Almost anything you want to know about Woody Guthrie's "Buffalo Skinners" and where it's derived from is on the next beautiful site:
"The Buffalo Skinners" ("The Hills of Mexico") is a traditional American folk song. It tells the story of an 1873 buffalo hunt on the southern plains.
According to Fannie Eckstorm, 1873 is correct, as the year that professional buffalo hunters from Dodge City first entered the northern part of the Texas panhandle.
It is thought to be based on the song "Canaday-I-O"
(NOT to be confused with Canada-I-O or Canadee-I-O : There is no connection in plot, however, and any common lyrics are probably the result of cross-fertilization). (SEE: http://jopiepopie.blogspot.nl/2015/12/kennady-i-o-1830s-canada-i-o-1830s.html
In 1914 Fannie Eckstorm met John Lomax at one of his lectures and pointed out to him that "Buffalo Skinners" was "only a variant of "Canaday-I-O", an older local ballad about a group of lumberjacks and their exhausting trip to Canada. She mentions this event in het book Minstrelsy of Maine.
The editor of the 1925 songbook "Songs and Ballads of the Maine Lumberjacks", Robert Palmer Gray, was given a fragment of the old song by Mrs. Fannie H. Eckstorm of Brewer, Maine, in 1914.
And thus in his book Palmer Gray also mentions the link between "Canaday-I-O" and "Buffalo Skinners".
As you can read above that old song was given to Mrs Eckstorm by Mr. J. Eldredge from Edinburgh (Howland) Maine, twenty years or more prior to 1914. It was then regarded as an old song, and Mrs. Eckstorm remembers having heard a verse or two of it in her childhood. She places the date of the ballad at about 1855. On the basis of these facts it could not be much later than 1859.
Henry W. Shoemaker in his 1919 book North Pennsylvania Minstrelsy, gives a somewhat fuller text, as sung by Leary Miller, Lick Run, Clinton County in 1901. It is song #31 ( "The Jolly Lumbermen") on page 76-78 of that book. The last line of each verse reads "On Colley's Run, I-Oh". And that's the link with another song from the same songcluster (SEE further on in this post)
Only in the twenties Eckstorm managed to get hold of a
complete text. It was sent to her by one Annie Marston who "had learned it in
her youth in Penobscot County". This set of lyrics was first printed in 1927 in her collection Minstrelsy of Maine
This song is evidently the original of "The Buffalo Skinners" in Lomax's Cowboy Songs. Internal evidence places that ballad at about 1873. There was very little, if any, killing of buffalo for hides after 1876. In 1880 the buffalo were almost extinct.
"Buffalo Skinners" was first published by Jack Thorp in his Songs of the Cowboys (1908, as "Buffalo Range", pp. 31-33). He only included a text but not a tune:
"The Buffalo Skinners" then appeared in 1910 in John Lomax's "Cowboy Songs, and Other Frontier Ballads". The song tells of crew of men hired in Jacksboro, Texas to go buffalo hunting north of the Pease River.
But then there's the rumour that "Buffalo Skinners" was derived from John B Freeman's "The Buffalo Song", which he seemingly wrote in 1877 while on a buffalo range in Fort Griffin.
In the summer of 1941 J Frank Dobie talked about it with John B Freeman and wrote down the results in his 1943 book "Backwoods To Border".
In 1934 Pete Harris recorded a version of "Buffalo Skinners" for the Library Of Congress, that was released in 1976 on the next album.
The first line reads: "I Came Out to Texas in 1845"
(o) Pete Harris (1934) (as "The Buffalo Skinners")
Recorded May 1934 in Richmond, Texas
Listen here:
Or here:
In 1939 Bill Bender recorded a version closely following the 1910 version from John Lomax's "Cowboy Songs, and Other Frontier Ballads"
(c) Bill Bender (The Happy Cowboy) (1939) (as "Buffalo Skinner")
Recorded ca. October, 1939, probably in New York, NY.
Released on Varsity 5144
Also released on Asch 410-3.
Listen here:
In 1952 the Library of Congress released an album containing 2 songs of the same songcluster.
"Colley's Run-I-O" and "The Buffalo Skinners". The 2 songs were both recorded in Washington D.C.
(c) L. Parker Temple (1946) (as "Colley's Run-I-O")
Recorded 1946 in Washington, DC
Released in 1952 on the next album:
(c) John A. Lomax (1941) (as "The Buffalo Skinners")
Recorded 1941 in Washington, DC
Released in 1952 on the same LOC album AAFS L28 album:
(c) Woody Guthrie (1945) (as "Buffalo Skinners")
Recorded March 1945.
