Subject: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? From: Aerin Date: 27 Nov 98 - 01:18 PM My Grandma is from Montana and she and her sisters used to know all these songs, but one of them, she forgot all but the first verse. It goes like this: I come from Montana, I wear a bandana. My spurs are all silver, my pony is gray. While riding the ranges, my luck never changes. With foot in the sturrip, I gallop away. If anyone knows anymore of the words, I'd love to hear them. Thanks! |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? From: Alice Date: 27 Nov 98 - 02:13 PM Aerin, this is a little song I learned around kindergarten age, and my friends and I can only remember the words that you posted and no more. The tune is pretty much the same as "Molly Malone". alice in montana |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? From: rich r Date: 27 Nov 98 - 05:02 PM For whatever warped reason I remember: I come from Montana, my home's a banana, My spurs are of silver, My horse is a cow. Makes very little sense. rich r |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? From: Alice Date: 27 Nov 98 - 07:59 PM rich, that's funny!! "Movin' to Montana, soon, gonna be a dental floss tycoon...." alice |
Subject: Lyr Add: MY HOME'S IN MONTANA From: Joe Offer Date: 29 Nov 98 - 01:00 AM Here 'tis, straight from the Girl Scout Pocket Songbook, copyright 1956: MY HOME'S IN MONTANA Traditional U.S. Cowboy Song My home's in Montana, I wear a bandana My spurs are of silver, my pony is gray; When riding the ranges, my luck never changes, With foot in the stirrup I gallop away.
When far from the ranches, I cut the pine branches |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? From: Aerin Date: 29 Nov 98 - 11:45 AM thank you so much. My grandma remembered the rest of it after the 1st line! Very cool guys! thanks for your help! |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? From: Alice Date: 30 Nov 98 - 04:39 PM hey, thanks, Joe. I remember when I was little I thought for some reason the beans and bacon part was really funny. Thanks for posting that verse. |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? From: Date: 01 Dec 98 - 11:40 PM hey, i still think that parts kinda funny! |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? From: Joe Offer Date: 02 Dec 98 - 12:58 AM Well, I was trying really hard to have some class for once and make no comment about the beans and their whistling aftermath.... -Joe Offer- |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? From: Date: 03 Dec 98 - 09:53 PM Sure ya were! |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? From: Les B Date: 03 Dec 98 - 10:43 PM I believe there's one more verse (usually sung second) to be added to those supplied above: When valleys are dusty my pony is trusty, He lopes through the blizzards, the snow in his ears The cattle may scatter but what does it matter, My rope is a halter for pig-headed steers.
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Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? From: Alice Date: 04 Dec 98 - 12:52 AM Hey, thanks, Les. This is so weird to be reading the verses that I haven't heard since I was about 4 or 5 years old. It is strange how images are formed in a child's mind. Being pig-headed was always a saying that I knew, but to connect it to this song rings the bell that it was probably the first place that expression formed an image in my mind. I am seeing a rug-rat imagining a steer running around with a pig head. My main memory of this song is the word 'pony'. Of COURSE every child would fix on that. I envied the neighbor boy who had a big white horse named Dixie, which he boarded in our pasture along the Missouri River. |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? From: Joe Offer Date: 04 Dec 98 - 02:29 AM I looked in a number of songbooks, but I couldn't find anything about the history of this song. Can anybody tell us about it? It's not in any of the usual folk songbooks, and it's not in the vast songbook index of the U of Tennessee Knoxville. That leads me to believe it may not be an authentic cowboy song. I found it in the Girl Scout Pocket Songbook, so maybe it was sung by the early Girl Guides as they rode their trusty steeds. But enough of this levity, since Seed says humor is not part of my programming. Is there a story behind the song? -Joe Offer- |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? From: Alice Date: 04 Dec 98 - 10:28 AM Joe, my mom was raised on a homestead in Musselshell county (MT). Her dad played the fiddle and sang for dances that neighbors got together. Her dad had worked in mines and on the great lakes, and was a 'Red'. He knew a many songs of a wide ranging variety. She knew the song. I was pre-school age when I first heard it from her. Neither of us were in Girl Scouts. I am sure it is not just a Girls Scout song, although it can be found in thier songbook. I recently found an old notebook that she had filled with song lyrics, written in pencil, while she was in high school. She had to leave home to attend high school in Billings, and that is where she would have first had a home with electricity