Song Lyric Sunday

This week Jim Adams has asked us to pick a song about the American West, or one that mentions cowboys, a sheriff, an outlaw, horses, cactus, or tumbleweeds. In honor of the 145th anniversary of the Gunfight at the OK Corral. I have a few to offer up today.

Cowboy Take Me Away

Is it true that the old “Calgon, take me away” ads inspired the Chicks’ song Cowboy, Take Me Away? Why yes, yes it did.

From songfacts.com:

Martie Maguire (then Martie Siedel), wrote this song with Nashville songwriter Marcus Hummon about her sister and bandmate Emily Robison’s boyfriend, Charlie. On the VH1 show Storytellers, Martie stated, “[Emily] had been dating a bunch of guys I didn’t approve of, and then she met Charlie and I sort of pictured him whisking her off into the sunset.”

Emily and Charlie eventually married in 1999, the same year the single dropped, but divorced in 2008. Emily married musician Martin Strayer in 2013

I’ve told this story before, but when the Chicks were first hitting the scene, I loved their sound. However, I thought it was too traditional sounding to be big on the radio. One day, while sitting in out station shuttle, the Chicks were walking outside. My buddy said, “Hey, let’s go say hello.” I was tired and figured they would be a flash in the pan. Boy, was I wrong! I regret not getting out to take a photo with them.

I said, I wanna touch the earth
I wanna break it in my hands
I wanna grow something wild and unruly
I wanna sleep on the hard ground
In the comfort of your arms
On a pillow of blue bonnets
In a blanket made of stars
Oh, it sounds good to me

I said, cowboy take me away
Fly this girl as high as you can into the wild blue
Set me free, oh, I pray
Closer to heaven above and closer to you
Closer to you

I wanna walk and not run
I wanna skip and not fall
I wanna look at the horizon and not see a building standing tall
I wanna be the only one for miles and miles
Except for maybe you and your simple smile
Oh, it sounds good to me
Yes, it sounds so good to me

Cowboy take me away
Fly this girl as high as you can into the wild blue
Set me free, oh, I pray
Closer to heaven above and closer to you
Closer to you

I said, I wanna touch the earth
I wanna break it in my hands
I wanna grow something wild and unruly
Oh, it sounds so good to me

Cowboy take me away
Fly this girl as high as you can into the wild blue
Set me free, oh, I pray
Closer to heaven above and closer to you
Closer to you
Closer to you
Cowboy take me away
Closer to you

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Marcus Hummon / Martha Maguire

Cowboy Take Me Away lyrics © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Universal Music Publishing Group

Beer For My Horses

Next it is a hit duet with Toby Keith and Willie Nelson. It was the first time Toby and Willie had done a duet together, and writer Scotty Emerick tells this story about their first meeting: “We got on his bus and played him ‘Beer For My Horses.’ That’s the first time we ever met him. And we told him we had an idea, we had a song we wanted to do a duet with him. So we just met him on his bus and hung out all night, and played him songs. And he’s so nice, he said, ‘Sure.’ Then it just all fell into place.“

“When I was a kid I worked for a rodeo company,” says Toby on his website. “The old timers who worked the stock and stuff in the back would carry a pint of whiskey in their pocket – they were just old cowboys. They would pull it out and say, ‘Here’s to me, here’s to you, we got screwed, so screw you, here’s to me.’ They always had some little toast. One was to hold up the bottle for a drink and say, ‘Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses.’ I kept that in my head a long time thinking I’d write it some day. We did finally, trying to say that maybe it’s time that justice gets back into the judicial system. The big posse goes out and catches the bad guys and everybody comes back to lick their wounds, remember the ones they lost and celebrate with the ones that made it back. You raise your glass and say, ‘Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses, bartender.’ One of those conceptual deals. Soon as we got done writing it I thought man, it’d be cool if we could talk Willie Nelson into singing the Texas verse on that. Obviously he went for it and I think it’s the biggest multi-week #1 either of us ever had.

I had this title forever, and when Scott Emerick came up with a neat little melody lick, the two just went hand-in-hand. The song was written prior to September 11th. It’s about justice, but more so about the law of the Old West. It truly depicts how I feel about our justice system today.”

The song was a #1 hit!

