Page 40
MARIAH By Alan Jay Lerner & Frekerick Lowe
C Am
Away out here they have a name
C Am
For rain and wind and fire.
C Am
The rain is Tess; the fire is Joe
F G C
And they call the wind Mariah.
C Am
Mariah blows the stars around
C Am
And sets the clouds a-flyin'
C Am
Mariah makes the mountains sound
F G C
Like folks were out there dyin'
Chorus
Am C F G C
Mariah, Mariah, they call the wind Mariah
Before I knew Mariah's name
Or heard her wailing-whinin'
I had a girl and she had me
And the sun was always shinin'
Then one day I left that girl
I left her far behind me
And now I'm lost, so doggone lost
Not even God can find me.
Chorus
Out here they have a name for rain, for wind
And fire only and when you're lost
And all alone, there ain't no word for lonely
Now I'm a lost and lonely man
Without a star to guide me
Mariah blow my love to me
I need my love beside me.
Chorus
Page 41
SONG OF WYOMING
C C7 F Fm
Well, I'm weary and tired, I've done my days ridin',
C Dm7-G7
Night time is rolling my way.
C C7 F Fm
The sky's all on fire, the light's slowly fading,
C G C
Peaceful and still ends the day.
Em Am Em C7
Out on the trail the night birds calling
F Fm C
Singing their wild melody.
Em Am Em C7
Down in the canyon, the cottonwoods whisper
F Fm C F-Fm-C
A song of Wyoming for me.
Well, I wandered around the town and the city,
Tried to figure the how and the why,
I've stopped all my scheming, I'm just drifting'
and dreamin',
And watching the river roll by.
Here comes that big old prairie moon rising,
Shining down as bright as can be,
High on a hill, there's a coyote singing
The song of Wyoming for me.
Now it's whiskey and tobacco and bitter black coffee
A lonesome old dogie am I
But waking up on the range, Lord, I feel like an angel,
I feel like I almost could fly.
Drift like a cloud out over the badlands
Sing like a bird in the tree,
The wind in the sage sounds like heaven, singing,
The song of Wyoming for me.
The song of Wyoming for me.
Page 42
ME AND MY UNCLE
audio example
(752 KB, .mp3)
Em
Me and my uncle went ridin' down
G Em
From Colorado, West Texas bound,
We stopped off, in Santa Fe,
G Am
It bein' part, just about half way
C D Em
And besides it was the hottest part of the day.
We led our ponies into a stall,
Went to the bar boys bought drinks for all,
Ten days in the saddle, you know my body hurt,
It bein' summertime, I took off my shirt,
And I tried to wash off some of that dust and dirt.
West Texas cowboys, they're all over town,
With gold and silver, ther're loaded down,
Just in from roundup, you know it seemed a shame,
And so my uncle, he starts a friendly game
Of High-Low Jacks and the winner takes the game.
Right from the start boys Uncle start to win,
West Texas cowboys, they's mad as sin,
Some say he's cheatin', Ah but that can't be,
Cause my Uncle, he's 'bout as honest as me.
One of them cowboys, he starts to draw,
I grabs a bottle, I cracked him on the jaw,
I shot another, he won't grow old,
And in the comfusion, my uncle grabs the gold,
And we high-tail it down to Mexico.
Well God Bless cowboys, and God bless gold,
God bless my uncle, God rest his soul,
He taught me well boys, he taught me all I know,
He taught me so well, that I grabbed that gold,
And I left my uncle dead my the side of the road.
Page 43
DESPERADO
Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
You've been out riding fences for so long now.
Oh, you're a hard one.
And I know that you got your reasons
But these things that are pleasing you
Will hurt you somehow.
Don't you draw the Queen of Diamonds, boy,
She'll beat you if she's able
You know the Queen of Hearts is always your best bet.
Now it seem to me some fine things have been laid upon
your table,
But you only want the ones that you can't get.
Desperado, oh, you ain't gettin' no younger
Your pain and your hunger, they're driving you on.
Your freedom, oh, freedom
Well, that's just some people talking
We're prisoners walking through this world all alone.
Don't your feet get cold in the winter time,
The sky won't snow, and the sun won't shine
It's hard to tell the nighttime from the day.
You're losin' all your highs and lows
Ain't it funny how the feeling goes ... away.
Desperado, why don't you come to your senses?
Come down from your fences-- open the gate.
It may be raining
But there's a rainbow above you.
You better let somebody love,
Before it's too late.
Page 44
THE STRAWBERRY ROAN
C G
I was loafin' around just spendin' muh time
G C
Out of a job and I hadn't a dime,
C F
When a feller steps up and sez he "I suppose
G
That yore uh bronc fighter by the looks o' yer clothes."
C G
Well I thought he was right and I told him the same,
G C
Then I asks has he got any bad ones to tame.