and a radio (the 30's). There are lyrics to songs she heard on the readio such as "When It's Lamp Lighting Time in the Valley", "Dinner for One Please James" "Roll Along Prairie Moon". I looked, but no "Home's In Montana". |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? From: Les B Date: 04 Dec 98 - 11:49 AM Sorry to dispel any illusions that this song is full blown traditional; I forgot to mention when I added the second verse (which we around here sing) that Glenn Ohrlin in his book of cowboy songs, "Hell Bound Train," says that the second & third verses were added to the first -- included by Margaret Larkin (?) in her book "Singin Cowboys" -- by a commercial company (Ginn, I believe, I'm at work and don't have any of these references handy)to be appealing to kiddies. The same way Coca Cola developed the image of Santa Claus in the red & white suit in the 1930's! But it's a good song anyway. |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? From: Dale Rose Date: 04 Dec 98 - 12:26 PM Darn, wish this had come up a couple of weeks ago. I was talking to Glenn Ohrlin, and could well have gotten the straight scoop from him. Don't know for sure when I will run into him next. |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? From: GaryD Date: 04 Dec 98 - 11:24 PM Speaking of Cowboy Songs, I'm still looking for yodeling... Check out my thread updated again today "Yodeling..." Any help is appreciated. Gary |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? From: Joe Offer Date: 05 Dec 98 - 03:21 AM No, Alice, I really don't think it got its start as a Girl Scout song. The Ditty Bag songbook (Janet Tobitt, 1946) says the words for "My Home's in Montana" are taken from Blending Voices of the World of Music series, 1936, and are used with the permission of Ginn & Company, owners of the copyright. but the darn thing doesn't tell the story of the song. -Joe Offer- |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? From: Aerin Date: 05 Dec 98 - 11:57 AM Wow. i never knew so much about this song. The 1930 thing makes since though, since my grandma was born in 1932. I'll ask her where she got it from later today, but it's too early here right now. |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? From: Alice Date: 05 Dec 98 - 12:08 PM hmmm.... Joe, I just called my 80 year old aunt to ask if she heard this song as a child. She didn't know it or remember ever hearing it. My mom probably learned it from listening to the radio. Detective work on the earliest recording? |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? From: Aerin Date: 05 Dec 98 - 02:16 PM My grandma said she either learned it from school or from her mom, because her mom knew it. And i don't think they had a radio either. All her cousin knew it to, but only the first verse. They said they'd find it for her, but they never could. |
Subject: Origins: My Home's in Montana From: Joe Offer Date: 13 Dec 98 - 03:05 AM I posted a question about this song at rec.music.folk and got a reply from Sam Hinton. Here's what he said: On Sun, Dec 06, 1998, joeoffer@my-dejanews.com (Joe Offer) wrote:Thanks, Sam. wish we could get you to visit us here every once in a while. -Joe Offer- |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? From: Lonesome Cowboy Date: 19 Apr 00 - 09:50 AM Wow! (Ask a simple question....) I'm enjoying this song more and more! |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? From: kendall Date: 19 Apr 00 - 10:31 AM This is incredible..every day when I wake, there is a song in my head. Today, yup, My Home's in Montana!! then I check the mudcat forum, and there it is.. what are the chances? |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? - My Home's In Montana From: GUEST,Mary Date: 08 Dec 03 - 05:05 PM My family LOVES when I sing this song in my Okie twang NOT....although I was born in Montana...I lived as an Okie for a very long time! |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? - My Home's In Montana From: GUEST,Mary Date: 08 Dec 03 - 05:13 PM BTW I have the 1956 girlscout pocket handbook and I can't find that song in there! |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? - My Home's In Montana From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 08 Dec 03 - 06:19 PM The Larkin (1931) version of "The Cowboy's Lament" was posted by Masato in thread 42786. This is the "My Home's in Montana" version. My home's in Montana A correction to Sam Hinton's letter. The first publication was in a privately printed little volume in 1908, by The News Print Shop, Estancia, New Mexico. The version printed in the bound volume, "Songs of the Cowboys," HM NY, 1921, was completely different and has become much better known according to the Fifes ("Songs of the Cowboys," N. Howard Thorp but much expanded by the Fifes, Clarkson N. Potter, publisher, 1966). |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? - My Home's In Montana From: GUEST,k. t. Date: 20 Jan 05 - 12:16 AM i am a highschool student at Billings Senior High School in MT, my family has lived in Montana since the Homstead Act. this song has always been a favorite of mine! i thought would mention that