Woody Guthrie- Buffalo Skinners

Here is a picture slideshow of the great Woody Guthrie (the second to last picture is Woody w/ Leadbelly, and the last one is Woody w/ Pete Seeger.) This song is off the Woody Guthrie compilation CD, "The Great Dust Storm" He tells the narrative so beautifully and harrowing...

Come all you old time cowboys,
And listen to my song,
Please do not grow weary,
I'll not detain you long.
Concerning some wild cowboys,
Who did agree to go,
Spend the summer pleasant,
On the trail of the Buffalo.
I found myself in Griffin,
In the spring of '83,
When a well known famous drover,
Came walking up to me.
Said, "How do you do, young fellow,
Well how would you like to go,
And spend the summer pleasant,
On the trail of the Buffalo?"
Well I being out of work right then,
To the drover I did say,
"Going out on the Buffalo Road,
Depends on the pay.
If you will pay good wages,
And transportation to and fro,
I think I might go with you,
On the hunt of the Buffalo."
"Of course I'll pay good wages,
And transportation too,
If you will agree to work for me,
Until the season's through."
But if you do get homesick,
And try to run away,
You will starve to death,
Out on the trail and also lose your pay."
Well with all his flattering talking,
He signed up quite a train,
Some 10 or 12 in number,
Some able bodied men.
The trip it was a pleasant one,
As we hit the westward road,
Until we crossed old Boggy Creek,
In old New Mexico.
There our pleasures ended,
And our troubles began.
A lightening storm hit us,
And made the cattle run.
Got all full of stickers,
From the cactus that did not grow,
And the outlaws watching,
To pick us off in the hills of Mexico.
Well our working season ended,
And the drover would not pay,
If you had not drunk too much,
You are all in debt to me.
But the cowboys never had heard,
Such a thing as a bankrupt law,
So we left that drover's bones to bleach,
On the Plains of the Buffalo.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Woody
• Guthrie
• Buffalo
• Skinners
• The
• Great
• Dust
• Storm
• Leadbelly
• Pete
• Seeger
• Folk
• Music

[MechanicalBirdy]

oh yes, I have a few vinyls with them playing together! If you have any Woody Guthrie lps, listen closely, and you might hear him (Ledbelly that is...)

[trollfinger]

I remember I was about 12 and my mother bought my brother a Woody vinyl in this really old record market. I thought it looked so old and cool, now I have hundreds of lps of different musicians because of that one act.

[MechanicalBirdy]

Awesome....right on, friend. I love my vinyl collection, as well.

[wasabihansen]

"mexico" by beck is inspired by this song

[stanleysoldman]

great tune!

[norristerse]

"if you do get homesick

and try to run away

you'll starve to death out on the trail

and also lose your pay"

-wonderful gallows humour. i wonder if woody guthrie had ever read harry graham's "ruthless rhymes for heartless homes"?

"making toast by the fireside

nurse fell in the grate and died

and to make things ten times worse

all the toast was burnt with nurse"

[4l4ddin77]

@j43ms

no prob. type in "woody guthrie and leadbelly" on youtube. theres a couple tracks available.

[j43ms]

@4l4ddin77

thanks for info!

i'd like to hear what they did

[4l4ddin77]

@j43ms

they recorded together

[j43ms]

great picture of woody with leadbelly. i didn't know they'd ever met