Well a man come on the 6 o’clock news
Said somebody’s been shot, somebody’s been abused
Somebody blew up a building, somebody stole a car
Somebody got away, somebody didn’t get too far, yeah
They didn’t get too far

Grandpappy told my pappy, back in my day, son
A man had to answer for the wicked that he done
Take all the rope in Texas find a tall oak tree
Round up all them bad boys, hang them high in the street
For all the people to see

That justice is the one thing you should always find
You got to saddle up your boys, you got to draw a hard line
When the gun smoke settles we’ll sing a victory tune
And we’ll all meet back at the local saloon
We’ll raise up our glasses against evil forces singing
Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses

We got too many gangsters doing dirty deeds
Too much corruption, and crime in the streets
It’s time the long arm of the law put a few more in the ground
Send ’em all to their maker and he’ll settle ’em down
You can bet he’ll set ’em down

‘Cause justice is the one thing you should always find
You got to saddle up your boys, you got to draw a hard line
When the gun smoke settles we’ll sing a victory tune
We’ll all meet back at the local saloon
And we’ll raise up our glasses against evil forces singing
Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses
Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses

You know justice is the one thing you should always find
You got to saddle up your boys, you got to draw a hard line
When the gun smoke settles we’ll sing a victory tune
And we’ll all meet back at the local saloon
And we’ll raise up our glasses against evil forces singing
Whiskey for my men, beer for my horses
Singing whiskey for my men, beer for my horses

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Scott Emerick / Toby Keith

Beer for My Horses lyrics © Concord Music Publishing LLC, Songtrust Ave, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Tko Artist Management, Tokeco Tunes

Ringo

Finally, we go back to 1964 for a good story song. It is reminiscent of those great “epic” songs like El Paso by Marty Robins. It was a #1 song for Lorne Green – yes, that Lorne Green – Ringo.

“Ringo” was written by Don Robertson and Hal Blair. The song’s sole sung lyric is performed by a male chorus while the verses are a spoken-word, first-person account of a Western lawman and his friendship with a notorious gunfighter, known only as Ringo. Greene described the song as about “Johnny Ringo” the outlaw”, though the account in the song differs from Ringo’s life. The song’s spoken word format (with a chorus intoning the title of the song) had been used to great effect in 1961 for Jimmy Dean’s Big Bad John.

When it was released as a single, the “B” side of the disc contained a vocal version of the theme song of Greene’s TV show Bonanza with lyrics that were never used on the show. Like “Bonanza”, “Ringo” began as a track on Greene’s Welcome to the Ponderosa album in late 1963. On the album each track was supplemented with an introduction to each song, separately tracked, though these introductions were left off of the single releases.

Greene said the song was written as a typical western ballad. Given his fame on “Bonanza”, he had asked the two songwriters to come up with a song that fit in with his persona on that show. He also acknowledged that some teens who bought the record were probably expecting it to be about Beatles drummer Ringo Starr (even though it was never about him and it was recorded before they became popular in the United States) and believed that after listening to it, they would not be disappointed that the song was actually about a western outlaw.

He lay face down in the desert sand
Clutching his six-gun in his hand
Shot from behind, I thought he was dead
But under his heart was an ounce of lead
But a spark still burned so I used my knife
And late that night I saved the life of Ringo

I nursed him till the danger passed
The days went by, he mended fast
Then from dawn till setting sun
He practiced with that deadly gun
And hour on hour I watched in awe
No human being could match the draw of Ringo

One day we rode the mountain crest
And I went east and he went west
I took to law and wore a star
While he spread terror near and far
With lead and blood he gained such fame
All through the West they feared the name of Ringo

I knew someday I’d face the test
Which one of us would be the best
And sure enough the word came down
That he was holed up in the town
I left the posse out in the street
And I went in alone to meet Ringo

They said my speed was next to none
But my lightning draw had just begun
When I heard a blast that stung my wrist
The gun went flying from my fist
And I was looking down the bore
Of the deadly .44 of Ringo

They say that was the only time
That anyone had seen him smile
He slowly lowered his gun and then
He said to me “We’re even, friend”
And so at last I understood
That there was still a spark of good in Ringo

I blocked the path of his retreat
He turned and stepped into the street
A dozen guns spit fire and lead
A moment later, he lay dead
The town began to shout and cheer
Nowhere was there shed a tear for Ringo

The story spread throughout the land
That I had beaten Ringo’s hand
And it was just the years, they say
That made me put my guns away
But on his grave they can’t explain
The tarnished star above the name of Ringo

Source: LyricFind

Songwriters: Don Robertson / Hal Blair

Ringo lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Payday Music Publishing, Royalty Network, Songtrust Ave, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Publishing Group, Warner Chappell Music, Inc

Sources: Songfacts.com, wikipedia

Thanks again to Jim Adams for hosting such a fun feature to participate in.