they still teach this song in Elementary School! along with "Git Along Little Doggies" "Clementine" and "M-O-N-T-A-N-A" (which how many other states can boast that almost everyone in their state knows their state song?)they also still teach the dance to the "Virginia Reel" i must say that even though we aren't a state stuck in the Wild West Days... we do have a lot of culture! i wouldn't have it any other way! i have enjoyed reading all these threads! |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? - My Home's In Montana From: Haruo Date: 20 Jan 05 - 03:05 AM Doggies, GUESTk t? I was taught "doggies" were "canines" and "dogies" were cattle. To rhyme, visually as well as aurally, with "stogies". Haruo |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? - My Home's In Montana From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 20 Jan 05 - 11:00 PM Dogie is preferred. Doggie appeared in several writings from the turn of the century and in a few song versions, but has disappeared. Also no longer used are dobie and dogy. Guest k. t., be thankful that "Montana" is a pretty good song. A really bad one, sung by no one, is "O Fair New Mexico" (my state song), written by a daughter of Pat Garrett (the guy who gunned down Billy Bonney). |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? - My Home's In Montana From: Tannywheeler Date: 21 Jan 05 - 12:15 PM Glenn Ohrlin sang this song at Newport one year --'64? Tw |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? - My Home's In Montana From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 21 Jan 05 - 02:14 PM Ohrlin's lyrics to "My Home's in Montana" and other lyrics to the song are posted in thread 42786: Home Montana |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? - My Home's In Montana From: GUEST,Ken Date: 06 Nov 05 - 06:58 PM Not sure if this question belongs here or in a new thread, but a dim childhood memory tells me when we "almost" finished singing MY HOME'S IN MONTANA with the lines: When I have partaken of beans and of bacon I whistle a merry old song of the trail. We sang and/or whistled an anticlimax sort of line to an entirely different tune: There's an old trail, winding o'er the prairie To that old girl [gal?] of mine. Does anyone know if this was a common ending or a part of a different song? Are there more lyrics that go with this line? And how can I find them? Since this is my first visit to this site and I'm unsure about practices, would it be against the rules to request a reply directly to retzerk@cox.net? If so, delete this paragraph when posting.
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Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? - My Home's In Montana From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 06 Nov 05 - 11:33 PM It is a different song, but at the moment my mind is grinding gears on "There's a long, long trail a-winding." If anyone knows the song Ken has a piece of, please post here as well as emailing. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Home's in Montana From: GUEST,Lola Date: 15 Jul 06 - 08:03 PM My home's in Montana, I wear a bandanna. My spurs are of silver. My pony is gray. Whatever the weather, we travel together, With foot in the stirrup, on gallop all day. We're up with the sun. There is work to be done. In the wind open spaces, that's where we would be. When far form the ranches, I chop the pine branches. Montana is home for my pony and me! And when to lay out a bed when the starlight is pale; And I have partaken of beans and of bacon I whistle a merry old song of the trail! I learned this at camp for all seasons and I'm not sure I got all the lyrics right but this is super close! |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Home's in Montana From: Alice Date: 16 Jul 06 - 08:59 AM Just, a note, even though it may belong to the family of Bard of Armagh/Laredo tunes, the song really sounds more like Molly Malone. It is now used as a sound track to a commercial that is being broadcast in the state. ALice |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Home's in Montana From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 16 Jul 06 - 05:30 PM Perhaps notes from thread 42786 should be amplified and repeated here: "My Home's in Montana" "Henry M. Halvorson, former editor-in-chief at Ginn and Company, told Judith McCullough that Christine Turner, who wrote many music lyrics for Ginn, paraphrased the words of Larkin's "The Cowboy Lament" for use in "Singing Days," World of Music Series, a one-book course designed for use in one-room rural schools. The song was included on the first of thirteen 78 rpm records pressed by Victor to accompany "Singing Days;" it was sung by Olive Kline, soprano, with piano accompaniment by Myrtle C. Eaver. "A. Larkin, pp. 14-15 (for the model on which Glenn's text was built). [This refers to the verses and music in Ohrlin's book] "[B.] Lingenfelter, pp. 426-27 (for the tune only). "C. Marguerite V. Hood, Glenn Gildersleeve, and Helen S. Leavett, "Singing Days," (Boston: Ginn & Co., 1936), p. 18. Janet E. Tobitt, "The Ditty Bag," (New York: Tobitt, 1946), p. 50. "D. Olive Kline (1935), "The