Arlo Guthrie: Buffalo Skinners

Traditional, arranged
by Arlo Guthrie

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
And spend the summer pleasant
On the range of the buffalo.

Well I found myself in Griffin
In eighteen eighty-three
When a man by the name of Creagho
Come a'walkin' up to me
Sayin "How do you do young fella
And how'd you like to go
And spend the summer pleasant
On the range of the buffalo".

Well me being out of work right then
To that drover I did say
"My goin' out on the buffalo range
Depends upon the pay
But if you pay good wages,
Transportation to and fro
I think I might go with you
On the range of the Buffalo".

Well yes I pay good wages
And transportation too
If you'll agree to work for me
Until the season's through
But if you do get homesick
And you try and run away
You'll starve to death out on the trail
And you'll also lose your pay

Well with all the flatterin' talkin'
He signed up quite a train
Some ten or twelve in number
Of able bodied men
And our trip it was a pleasant one
Through all New Mexico
Until we crossed Pease River
On the range of the buffalo

It was there our pleasures ended
And our troubles all begun
A lightnin' storm come up on us
And made the cattle run
We got full of the stickers
On the cactus that did grow
And the outlaws waited to pick us off
In the hills of Mexico

Well the working season ended
But the drover would not pay
He said "You spent your money boys
You're all in debt to me".
But the cowboys never put much stock
In a thing like a bankrupt law
So we left the bastard's bones to bleach
On the range of the buffalo.