F
He says he has one a bad one tuh buck,
G C
And fur piling good cowboys he has lots uh luck.
Well I gets all excited and asks what he pays,
Tuh ride that old pony a couple uh days.
He offers ten dollars. Sez I "I'm yure man,
Fur the bronk never lived that I couldn't fan."
I don't like to brag but I got this tuh say,
That I ain't been throwed fur many a day.
Sez he git yur saddle I'll give yuh a chance,
So I gits in his buckboard and drifts tuh his ranch.
I stays until mornin' and right after chuck,
I steps out tuh see if that outlaw can buck.
He was down in the hoss corral standing alone,
A snake eyed outlaw, a strawberry roan.
His legs is all spavined he's got pigeon toes,
Little pig eyes and a long roman nose,
Little pin ears that touched at the tip,
An X.Y.Z. iron stamped on his hip.
Yew necked he is with a long lower jaw,
All the things that you'll see in a wild outlaw.
Well I puts on muh spurs I'm sure feelin' fine,
Turns up muh hat and picks up muh twine.
I dabs that loop on him and well I knows then,
That before he is rode I'll sure earn that ten.
I gets muh blinds on him it shore is a fight,
Next comes muh saddle I screws it down tight.
Then I gets on him I sez "Raise the blind,
Move out uv his way and les see him unwind."
Well he bows his old neck and I guess he unwound,
Fur he ain't spendin' much uv his time on the ground.
He turns his old belly right up to the sun,
He shore is a sunfishing sun-of-a-gun.
He goes up towards the east and comes down toward the west,
To stay on his middle I'm doin' muh best.
He is the worst bucker I sees on the range,
He could turn on a dime and give you back change.
He hits on all fours and turns up on his side,
I don't see how he keeps from sheddin' his hide.
I tell yuh, no foolin', that caballo can step,
I was still in my saddle, a buildin' some rep.
Away goes muh stirrups and I loses muh hat,
I'm grabbin' the apple and blind as a bat.
He shore is frog walkin' he heaves a big sigh,
He only lacks wings fur tuh be on the fly.
An while he's a bucking he squeals like a shoat,
I tell yuh that pony has shore got muh goat.
With a phenominal jump he kicks her in high,
And I'm settin' on nothin' way up in the sky.
And then I descends, I comes back to earth,
And I lights inta cussin' the day of his birth.
Then I knows that the hosses I ain't able tuh ride,
Is some uv them livin', they haven't all died.
And I bets all muh money that no man alive,
Can stay with that bronk when he makes the high dive.
Page 45
TUMBLING TUMBLEWEEDS
* In my copy of the songbook, this song has chords that are
marked in. They may or may not have come from the original copy. In any case
I've decided to put them in.
C C
See them tumbling down,
D
Nodding their heads to the ground,
C G
Lonely, but free I'll be found,
D G
Driftin' along with the tumblin' tumbleweeds.
Cares of the past left behind,
Nowhere to ride but I'll find,
Just where the trail will wind,
Driftin' along with the tumblin' tumbleweeds
D
I know when night is gone,
A D
There's a new world born at dawn,
C
Deep in my heart is a song,
D
Here on the range I belong,
C G
I'll keep rollin' along,
D G
Driftin' along with the tumblin' tumbleweeds.
HAPPY TRAILS TO YOU
Happy trails to you,
Until we meet again.
Happy trails to you,
Keep smilin' on till then.
Happy trails to you,
Till we meet again.
Page 46
THE COWBOY'S LAMENT
G C D7
As I walked out in the streets of Laredo,
G C G D7
As I walked out in Laredo one day,
G C G D7
I spied a young cowboy all wrapped in white linen
G C D G
All wrapped in white linen as cold as the clay.
"I see by your outfit that you are a cowboy"
These words he did say as I boldly walked by;
"Come sit down beside me and hear my sad story,
I'm shot in the breast and I know I must die.
'Twas once in the saddle I used to go dashing,
'Twas once in the saddle I used to go gay;
First down to Rosie's and then to the cardhouse;
Got shot in the breast and I'm dying today.
Get sixteen gamblers to handle my coffin,
Let six jolly cowboys come sing me a song
Take me to the graveyard and lay the sod o're me,
For I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong.
Get six jolly cowboys to carry my coffin,
Get six pretty maidens to sing me a song
Take me to the valley and lay the sod o're me.
For I'm a young cowboy and I know I've done wrong.
Oh, beat the drum slowly and play the fife lowly,
Play the death march as you carry me along;
Put bunches of roses all over my coffin,
Put roses to deaden the clods as they fall."
As I walked out in the streets of Laredo,
As I walked out in Laredo one day,
I spied a young cowboy all wrapped in white linen,
All wrapped in white linen as cold as the clay.
Page 47
BIG IRON
To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day
Didn't speak to folks around him, didn't have too much to say.
