COWPUNCHER’S CANTATA
(Max Bygraves)

Max Bygraves

I travelled across to America
And when I arrived in America
They said, “Son, you know, you can’t go wrong
If you finish your show with a cowboy song”
So I practiced all day to get the song right
And I dreamed of those songs all through the night.

That night I heard the wild goose cry
He’d got mixed up with the riders in the sky
Tried to sleep, but it was in vain
Have you ever tried sleeping on a mule train

Iyyyyeeeeeeiiiiiiiiioooooooowwwww!

My heart goes where the mule train goes
And I must go where the mule train goes
Brother goose, mother goose, don’t you fear
‘Cos I’ve arrived, and to prove it I’m ‘ere.

Iyyyyeeeeeeiiiiiiiiiooooooooooooooooowwwww!
Aha, Yma Sumac?

The riders loped on by him, he heard one call his name
If you’re looking for the wild goose, he’s on the mule train
So cowboy mend your ways today, forget your life of sin
And you will be in time to meet the shrimp boats coming in

Oyoyoyoy, giddup there, go on old paint there, go on

My heart goes where the shrimp boats go
And I must go where the shrimp boats go
I’m gonna ride that dusty trail
‘Cos they’ve locked up my lover in Allentown jail

(Spoken)
You know this kinda reminds me of the first time I blew into Tombstone city. Yessir, that night I slept on the prairie and all night long those prairie dogs kept howlin’. I couldn’t understand why they kept howlin’, then I found out. Ain’t no trees on the prairie, jest cactus.

If ever the devil was born
Without a pair of horns
It was you, Sonny Boy.





(Contributed by Bill Huntley - May 2010)