There's a full moon risin' in the prairie sky tonight. Lord it's good to be on my way home. Over that horizon, she keeps the home fires burnin' bright.
At seven this morning I got on the phone. And said to hold my Bronc as long as you can. My car broke down in Billings and they just got it back together.
She was painting a picture of slum life. When the cowboy came limping by. Wearing tattered old boots with one sole gone. And a far away look in his eye.
Winter wind was blowin' when we loaded that old truck. With a few things that we had and all our dreams. With my new bride there beside me we headed down the road.
The rodeo is over and the crowd has all gone home. And you have time to walk around these lonely grounds alone. You see the empty buckin chutes where broncs and bulls have stood.
Girl, I recognize the smoke in your eyes. I've seen it in mine too. We both had been burned, hard lessons learned. From making some bad moves. . We keep looking for the perfect time and place.
Now back in old Wyoming many long years ago. When there was no law and order round to regulate the show. Those old Wyoming ranchers had a problem on their hands.
Old Red was one of the orneriest yet. I'd seen at the big rodeo. He'd bite you and kick you and stomp out your life. Old Red had never been rode. . Meaner than sin, wild as the wind.
Now old Jake was a cowboy he'd worked his whole life on the range. And he could rope, and he could ride with any man just half his age. Old Jake was my hero and me I was just a green kid.
The ol' Double Diamond lay out east of Dubois in the land of the buffalo. And the auctioner's gavel it rapped and it rattled. As I watched the ol' Double Diamond go.
He prayed upon the bad ones so wide was spread his fame. From Houston up to Calgary the folks all knew his name. He was the toughest cowboy ever worked the rodeo.
Now, all you have to do now, baby, is pull on my heart strings. And let me know which way to go, 'cause that's all right with me. Love me like a river, darling, I'll love you like the sea.
There are songs about the heroes and the great things they have done. And the hell they went through to get this far. But this song is for the cowboy who never been a hero.
While I was out a ridin'. the grave yard shift midnight till dawn. The moon was bright as a readin' light. for a letter from an old friend back home. And he asked me.
Between Gallup and Shiprock, he was born in a Hogan. And his spirit was as free as an eagle flies. Deep in the canyons out in Arizona. He broke his first pony before he turned five.
A rodeo's just a rodeo after riding several years. From ol' Cheyenne to Houston, they never cause too much fear. But let me tell you about one that will chill your very soul.
I grew up a-dreamin' of bein' a cowboy. Lovin' the cowboy ways. Pursuin' the life of my high-ridin' heroes. I burned up my childhood days. . I learned all the rules of the modern-day drifter.
There was a man that lived in the hills all by himself. Chin whiskers' hangin' off his face in the tree there's a hangin' Bull Elk. The only friend he's got in this world is a big old Wild Cat.
Well I figure myself a mighty luck man. With the simple few things I've got. There's money in the pockets of these wore out jeans. I've got a trailer house and a lot.
Ain't it funny how an ole song. Can take you back in time. Bring back the memories. You thought you left behind. . The melodies they never change. Just get better with time.