HILL BILLY WILLIE
(Harry Gifford / Fred Cliffe)

as recorded by George Formby
April 2nd 1939


Ride 'em cowboy, yippee!

Give me the wild wild woolly west,
The wild open spaces too,
Breaking the track
On a bony hack
Who lost one leg at Waterloo!
With a gun in a holster
And a pillow and a bolster,
And a mattress and enamelled what's-a-name,
I'm Hill Billy Willie from the Cowheel Range,
Ridin' across the Wigan Plain!

When I'm tired of the saddle
I get off the horse and paddle,
Then I get a cheap return and catch the train.
I'm Hill Billy Willie from the Cowheel Range,
Ridin' across the Wigan Plain!

With a feather duster on the bronco's tail,
We can swish away the flies, yeah man!
We gallop backwards up and down the trail
To keep the dust out of our eyes!
Once a moll got me guessin'
And with me she started messin',
Now me covered wagon now is not the same,
Because I'm Hill Billy Willie from the Cowheel Range,
Ridin' across the Wigan Plain!

Saloon bars I stick up,
All the fag ends then I pick up,
And the drinks they leave behind I quickly drain!
I'm Hill Billy Willie from the Cowheel Range,
Ridin' across the Wigan Plain!

All the cattle, I lasso 'em,
Then I cut 'em up and chew 'em,
And I sell the skins for fourpence down the main, yeah man!
I'm Hill Billy Willie from the Cowheel Range,
Ridin' across the Wigan Plain, yippee!

With a feather duster on the bronco's tail,
We can swish away the flies, yeah man!
We gallop backwards up and down the trail
To keep the dust out of our eyes!
There's a dame, she's got some daughters,
They've got lovely big hindquarters,
And their ups and downs are nearly twice the same.
They fall for Hill Billy Willie from the Cowheel Range,
Ridin' across the Wigan Plain!

Yippee!




(Transcribed by Peter Akers - November 2018)