Very enjoyable! Thanks Batgirl.
It is time to feed the cats....
Out on the Western Plain
Sort:
batgirl te reporte por mala te rindes
Jun 22, 2021
0
#6
@BrunoRivera13 seems dissatisfied for some reason. Maybe it loses something in the translation?
Jun 23, 2021
0
#7
Pretty funny, all these people recording the song, and not a real cowboy in the bunch. I guess we'll have to get George Strait to record it.
Jun 23, 2021
0
#9
batgirl wrote:
Ian Tyson (of Ian and Sylvia) is a real cowboy.
Good to know! :-)
Edit - I just read Ian's Wikipedia bio. Among other songs he wrote for other singers, he co-wrote Navajo Rug. Now every time I hear Jerry Jeff Walker's version of Navajo Rug, I'll think of Ian.
One of the lesser known important figures in the American Folk Revival is Moe Asch. Ironically enough considering the subject of this posting, Asch's interest in folk and ethnic music began in the mid 1920s when he happened upon John Lomax's (Alan Lomax's father) book (also with irony in a bookstore in Paris), "Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads." Asch, who had started recording ethnic music, especially Yiddish, for radio, eventually opened Asch Records around 1940. Under that umbrella he recorded many new artists such as Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger and Huddie Ledbetter. Asch Records went belly up in 1945 but in 1948 Asch restructured and reopened his business (officially under his secretary's name) as Folkway Records. Folkway preserved tons of music, leaving the entire catalogue to the Smithsonian.
It was in October of 1943 when Huddie Ledbetter (better known as Lead Belly or Leadbelly) went to Asch Records to record a series of songs, on a set 78 rpm 12" discs, called "Negro Folk Songs as Sung by Leadbelly." One of the songs in that collection was titled, "Out on the Western Plain." This song is the one I decided to explore.
In his rendition of the song, James Taylor called it a "cowboy fantasy" and it's certainly a distortion of the West, but that might even add something to it's appeal. At any rate, judging from the number of covers I've found, it's proved to be a fairly popular song.
Here are two versions by Lead Belly. The first is the original from Smithsonian Folkways and the second came later:
The first cover I've uncovered was a sanitized version by a group called The Limelighters in 1964. The Limelighters are best known for their song, "Baby, the Rain Must Fall." They called it, "When I Was a Cowboy (Cow Cow Yicky Yicky Yea)."
The under-appreciated blues singer Lisa Kindred put out a much better version in 1965
In 1966 Ian and Sylvia released the version, this one titled "When I Was a Cowboy," I first heard and the one I still think is the best:
Later that year John Denver did a so-so cover:
The next year the Jim Kweskin Jug Band, featuring Maria Muldaur on vocals, did a nice cover:
There are dozens and dozens of covers -too many for a very complete list. But below are several more, including the one by James Taylor mentioned above.
Happy Traum :
Frank and Allie Lee:
James Taylor:
Rory Gallagher
Well, it's time to feed go the horses.....