Say a Prayer for the Cowgirl…

Though as I’d previously implied I have sort of a complicated relationship with country music, This Right Here is why I always made an exception for Emmylou Harris.

About Joel

You shouldn't ask these questions of a paranoid recluse, you know.
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5 Responses to Say a Prayer for the Cowgirl…

  1. Mike says:

    Good taste in music, Joel. She’s one of my favorites and has been for nearly fifty years.

  2. Robert Evans says:

    Angelic voice and unsurpassed integrity as a singer. Allison Krauss is a similar voice for a younger generation. Gillian Welch is another, although she doesn’t have the vocal chops that Emmylou or Allison does. Check Gillian out on April the 14th Part 1 (also called “Ruination Day.)

  3. John says:

    (Leonard Cohen)

    Say a prayer for the cowgirl her horse ran away
    She’ll walk till she finds him her darlin’ her stray
    But the river’s in flood and the roads are awash
    And the bridges break up in the panic of loss.

    And there’s nothin’ to follow nowhere to go
    He’s gone like the summer gone like the snow
    And the crickets are breaking her heart with their song
    As the day caves in and the night is all wrong.

    Did she dream it was he who went galloping past
    And bent down the fern broke open the grass
    And printed the mud with the well hammered shoe
    That she nailed to his feet in the dreams of her youth.

    And although he goes grazin’ a minute away
    She tracks him all night she tracks him all day
    And she’s blind to his presence except to compare
    Her injury here with his punishment there.

    Then at home on a branch on a high stream
    A songbird sings out so suddenly
    And the sun is warm and the soft winds ride
    On a willow tree by the riverside.

    Ah, the world is sweet and the world is wide
    He’s there where the light and the darkness divide
    And the steam’s comin’ off him he’s huge and he’s shy
    And he steps on the moon when he paws at the sky.

    And he comes to her hand but he’s not really tame
    He longs to be lost she longs for the same
    And he’ll bolt and he’ll plunge through the first open pass
    To roll and to feed in the sweet mountain grass.

    Or he’ll make a break for the high plateau
    Where there’s nothing above and nothing below
    It’s time for their burden the whip and the spur
    Will she ride with him or will he ride with her.

    So she binds herself to her galloping steed
    And he binds himself to the woman in need
    And there is no space just left and right
    And there is no time but there is day and night.

    Then she leans on his neck and whispers low
    Whither thou goest I will go
    And they turn as one and they head for the plain
    No need for the whip oh no need for the rein.

    Now the clasp of this union who fastens it tight
    Who snaps it asunder the very next night
    Some say it’s him some say it’s her
    Some say love’s like smoke beyond all repair.

    So my darlin’, my darlin’ just let it go by
    That old silhouette on the great western sky
    And I’ll pick out a tune and they’ll move right along
    And they’re gone like smoke and they’re gone like this song.

    Say a prayer for the cowgirl…

  4. Joel says:

    John, it’s funny – I was off looking up the lyrics, because as much as I love Harris’s voice she doesn’t always enunciate very clearly – just when you posted them. Also until we did that I never knew it was a Cohen song. I knew she didn’t write it, but never bothered to learn who did.

  5. John says:

    Well Joel, that song did really sort of yank some latent emotion into daylight, so I was focused but missing some words she sings. She has my attention see, so I really want to know what she is saying. I find she enunciates really well when I’ve a cheat-sheet to follow with 🙂 !

    Didn’t know it was a Cohen piece either. I guess she tweaked a little with a version he had done. She has been out there in our time and space a little longer than I, and now and again some song she has done crosses my way and adds some light and color.

    Thanks Emmylou (And you Joel for having her cross my path again)

To the stake with the heretic!