Cowboy," Victor 25300. "E. Glenn Ohrlin, "The Hell-Bound Train," University of Illinois, Campus Folksong Club CFC 301. The text is transcribed in Austin E. Fife and Alta S. Fife, "Songs of the Cowboys by N. Howard ("Jack") Thorp" (New York: Clarkson N. Porter, 1966), p. 170. [NOTE: The song "My Home's in Montana" did not appear in either of Thorp's books, 1908 and 1921; it would not be written for another 15 years. The title of this rather scholarly study by the Fifes has mislead many who have not read their book]. "----, "Montana is My Home," Traditional Music in Newport, 1964, part 2, Vanguard VRS 79183." (end of quote). From Ohrlin, Glenn, 1973, "The Hell-Bound Train, a Cowboy Songbook," p. 246, Biblio-Discography, University of Illinois Press. In the text of the book, Ohrlin titled Ch. 1 "My Home's in Montana." He wrote: Among my very earliest memories are the Montana broncs my grandparents farmed with all through the thirties at Winger, Minnesota, in the Red River Valley of the North, where the northern prairies begin. Somewhere along in those years I learned this song, "My Home's in Montana," from my Aunt Irene .... and other neighbor kids who learned it in school from Ginn and Company songbooks. It was a favorite song and very common in that area. Boys from that country often went to the Dakotas and Montana to work with wheat harvests and some just naturally got a start on the cow and horse ranches in the same states.................... "Anyway, "My Home's in Montana" painted a vivid picture for us then and is still among my favorites." Because of its appearance in the school songbooks, and reprints in scout and other song books, it became known to children in both the United States and Canada, and in their minds, became a 'real' cowboy song. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Home's in Montana From: Cruiser Date: 17 Jul 06 - 11:00 AM I agree with Alice. As I wrote in a similar thread: Compare these 2 lines from each song: "Mussels and Cockels a-live a-live oh" and "With foot in the stirrup I'll gallop all day" The melodic contours are very close. Cruiser |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Home's in Montana From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 17 Jul 06 - 03:11 PM The variation in the music was pointed out by Dicho, 06 Jun 02 (and others), in thread 42786. The variant music is from Margaret Larkin, 1931 Knopf, 1963 Oak), "The Cowboy's Lament" pp. 30-31; Glenn Ohrlin (see citation above); Lomax and Lomax, 1938 "Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads," version 3 of the "Cowboy's Lament" (copied from Larkin without acknowledgement). The music was tweaked further by Christine Turner in "My Home's in Montana," for publication in Ginn's school songbook, and the four-line three-verse lyrics were written by her. Turner took only the first two lines from the Larkin model, since "shot in the bowels" was not suitable for a children's song book (although children appreciate gore). Digressing a bit, good folk singers vary their rendition according to the emphasis they wish to give to various points in the story. If one looks through printed versions of "The Cowboy's Lament" and "The Streets..." other variant music is found; e. g., the music of Powder River Jack Lee ("Cowboy Songs," 1938, pp. 82-83) for that line fits neither 'cockles and mussels' nor the usual "Streets..." music. "Wrapped in his wet blanket and cold as the clay," with 'blank-' sung to the highest note on the line (ugh!). There are many others depending on the effect desired. Cf. the effect in the first line- "As I walked out (high notes)- in the streets of Laredo" (sung to low notes) with that of "As I walked in the streets of Laredo (rising to 'in the' then gradually dropping to 'Laredo' (as sung by Jules Verne Allen, my preference). Not important, but where did the line "With foot in the stirrup I'll gallop all day" come from? The Ginn textbook, or scout song book or other? Ohrlin quotes the lyrics from the school songbook as "With foot in my stirrup, I gallop for aye." Has anyone got the Ginn songbook? The pony changes from gray to bay in some renditions. No one seems to have come up yet with "my pony is gay." |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Home's in Montana From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 17 Jul 06 - 04:26 PM The lyrics and music in the "Girl Scout Pocket Songbook," 1956, Joe Offer, above, are identical with those in the older "The Ditty Bag," 1946, Janet E. Tobitt, New York. The lyrics in the latter are marked to be sung "With a riding rhythm," p. 50). It has the melodic 'contours' noted by Cruiser. I haven't seen the Ginn and Co. school song book, so can't say if the melody is the same. The notes vary somewhat from those in Ohrlin, until line four, where the difference is marked. "With foot in the stirrup" descends from a high note and "I gallop away" is low. In Ohrlin, "With my foot in the stirrup" notes remain high with a hold on stirrup, and "I gallop for aye" is moderately low. The effect is quite different. