The Very Best Fake Cowboy Song

[beamjockey]

What's the best fake cowboy song? "Jingle Jangle Jingle?" "Don't Fence Me In?" "Wah-Hoo?" Some other song?

"Jingle Jangle Jingle," also known as "I've Got Spurs That Jingle Jangle Jingle," Joseph J. Lilley and Frank Loesser, 1942.
Lyrics.

"Don't Fence Me In," by Cole Porter and Robert Fletcher, 1934. Lyrics.

(Bonus: Trigger kisses Roy Rogers.)

"Wah-Hoo," by Cliff Friend, 1936. Lyrics.

Until recently I didn't care for the highly-earwormy "Wah-Hoo," but then I discovered the Hoosier Hotshots' cover of the song, and it's growing on me.

Comments

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

On the second video: thanks for the trigger warning.

[seawasp]

Ouch. I have to say neigh to that.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Wish I'd said that!

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Cool, Clear Water.

Makes no sense whatever but it's haunting.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

It's a great song.

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.

[seawasp]

What do you mean by "fake cowboy song"? A song not written by actual cowboys?

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

Let's say it's a song that you feel is a fake cowboy song. Or we could take a page from Damon Knight's playbook, and say that "A Fake Cowboy Song is one I'm pointing to when I say 'This is a Fake Cowboy Song.'"

[seawasp]

Well, it's a real song about cowboys, but they're nothing like what real cowboys were like, so I'd say "Big Iron". Fallout New Vegas made it a frickin' earworm.

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

I always have trouble taking that one seriously, since I keep picturing a cowboy with, you know, a big iron on his hip.

[acmespaceship.livejournal.com]

All excellent fake cowboy songs indeed. But my all-time favorite is a faux-recreation of the ultimate fictional archetype: http://www.ukulelejim.net/2007/04/the-cowboy-song/

Also, Long Tall Texan.

Giddyup.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Happy Trails.

[daisy-knotwise.livejournal.com]

Ragtime Cowboy Joe.

GHR

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

That one goes even further into silliness than "I'm an Old Cowhand."

[daisy-knotwise.livejournal.com]

Well, then...
How 'bout Tumblin' Tumbleweeds?

GHR

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

I fear you misunderstand. Silliness is no reason to reject a song from the canon of Great Fake Cowboy Songs, and "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" is a fine example. My mental ideal of a Fake Cowboy Song is one written in Brooklyn, which RCJ suits.

"Tumbling Tumbleweeds" is by Bob Nolan, the same guy who gave us "Cool Water." It's such a good cowboy song that I almost hate to acknowledge its fakeness-- but as Nolan was reportedly working as a caddy in Los Angeles when he wrote it, let's allow it!

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

Also, and I believe this deserves a separate comment, thank you for "Wahoo." It's an old old earworm of mine, old enough that I didn't know exactly what it was. And now I do!

[beamjockey.livejournal.com]

You're welcome. But sorry about the earworm curse.

[peteralway.livejournal.com]

But this is the definitive rendition of "Don't Fence Me In" :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjijoh5FJ9g

[stickmaker.livejournal.com]

>Until recently I didn't care for the highly-earwormy "Wah-Hoo," but then I discovered the Hoosier Hotshots' cover of the song, and it's growing on me.

So instead of being an internal parasite, it's now an external one. ;-)

I nominate "Ghost Riders in the Sky."