I'm religious but I've been a cowboy too before I got stove up. I say this is a religious song and that cowboys ain't to be messed with. I haven't sung this song but I have done many others including "When the Work's all done this fall". I miss my old buddies.
I agree, I’ve cowboyed over sixty five years but it finally crippled me but if I had it to do again I would have done it over. I can’t believe anyone would pay you to have that much fun!
When you hear an elite pro sing one of his core repertoire, it is amazing how he ALWAYS ends up exactly where he needs to be at the end of the measure and bar. Amazing. MMM is a legend in all sorts of venues, but when he has this kind of easy comfort in a song, it makes it possible to hear it in a setting that looks like it could be "in the Sierra peaks!" (Sierry Petes) A pleasure indeed.
Thank you Michael for this song and background information. Did anyone else noticed how the oldtimer cleaning his Winchester looks like Richard Farnsworth the actor?
Oh dear....the tune just ain't right to my ears. I've been singing this song since 1969 or so and my father-in-law (Ted Edmundson), who grew up in Prescott in the 1930s, has sung it since then. We both sang it for Gail in his house on Gurley St along about 1985 (as I recollect) or so not too long before Gail died. While this was composed as a poem and hence did not have a tune originally, the melody that arose in Prescott was certainly the one Gail hummed when we sang it. On the seago, according to Gail, that is a hemp rope, so when Sandy Bob threw it down, he threw his rope down, not a bedroll. The term "they then sets up and turns her around and goes her the other way" is what cowboys do to slide a horse to a stop and turn her around...presumably so they work their way back up the bars on Whiskey Row from the Depot House - as Gail explained. You can search me out on RU-vid if you want me to sing it for you. Scot Thompson
Appreciate your input. Mr. Gardner and my Dad were friends in Smoki. He was gruff with kids full of nonsence so my sister and I always shied away from him. But we did like him and were fascinated with the eye patch...Wendell Freeman
They taken their ponies and a dog or two for a “rodear” camp last fall. Rodear is the Spanish word “to gather up”. Arizona has its own cowboy lingo.. the original says “he threw his Seago down”. A seago was a rope from the northeast that was used by whalers to attach to a harpoon. It was ordered by the bulk to make “la riata”, or “lariet” for cowboys.
Michael Martin Murphy isn't bad, but my favorite version of this song is by Bob Atcher. Gail Gardner of Prescott, Arizona wrote the original poem in 1917 and it was set to music by Bill Simon in 1919. The Sierry Petes are the Sierra Prieta, a mountain range just west of Prescott.
