American History: Songs Cowboys Sung
Cowboys of the American West told of their hard, dangerous lives in song.
24 March 2010
A cowboy with his horse
BOB DOUGHTY: Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION – American history in VOA Special English.
Last week, we talked about the growth of the cattle industry. This industry started in Texas during the eighteen seventies. With its growth came a new kind of worker -- the man who watched and took care of the cattle. These men who watched the cows and rode with them as they moved across the wild lands were often young. Just boys. And so they were called "cowboys."
This week in our series, Kay Gallant tells what life was like for the early American cowboy.
KAY GALLANT: People all over the world have seen all sorts of films about the cowboy. And he is often shown in television shows. But the real life of the cowboy is not often shown. His work has been hard, and his life lonely and full of danger.
The cowboy has told his own story in many songs and ballads. Hundreds of these have come from cowboys whose names are not known. They just sang these songs as they rode on the saddles of their horses across the cattle lands. Or, as they sat at their campfires at night.
They sang about the things that were close to them. Horses and cows and danger and death. Often, they sang about the long ride to the cattle markets where the cows were sold for beef, as in this song called, "Git Along Little Dogie."
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