♫ I'm Bound to Follow the Longhorn Cows

History, Context & Spectrum

I’m Bound to Follow the Longhorn Cows is a traditional song that I know very little about. The only version I have ever heard is Alan Lomax’s. The song itself reflects humbleness and how the writer accepts how much following the longhorn cows costs to his life and how he’s bound to do it. But most importantly how happy he is by doing so. It pierces me how easily one gets out of track in life by little stimuli, and this song represents the simplest and cruellest way of accepting what we’re bound to.

It isn’t clear how far from one’s self humbleness people may travel. You will find yourself lost in dreaming for greatness. Ah, what the fuck. I’m having what some may call a crisis of faith. Perhaps a middle-aged one? No fucking clue. What’s funny in all of this is that ever since the accident life has turned into a failed junction of stalactites and stalagmites. Growing separately waiting to an impossible merge. I’m always looking for something new instead of working on what I have, academic wise. I think I missed my exams registration because I was going under surgery and what troubles will it cause me now? I’m very apathetic towards my goals in general.

I have been humbled by this lack of confidence all my life. I don’t think I show these flaws in my personality to anyone, it’s not like people want to see them. People want confident and standardized beauties. That’s what they look for, not bums with an extreme lack of confidence. And sometimes you will feel like you’re bound to the likes of your passion, let’s say you love to work with computers and you dedicate all your life to that, but as soon as you deepen your knowledge you find yourself lost in it. I love to work with them. I do it professionally, and I put the effort into learning something new every single day. But I’m not the best, neither I will ever be. I’m not bound to greatness. I’m bound to peacefully work on my garden and in those who need my hands. To riot towards a better world.

But I have a greater passion with which I have not found peace yet. To express ideas, in any form. Well, to write is my favourite one, and people tell me I’m quite good at it. But I know my writing isn’t good. It can be nice sometimes, but that’s context-based. I lack experience, I lack the will and the talent, but I’m gifted with the mind’s cursed treasures. And that’s the way it is.

One day you’ll find yourself accepting that you’re not bound to greatness. You are bound to live your life. To follow the longhorn cows.

Traditional Ballad Index Entry

DESCRIPTION: “I’m bound to follow the longhorn cows until I git too old. It’s well I work for wages, boys, I git my pay in gold.” The singer boasts of his skills as a cowboy. He describes the difficulties of stampedes. He hopes to save up money to be married AUTHOR: unknown

EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Lomax) KEYWORDS: cowboy work bragging money gold loneliness love marriage FOUND IN: US(So,SW) REFERENCES (6 citations): Larkin-SingingCowboy, pp. 162-163, “I’m Bound to Follow the Long Horn Cow” (1 text, 1 tune) Lomax-FolkSongsOfNorthAmerica 186, “I’m Bound to Follow the Longhorn Cows” (1 text, 1 tune) Hudson-FolksongsOfMississippi 97, pp. 228-229, “The Jolly Cowboy” (1 text, much shorter than Lomax’s) Dunson/Raim/Asch-AnthologyOfAmericanFolkMusic, p. 104, “The Lone Star Trail” (1 text, 1 tune) Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 114, “Lone Star Trail” (2 texts, 1 tune) Moore/Moore-BalladsAndFolkSongsOfTheSouthwest 137, “The Lone Star Trail” (1 text, 1 tune) Roud #5765 RECORDINGS: Ken Maynard, “The Lone Star Trail” (Columbia 2310-D, 1930; on AAFM3, WhenIWas1) CROSS-REFERENCES: cf. “We Love the Name of Texas” (theme) NOTES [167 words]: This song was featured in the film “The Wagon Master”; Ken Maynard is described as the “pioneer of cowboy singing stars” in the movies. - PJS Guy Logsdon, on p. 52 of Scott B. Spencer, editor, The Ballad Collectors of North America, Scarecrow Press, 2012, agrees in part, “In the early 1930s, Ken Maynard, though lacking vocal skills, became the first ‘reel’ cowboy to sing in a motion picture, but Gene Autry was the singer for whom the genre was created.” It is interesting to note that (as of this writing) the Ballad Index cites six Maynard recordings – but three of them appear to have been unissued at the time! If the texts printed by the Fifes are any indication, this piece can take on almost any form, and the incidents can take place in almost any order; the only line their texts have entirely in common is “My trade is cinches and saddles and ropes and bridle reins.” And the Lomax text is again very different, with changes in all the verses, much new material, and a different order.

Complete Lyrics - As Sung by Alan Lomax on “Cowboy Songs of the Old West”

1. I’m bound to follow the longhorn cows until I get too old. It’s well I work for wages, boys, and get my pay in gold. My bosses they all like me well; they say I’m hard to beat. Because I give ’em the bum stand-off, they know I’ve got the cheek.

Ki-yi-yippee, yippee-yay, Ki-yi-yippee, yippee-yay (after each verse)

2. Now I’m a Texas cowboy, just off the stormy plains.
   My trade is girtin’ saddles and pullin’ bridle reins.
   Oh, I can tip the lasso; it is with graceful ease.
   I can rope a streak of lightnin’ and ride ’er where I please.

3. Now if I had me a little stake, I soon would married be,
   But another week and I must go; the boss said so today.
   My girl must cheer up courage and choose some other one,
   For I’m bound to follow the Lone Star Trail until my race is won.

4. It’s when we’re on the trail where the dust and the billows fly,
   It’s fifty miles from water and the grass is scorchin’ dry;
   The boss gets mad and ringy as you can plainly see
   And I want to leave the trail, my boys, and an honest farmer be.

5. And when we get them bedded, boys, we think it’s for the night,
   Some horse will shake his saddle and give that herd a fright.
   They’ll rise up to their feet, my boys, and madly dash away.
   Then it’s movin’ time; “To the lead, my boys,” you’ll hear some cowboy say.

6. And when we get them rounded up and quietened down again,
   A dark cloud will rise in the west, and fire will play on their horns.
   The boss will say, “Stay with ’em, boys; your pay will be in gold.”
   I’m bound to follow the longhorn steer until I get too old.

7. When I get in Kansas, I had a pleasant dream.
   I dreamt I’s down on the Trinity, down by that pleasant stream.
   My true love right beside me, she’d come to go my bail,
   But I woke up broken-hearted with a yearling by the tail.