklet, on the University of New Mexico website, is worth copying for reference if you are interested at all in cowboys and their history.

Dogie 2 (preferred by those with Texas traditions). From some cowman, orphaned calves received the name 'dough-guts,' signifying a lean, pot-bellied, malnourished calf. Unbranded calves, without brands, were claimed by the first to find them. The term was later shortened to 'dogie.'
This explanation in Ramon F. Adams, "Western Words," p. 51-52.

Dogie first appeared in English print in 1888, in Cent. Magazine, as 'Texas 'doughies,'" but anecdote has it that the term is much older. The Spanish 'dogal' is centuries older, with the original meaning of halter.