Origins: Zebra Dunn

Subject: Origins: Zebra Dunn
From: frogprince
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 12:29 AM

I have a couple of recorded versions of this (I first heard it by Cisco Houston) and I've found it in several books and at several websites, but I've never found any hint of authorship or date. Anybody have anything?

Subject: RE: Origins: Zebra Dunn
From: masato sakurai
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 08:07 AM

Lyr Add: Bow-Legged Ike to Zebra Dun

Zebra Dun, The [Laws B16] at The Traditional Ballad Index.

Subject: RE: Origins: Zebra Dunn
From: GUEST,Lighter at work
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 10:21 AM

Subject: RE: Origins: Zebra Dunn
From: GUEST,Lighter at work
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 10:23 AM

As Q's linked post suggests, it was first published in N. Howard Thorp's "Songs of the Cowboys" in 1908, in a version virtually identical to that sung today.

Subject: RE: Origins: Zebra Dunn
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 02:46 PM

First published by Thorp as "Educated Feller" in 1908. Fife and Fife list various titles given to "Educated Feller."
The Zebra Dun(n)
The Z-Bar Dun
The Tenderfoot
The Cowboy Victimized
The Stranger and that Dun Horse.

J. Frank Dobie wrote "John Custer, trail driver, told me that while he was on the Z-Bar-L ranch north of Big Spring in 80's a 'slim fellow wearing a little hat and not looking anything like a cowboy came into camp, asked for a job, and was given an outlaw to ride- one of the Z-Bar-L horses. 'Rode him to a fare-you-well.' Then the song started."
There are other stories.
P. 137, "Songs of the Cowboys," by N. Howard ("Jack") Thorp, variants, Commentary, Notes and Lexicon, by A. E. and A. L. Fife, Clarkson N. Potter, 1966, NY.
Thorp's complete "Songs of the Cowboys" is printed in facsimile in this detailed book. "Educated Feller" was on p. 27 of the original 1908 book.

Subject: RE: Origins: Zebra Dunn
From: frogprince
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 03:48 PM

(Oops: forgot I had switched to the other related thread, and put this there first.)
Don't look like we will really settle the authorship for sure, does it? Thanks, tho, guys, for the perspective and extra variations. If you punch "Zebra Dun" in a search, you'll find a number of breeders still offering them.
This is the chorus of a little somethin' which is set to pretty much the melody for "Roving Gambler"

O, Sing to me of Cowboys; I wish that I'd been one;
I'd ride the old strawberry roan,
And then the Zebra Dun...
And then the Zebra Dun.

Subject: RE: Origins: Zebra Dunn
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 04:46 PM

It ain't easy to pin down an author of a song that lacks tin pan alley copyrights, etc. One can pick the "most likely story"- and probably be wrong. Most likely all of the stories have been made up, either to entertain, or to put the singer's brand on an unbranded horse.

Subject: RE: Origins: Zebra Dunn
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 05:50 PM

Looked in Powder River Jack Lee's book, and found this (he was a great inventor of tales).
"Con Price, a Montana cowboy who of late has lived in California, was the broncho buster referred to in the song, "Zebra Dunn." He had been back East with a shipment of cattle and had some of his clothes stolen and on his return arrived at the cowcamp with a hard boiled hat and was lookin' for a job, so fooled all of the boys with the Circle S outfit, of New Mexico. Con was a great friend of Charlie Russell and was an all around bronc twister and had worked for some of the Bear Paw Pool outfits in Montana as well as with many others on the old cowtrails."
"Cowboy Songs, copyrighted 1938 by Powder River Jack Lee." The McKee Printing Company, Butte, Montana.

Subject: RE: Origins: Zebra Dunn
From: Stewie
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 07:16 PM

Slim Critchlow's only comment on this in his notes to 'Crooked Trail to Holbrook' [Arhoolie 479] is that 'John Lomax reports that this song was said to have been composed by an African American named Jake who worked for a ranch on the Pecos River belonging to George W. Evans and John Z. Means'.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Origins: Zebra Dunn
From: Stewie
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 07:27 PM

In the quote in my previous post the words 'camp cook' should appear before 'named Jake'. Since posting the above, I note Q mentions this Lomax story in his 'Lyr Add: Bowlegged Ike to Zebra Dun' thread. My apologies for the duplication.

--Stewie.

Subject: RE: Origins: Zebra Dunn
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 08:07 PM

Dane Coolidge, 1912, in the article "Cowboy Songs," Sunset Magazine XXIX, pp. 503-510, ascribed the song to Sam Roberts.

Several writers, including the Fifes (p. 136-137), say that "Bow-Legged Ike" "may well have been the "Educated Feller's" sire. This song was printed first in Doubleday, Russell, 1899, "Cattle Ranch to College," pp. 227-228, New York.
The author says "the song was first heard in Montana about 1875 from a horse wrangler named Curran." Curran "was of medium height, stoop-shouldered, and rather bow-legged from long contact with a horse's round body. He was awkward and stiff when afoot... "In the saddle ....seemingly a part of the beast he rode."
This song departs from the New Mexico treatment (Cimarron) in the song printed by Thorp.

More than one tune has been used for the song.

Subject: RE: Origins: Zebra Dunn
From: frogprince
Date: 20 Jan 05 - 08:55 PM

Well, we just pushed the date back 10 years or so from the previous references; fun stuff; appreciate it, Q.
                      Frogprince
                      (Dean)