This Cowboy Song

Grr--rr--rr--rrff!

Hey stranger, don’t be bashful This party ain’t select Though you’re a simple tenderfoot The boys here won’t object [yeah, right ...] Come on you over yonder, a’talkin’ to yer dog This ain’t no lunatic asylum [no?] Come let’s have a clog So you don’t know how it’s done, eh? Yer modest, that is all Come let’s start the music Now cowboy, balance all Start out—yer up against it Roll out and split the breeze Shake off the lint that’s in yer clothes A little faster please Hear them fiddles? Haint they great? Sufferin’ land o’lawdy On yer toes, sweet. Show yer style Come a’steppin’ gawdy Comes a raging down the line Whoop-a-lorum! Let ‘er! Seems to me there’s little that makes a heart feel better Morning time is miles away Never ‘spect to hit the hay She’s a’waitin’ Wake up, there! Promenade all! You know where!

[Sting]: This Cowboy Song follows on from that song I wrote last year, 'Love is Stronger than Justice (The Munificent Seven)'. It's an outlaw song about the existential cowboy becoming repentant of his days in the saddle, and dealing with the concept of growing older, death or religion or - I don't know what he's really concerned about, but he's decided he needs to pray and he hasn't got the words with which to pray. All he has is this cowboy song. There's a bit of me in there. As I get older I feel the need to commune with whatever's beyond the grave, but I haven't been trained to do that. Or I'm not really happy with the equipment that was given to me. We made a very funny video in Almeira in Spain where they made all the spaghetti westerns. It's totally intact as it was. We had great time, dressed up as cowboys with gun battles and saloon brawls. It was like being nine years old. We were so happy.

Sometimes she sank—sometimes she swam Until she came to the miller’s dam Oh, draw the dam, cried the miller’s son Here’s either a mermaid—or a swan!

The moon’s my constant mistress And the lovely owl—my marrow The flaming dragon and night crow Make me music to my sorrow With a host of furious fancies Whereof I am commander With a burning spear and horse of air To the wilderness, I wander

I’ll crow against the dog star—arf! I’ll crow away the morning But I’ll find mad, merry Mistral And seek what ere betides ‘er And I will love—beneath or above The fairy dust that hides ‘er

True love is a durable fire In the mind—ever burning Never sick—never dead—never cold From itself—never turning

Sirius is the brightest star in the nighttime sky, with a visual apparent magnitude of -1.46. It is located in the constellation Canis Major. Its name comes from the Latin sirius, from Greek (seirios, "glowing"). It is situated in the eye of the greater dog Canis Major, therefore it is known as the Dog Star.

This is a song about living on the edge, experiencing depression, transgressing social norms for survival, and ultimately finding redemption in religion.

I think sillybunny pretty much explained it all, but since I'm familiar with the entire album Ten Summoner's Tales, I think I get the whole story.

In the prequel song "Love Is Stronger Than Justice (The Munificent Seven)", there are seven brothers who all share the same father, but their mothers are different. The song takes the first-person perspective of one of the brothers. He says that he and his brothers ended up in Mexico where a town is pleading them to help take down a bunch of bandits threatening their town. They are promised beautiful women if they help, but when the brother finds out there's only one woman in the town after they've saved the city from the bandits, he plots to kill his brothers. The song never explains how he kills them, but the song does confirm that they're dead. ("And though there used to be brothers seven, the other six are singing in Heaven.") This song is also interesting in that it is in a 7/4 time signature. (Except in the chorus, which is normal 4/4 time.)

So I think in This Cowboy Song, especially in the second verse, he regrets killing them, as well as other poor life choices that he made. He thinks about becoming Christian, except he believes that not even Christ himself would accept him after the horrible atrocities he's committed. However, he has "This Cowboy Song" to sing which helps him to feel better. He feels the song gets him closer to whoever or whatever is in control of the afterlife.

Additionally, some little trivia people might be interested in. According to my Japanese copy of Ten Summoner's Tales, the prequel song is based on an Akira Kurosawa film, or at least a spoof of the name "The Magnificent Seven".