Released in 1946 on Documentary # 1: Struggle (Asch 360 1-A, later Stinson 360)
Come all you old time cowboys
And listen to my song
Please do not grow weary
I'll not detain you long
Concerning some wild cowboys
Who did agree to go
Spend the summer pleasant
On the trail of the buffalo
I found myself in Griffin
In the spring of '83
When a well known famous drover
Come walking up to me
Said, "How do you do, young fellow
Well, how would you like to go
And spend the summer pleasant
On the trail of the buffalo?"
Well, I being out of work right then
To the drover I did say
"Going out on the buffalo road
Depends on the pay
If you will pay good wages
And transportation to and fro
I think I might go with you
On the hunt of the buffalo
Of course I'll pay good wages
And transportation too
If you will agree to work for me
Until the season's through
But if you do get homesick
And you try to run away
You will starve to death
Out on the trail and also lose your pay
Well with all his flattering talking
He signed up quite a train
Some 10 or 12 in number
Some able bodied men
Our trip it was a pleasant one
As we hit the Westward road
Until we crossed Old Boggy Creek
In Old New Mexico
There our pleasures ended
And our troubles all began
A lightening storm hit us
And made the cattle run
Got all full of stickers
From the cactus that did not grow
And the outlaws watching
To pick us off in the hills of Mexico
Well, our working season ended
And the drover would not pay
If you had not drunk too much
You are all in debt to me
But the cowboys never had heard
Such a thing as a bankrupt law
So we left that drover's bones to bleach
On the plains of the buffalo
As we see the town and the year ( Fort Griffin in '83) mentioned in Woody's version differs from the "Buffalo Skinners" version notated by Lomax (Jacksboro in '73).
In fact Woody's version might be an amalgation of Lomax's "Buffalo Skinners" and another variant published by W.P. Webb in 1923 as "Boggus Creek".
In "Boggus Creek" a group of cowboys are hired in '83 at the now abandoned cowtown at Fort Griffin, Texas, to work cattle in New Mexico.
In early September 1938 Alan Lomax spent a day recording in Traverse City. Acting on a tip that Lautner’s Place on Union Street was a hangout for sailors and lumberjacks, he recorded seven discs of lumbermen songs and Irish songs in the tavern.
Lomax's recording of "Michigan‐I‐O" that year is interesting for a number of reasons.
This song is based on the popular lumberman's song "Colley's Run I-O" (or "The Jolly Lumbermen") and uses the same tune.
It’s also closely related to the regional song "Canaday‐I‐O" and it stops just short of the dire ending in western epic in the same song family, "The Buffalo Skinners". In that song, the cowboys who are tricked and robbed of their wages leave the company man’s “bones to bleach on the range of the buffalo.”
Similarly, "Michigan‐I‐O" chronicles the miserable disparity between the luxuries that the company agents promise prospective workers and the dreadful living conditions in the camps. In the song, the workers retaliate against the bosses and wreak their pent‐up frustrations at being robbed, cheated, and oppressed, a theme common enough in folk songs. It must have appealed not only to Lomax’s interest in song families, but also to his progressive political sensibilities.
In this recording of "Michigan I‐O", the 82‐year old Lester Wells, described in Alan's field notes as “another tough and intelligent oldster” sings a rousing version of the song he learned in the lumber camps during the 1880s.
“Michigan‐I‐O”, performed by Lester Wells, Traverse City, MI, Sept. 3, 1938. Alan Lomax Collection of Michigan and Wisconsin Recordings (AFC 1939/007, AFS 2303b), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress [4:16]
Listen here: 200197714/0001.mp3
A variant "Sung by Mr. Arthur Milloy, Ornemee, North Dakota" was included in Franz Rickaby's 1926 book "Ballads and Songs of the Shanty Boy".
Compare also a railroad man's song ("Way Out In Idaho"), known in the 1880's, printed by R.W Gordon in Adventure for October 20, 1923 (page 191).
The first 2 verses from that version are in Robert Palmer Gray's 1925 songbook "Songs and Ballads of the Maine Lumberjacks",
In 1938 Alan Lomax recorded Blaine Stubblefield performing this song for the Library Of Congress:
More cover-versions in the "Canaday-I-O" / "Buffalo Skinners" song family:
(c) Paul Clayton (1958) (as "Canaday")
Released in 1958 on the album "Timber-r-r. Lumberjack Folk Songs and Ballads"
Listen here:
(c) Bob Dylan (1961) / (1967) (as "Trail of the Buffalo")
Bob's first known performance of this song was recorded in the East Orange, New Jersey home of Bob and Sidsel Gleason in early 1961. The tape was made by the Gleason’s son Kevin. This 1961 version was directly derived from Woody Guthrie's version.
