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.