I've been working on parodies of three cowboy songs for the past few weeks. I'm still tweaking one, so here are two for now.
The Warrior’s Lament
(sung to the tune of the traditional western song
The Cowboy’s Lament aka
The Streets of Laredo)
As I walked out on the banks of And
uin,
As I walked near the Great River one day
I spied a young warrior arrayed in his armour,
Arrayed in his arms in a boat he did lay.
Chorus:
“Oh, beat the drum slowly and sound the horn lowly,
Sing a lament as you send me along.
Send me to the great blue Sea; there gulls will watch o’er me;
I’m a young warrior and I know I’ve done wrong.”
“I see by your outfit that you are a Ranger,”
These words he did say as I slowly drew nigh.
“Come sit down beside me and hear my sad story,
Got shot in the breast and I knew I must die.”
“Go say to my father, I loved him, my father.
I did this for him,” then the poor warrior said.
Then in an instant the vision had left me,
I stood still in mourning – my brother was dead.
Chorus:
“Oh, beat the drum slowly and sound the horn lowly,
Sing a lament as you send me along.
Send me to the great blue Sea; there gulls will watch o’er me;
I’m a young warrior and I know I’ve done wrong.”
~
At this
site you can listen to free RA Preview of instrumental version of
The Streets of Laredo (
The Cowboy’s Lament) played by folk guitarist Jim Hendricks. Just scroll down to find it. (You can hear the Celtic roots of the melody.)
The lyrics have many variations. Here are a couple versions:
Thom Stark’s revised lyrics (& song history)
Lyrics from
Teddy Blue’s Bunkhouse are similar to those I referred to. My ref. had only the first 2 verses & last verse with chorus as shown here.
----------
The Three Hunters
[Sung to the TV theme song
Annie Oakley by Fred Wise and Ben Weisman, © 1958 Charles N. Daniels, copyright renewed 1986 Blen Music Publishing Co. (ASCAP)/Erica Music Publishing Co. (ASCAP)]
I can hit an orc’s eye far away or nigh,
Play, in Helm’s Deep, Uruk-counting games.
I can walk on snowdrifts; distant horses I can spy;
Legolas Greenleaf is my name.
They call me Lego Greenleaf,
Lego, Lego Greenleaf,
Prince of Northern Mirkwood,
With an ‘Ai! Noro lim!’ and a twang, twang, twang
My ridin’ and my shootin’ are real good.
I dig all the gemstones glitt’ring underground -
How the mithril glimmers in moonbeams.
So won’t you come and join me, you’ll love deep Aglarond,
And Gimli Gloin’s son is my name.
They call me Gimli Gloin’s son,
Gimli, Gimli Gloin’s son,
Dwarf
above all of the rest,
I shout ‘Hey! Whoa there!’; my axe rang, rang, rang;
Horse ridin’ and
tree-cuttin’ aren’t my best.
When a gang of Nazgûl stab Frodo at night,
Or Mithrandir falls with Udûn’s Flame,
I’m the one they call on to try to set things right,
And Elfstone, Strider are my names.
They call me Elfstone, Strider,
Aragorn and Estel,
King of Men of the West,
With a Sword Reforged ringin’ clang, clang, clang
My healin’ and sword fightin’ are the best.
They call me Elfstone, Strider,
Aragorn and Estel,
King of Men of the West.
~
If you would like to hear the original song, send me a Private Message. I've not found any website that has posted the song. But I have requested the theme from one of a few sites that will e-mail a file. When I get it, I can e-mail it to you or direct you to the website and you can request it yourself.
[ March 12, 2003: Message edited by: Lostgaeriel ]
As it turns out, the theme they sent me was the opening to the TV show but sans the song. The song, sung by Gail Davis, is on
The Cowboy Album, a 1992 compilation by Kid Rhino (a label of Rhino Records Inc.)