On The Trail of the Buffalo Traditional - Alan Lomax - also by Woody Guthrie Come all you old time cowboys and listen to my song Please don’t grow worry, I’ll not detain you long Concerning some old cowboys who did agree to go To spend a pleasant summer on the trail of the buffalo It happened late one season in the spring of '53 One morning came a drover awoke and up to me Said: Howdy, young fellow! How would you like to go To spend a pleasant summer on the trail of the buffalo I’m out of employment to that drover I did say Going’ out on that buffalo trail depends upon the pay If you will pay good wages, transportation to and fro I think I’ll go along with you on the trail of the buffalo Yes I’ll pay, he said, good wages and transportation too If you agree to work for me until the season through But if you do get homesick can’t you try to run away You’ll start to death out on the trail and also lose your pay Twas by his gift of flattery, got enlisted quite a train Some ten or twelve in number, strong and able-bodied men Our trip it was a pleasant one, over the roads we had to go Till we crossed ol’ Buggy Creek in ol’ New Mexico There was pleasure, indeed, then our troubles all began A lightnin’ storm had hit us, all cattle flew and ran And I got all full of stickers from the cactuses there do grow And outlaws watched to pick us off in the hills of Mexico Well, I worked a long hard season, but the drover would not pay You’ve drunken to much whisky, you’re all in debt to me But bankrupt law among cowboys, I tell you will not go So we left that drover’s bone to bleach on the plains of the buffalo And now we’ve crossed ol’ Buggy Creek and homeward we are bound No more in that cursed country will ever we be found Go home to our wives and sweethearts, tell others not to go To that God-forsaken country in the hills of Mexico     alles-uke.de