And it is arguably fake (Bob Nolan wrote it in 1936; he had been an itinerant laborer, but may not have worked as a cowboy per se; mostly he was a showbiz guy).
But now that you have mentioned it, "Cool Water" seems to inhabit a different universe than all the jolly, range-ridin' cowpokes in the other songs. It's a place where desperate men and desperate mules are struggling for survival, fighting temptation, praying for help, and taking hope from wistful visions (or are they hallucinations?) of a Big Green Tree somewhere.
Its language is over-the-top by the standards of our generation (which is perhaps why it is nearly always sung ironically, these days) but yeah, it's haunting.
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And it is arguably fake (Bob Nolan wrote it in 1936; he had been an itinerant laborer, but may not have worked as a cowboy per se; mostly he was a showbiz guy).
But now that you have mentioned it, "Cool Water" seems to inhabit a different universe than all the jolly, range-ridin' cowpokes in the other songs. It's a place where desperate men and desperate mules are struggling for survival, fighting temptation, praying for help, and taking hope from wistful visions (or are they hallucinations?) of a Big Green Tree somewhere.
Its language is over-the-top by the standards of our generation (which is perhaps why it is nearly always sung ironically, these days) but yeah, it's haunting.