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Home's in Montana From: GUEST,Bob Coltman Date: 18 Jul 06 - 05:40 AM I'm a happy puncher today as I've finally caught up with this and the related threads. (You'll find my query re an "I Am a Vaquero" variant in the threads listed at the top.) Only now have I lucked onto the followup from earlier -- if that makes any sense. Leading me to ask: Anyone know anything at all about the "I am a vaquero, I wear a sombrero" version that came out on record (I think) or at least on transcription disk, as I heard it on the radio in the 1940s? I'm wondering if it was just a knockoff of "My Home's in Montana" or had some separate existence. Bob |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Home's in Montana From: Cruiser Date: 18 Jul 06 - 10:25 AM Q: Thank you for your song research and detailed posts. I like to think of melodic motion (the correct musicological term) as contours instead; the peaks and valleys of notes as they undulate over the topography of the scales. Crusier |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Home's in Montana From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 18 Jul 06 - 11:44 AM Cruiser, it seems to be a good way of describing the flow of the music. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Home's in Montana From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 18 Jul 06 - 12:13 PM I remember the parody, "I am a vaquero," from a long time ago. I think I first heard it on a radio comedy show, but can't remember who sang it or the words beyond those you cite. At the time, there were several comedians who specialized in dialect humor- who was the one who ended his Mexican dialect sentences with "I theenk" ? All victim to so-called political correctness. Bob Coltman, you have been asking about the vaquero for a long time. Maybe someone will remember the words this time. |
Subject: Wanted the verse of From: GUEST,Bill Date: 21 Jul 06 - 10:32 PM [blank message] Click here for "Dinner for One"-Joe Offer- |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Home's in Montana From: Q (Frank Staplin) Date: 22 Jul 06 - 12:19 PM Guest Bill, I presume you mean the song by Nat King Cole or Frank Sinatra, not the traditional television play. I have opened a thread requesting it since it is lost here. |
Subject: ADD Version: MY HOME'S IN MONTANA From: GUEST,kt Date: 22 Sep 06 - 09:55 PM Here's the New England version: MY HOME'S IN MONTANA My home's in Montana, I wear a bandanna My spurs are of silver, my pony is gray When riding the ranges my luck never changes With foot in the stirrup I'll gallop for aye. When valleys are dusty, my pony is trusty He lopes through the blizzards, the snow in his ears, The cattle may scatter but what does it matter My rope is a halter for pig-headed steers. When far from the ranches I chop the pine branches To heap on my campfire as daylight grows pale, When I have partaken of beans and of bacon I whistle a merry old song of the trail. |
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: My Home's in Montana From: GUEST,ann Date: 13 Oct 06 - 02:25 PM isn't there a lyric: My home's in Montana, I left Indiana to start a new home way out in the woods my skin's tough as leather, my rough from the weather the blah blah blah blah from the land I love best I remember learning this from gradeschool, but can't find it anywhere. |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? - My Home's In Montana From: GUEST,deb Date: 23 Dec 06 - 11:13 AM Looks like this is an old thread, but thanks to all of you. My history with this song is anecdotal, coming from three of my father's sisters. In the late 30s, early 40s, their family traveled to a piece of property in Canada for the summers (though they were not rich, obviously they were VERY lucky). The car ride up was usually as much of an event as the summers on the farm. My dad was the only sone and as soon as they were in Montana, he would launch into his extremely monotone version of "My Home's in Montana". All of the recollections of these aunts were that this song was unbearably long, my dad was unbearably horrible and after one verse there would be a chorus of "Mom, Dad! Make him stop." To which my mischevious grandmother would reply "Let him sing it all the way through one time without interruption." This is something four older sisters could not accomplish as someone always groaned or protested so the next 100 miles would be an endless repeat of the first 5-6 lines. There are 2 of these aunts still with us on the earthly prairie, and the reason I'm seeking out these lyrics (so surprised to find out there are not 50 verses!) is that tonight, my brother and I are going to call them (they're together this Christmas) and I'm going to introduce my brother singing a traditional family "carol" at which point, he is going to launch into his equally-monotonal rendition of My Home's in Montana. Wonder how long it will take them to holler "STOP, please!" Thanks to all for the lively discussion. Deb |
Subject: RE: Lyrics- Cowboy Song? - My Home's In Montana From: kendall Date: 23 Dec 06 - 12:00 PM Guest kt, that's the version I got from a school book back in the 40s |
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