No one dared to ask his business, no one dared to make a slip
For the stranger there among them wore a big iron on his hip,
Big iron on his hip.
It was early in the morning when he rode into town,
He came riding from the south side slowly looking all around
He's an outlaw loose and running came the whisper from each lip
And he's here to do some business with the big iron on his hip
Big iron on his hip
In this town there lived an outlaw by the name of Texas Red
Many men had tried to take him and that many men were dead
He was vicious and a killer through, he used a forty-four
And the notches on his sixgun numbered one and nineteen more
One and nineteen more.
Now the stranger started talking, made it plain to folks around
Was an Arizona ranger wouldn't be too long in town
He was here to take an outlaw back alive and maybe dead
and he said it didn't matter, he was after Texas Red
After Texas Red.
Wasn't long before the story was relayed to Texas Red
But the outlaw didn't worry men who tried before were dead
Twenty men had tried to take him, twenty men had made a slip
Twenty-one would be the ranger with the big iron on his hip,
Big iron on his hip.
Now the morning passed so quickly it was time for them to meet
It was twenty passed eleven when they walked into the street
Folks were watching from their windows everybody held their breath
For they knew the handsome stranger was about to meet his death,
About to meet his death
There was forty feet between them when they stopped to make their play
And the swiftness of the ranger is still talked about today
Texas Red had not cleared leather when the bullet plainly ripped
And the ranger's aim was deadly with the big iron on his hip
Big iron on his hip.
It was over in a moment and the folks had gathered 'round
There before them lay the body of the outlaw on the ground
Well, he might have gone on living but he made one final slip
When he tried to match the ranger with the big gun on his hip
Big gun on his hip
Page 48
LONG BLACK VEIL
D A
Ten years ago on a cold, dark night, a stranger was
G D
killed 'neath the town hall light.
There were few at the scene, but they all did agree, that
A G D
the stranger who fled looked a lot like me.
The judge said, "Son, what is your alibi? If you were
somewhere else you won't have to die."
But I spoke not a word though it meant my life.
For I'd been in the arms of my best friends wife.
CHORUS
G D G D
She roams these hills in a long black veil.
G D G D
She visits my grave when the night winds wail.
D G D G A D
Nobody knows, nobody sees, nobody knows but me.
The scaffold's high and eternity's near.
She stood in the crowd and shed not a tear.
But sometimes at night, when the night winds moan.
She stands over my grave and cries over my bones.
CHORUS
LITLE JOE THE WRANGLER
(Chord Sequence #1)
C F C
Little Joe the wrangler will wrangle never more.
G
His days with the remuda they are o'er.
C F C
'Twas just about last April, when he joined our outfit here,
G
Just a little Texas stray and nothin' more.
C F C
'Twas long late in the evening he rode into our camp.
G
On a little Texas pony called Chaw.
C F C
With his brogan shoes and overalls, a tougher lookin' kid
G C
You never in your life before saw.
(Chord Sequence #2)
F C
His saddle was a Texas kack built many year ago.
G
And O.K. spur on one foot idly hung,
C F C
While his hot roll in a cotton sack so loosely tied behind
G C
And a canteen from the saddle horn was hung.
(Chord Sequence #1)
He said he'd had to leave his home, his Pa had married twice
And his new ma whopped him every day or two,
So he saddled up old Chaw one night and lit a shuck this way.
Said now it's time to paddle his own canoe.
(Chord Sequence #2)
Said he'd do the best he could if we'd only give him work,
Though he didn't know straight up about a cow.
So the boss he cut him out a mount and kinder put him on,
And we knowed he liked the little stray somehow.
(Chord Sequence #1)
We taught him to jingle the horses and to learn to know them all,
To get'em in by daybreak; if he could.
To follow the chuckwagon and to always hitch the team
And help the cocinero rustle wood.
(Chord Sequence #2)
We'd driven to the Pecos, the weather bein' fine.
We were camped down in the South side in a bend.
When a Norther commenced blowin' and we doubled up our gaurd
For it took all hands to hold the cattle then.
(Chord Sequence #1)
Little Joe the wrangler was called out with the rest
And scarcely had the little feller reached the heard
When the cattle they stampeded, like a hailstorm long they fled.
And all of us ridin' for the lead.
(Chord Sequence #2)
'Tween the streaks of lightening we could see a horse ahead.
'Twas Little Joe the wrangler, in the lead.
He was ridin' old Blue Rocket with his slicker o'er his head.
Tryin' to check the leaders in their speed.
(Chord Sequence #1)
We finally got them millin' and kinda quieted down,
And the extra guard back to camp did go;
But one of them was missing, and we knowed it at a glance
Twas our little Texas stray - poor Wrangler Joe
(Chord Sequence #1)
Little Joe the Wrangler will wrangle no more.
His days with the remuda are o'er.
'Twas just about last April he joined our outfit here,
Just a little Texas stray and nothin' more.