Here's Bob's lyrics:
Come 'round you old time cowboys and listen to my song
Please do not grow weary, i'll not detain you long
Concernin' some young cowboys who did agree to go
Spend the summer pleasantly on the trail of the buffalo.
Well, i found myself in Griffin in the year of '83
When a well known famous drover come a-walkin' up to me
Sayin', "How'd you do, young cowboy, how'd you like to go
Spend the summer pleasantly on the trail of the buffalo?''
Well, me bein' out of work right then to this drover I did say
"This goin' out on the buffalo range depends upon your pay
But if you pay good wages, transportation to and fro
Think i might go with you on the hunt of the buffalo.''
"Yes, i'll pay good wages an' transportation too
If you'll agree to work for me until the season's through
But if you do get homesick an' try to run away
You'll starve to death on the prairie and also lose your pay.''
Well, with all this flatterin' talking, he signed up quite a train
Some ten or twelve in number, some able-bodied men
Our trip it was a pleasant one as we hit the westward road
Until we head old Boggy Creek in old New Mexico.
Well, there our pleasures ended an' our troubles they begun
A lightnin' storm did hit us, made the cattle run
I got all full of stickers from cactus that did grow
Outlaws watchin' to pick us off on the hills of the buffalo.
Well, the working season ended but the drover would not pay
He said, "You went drunk too much, you're all in debt to me.''
But the cowboys never did hear of such a thing as a bankrupt law
So we left that drover's bones to bleach on the hills of the buffalo.
Listen here:
Dylan's second version was recorded June/October 1967 while the tape was rolling by accident during the Basement Tapes period. Dylan tries to find the proper key – The Band, unfamiliar with the song, straggles in after a few minutes. After the song winds down, Dylan asks Garth not to waste tape on it.
Here's Bob and The Band's lyrics:
T'was in the town of Griffin in the year of '65
A well-known famous villain stepped up to me and tied
Sayin', "How d'you do, young cowboy and how d'ya like to go
Spend the summer pleasantly in the hills of Mexico?''
Well, me bein' out of work right then to this drover I did say
"Well, this goin' out on the buffalo range depends upon your pay
But if you pay good wages, transportation to and fro
I think I might go with you to the hills of Mexico.''
Well, we crossed the Laughtin river, boys, our troubles they begun
Lightning flashed like hell-fire and made the cattle run
I [.........................] sun is as hot as snow
Comanches a-waitin' to pick us off on the hills of Mexico.
Listen here:
Bob performed "On The Trail Of The Buffalo" many times during his Never Ending Tour .
More versions here;
- Hermes Nye Texas Folk Songs (1955, Folkways FW 02128)
- Ed McCurdy Songs of the Old West (1956, Elektra EKL 112)
- Raphael Boguslav Songs From A Village Garret (1956, Riverside RLP 12-638)
- John A. Lomax, Jr.[11] Sings American Folk Songs (1956, Folkways FW 03508)
- Pete Seeger At first on American Industrial Ballads (1956, Folkways SW 40058) and then on American Favourite Ballads, Vol. 5 (1962, Folkways SW 40154; this is an abbreviated version with five verses, the lyrics are from Lomax' original "Buffalo Skinners", the melody and accompaniment are closer to Woody Guthrie)
- Ramblin' Jack Elliott & Derroll Adams Roll On Buddy (1957, Topic 12T 105)
- Richard Dyer-Bennet Vol. 9 (1960, Dyer-Bennet DB 09000)
- Cisco Houston Sings the Songs of Woody Guthrie (1961, Vanguard VRS 9089) and later on Folk Song and Minstrelsy (1963, Vanguard RL-7624)
- Eric Von Schmidt Folk Blues of Eric Von Schmidt (1963, Prestige 7717)
- Carl Sandburg Cowboy Songs and Negro Spirituals (1962, Decca DL 9105)
- Jim Kweskin Relax Your Mind (1965, Vanguard VSD-79188)
- Slim Critchlow Cowboy Songs: The Crooked Trail To Holbrook (1969, Arhoolie 479; includes also "John Garner's Trail Herd" and "The Crooked Trail To Holbrooke"; recorded 1957-63)
- John Renbourn Faro Annie (1971)
- Harry Tuft on The Continuing Tradition Volume 1: Ballads (1981, Folk-Legacy Records)
- Mosquito Cupid's Fist (1994)
- Sid Selvidge Twice-Told Tales (1994)
- Rich Lerner Trails and Bridges (1995)
- Ramblin' Jack Elliot South Coast (1995)
- Tim O'Brien (musician) Fiddler's Green (2005)
- Gob Iron Death Songs for the Living (2006)
- Ricky Skaggs & Bruce Hornsby (2007)
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