The Old Chisholm Trail Lyrics

Lyric discussion by Diabetus Hero 

Cover art for The Old Chisholm Trail lyrics by Tex Ritter

This song is infamously well known for being the inspiration behind the short story on which visionary director Ang Lee's "Brokeback Mountain" is based (I do not recall the name of the short story but it is a seminal text in queer studies). "Chisholm" is a code word for the gays (I can write this because I am a gay) and its similarity to jizm is no coincidence. The other indicators of homoerotic expression are almost too numerous to analyze, but I'll attempt a cursory examination here. The repetition of "come a ti yi yippee, come a ti yi yay", "punchin' Texas cattle" (it's code for punchin' Texas asshole), "afore I sleep the moon shines bright" (pre-bed anal sex), "no [ass] chaps, no slicker" (no clothes, no lubrication, which is the sort of rough and rugged living that cowboys would have preferred in those days ((very dangerous, I would know after hours and hours of personal and professional research))), "feet in the stirrups and seat in the saddle" (no explanation necessary), "I'll ride as long as an eight-day clock" ("eight-day clock" is a homophonous phrase standing in for "ate a cock"). These don't even begin to scratch the surface of this song's deep homoerotic undertones, but I must stop my examination here to undertake an explanation of sex trafficking back in the day. "We rounded 'em up and put 'em on the cars, / And that was the last of the old Two Bars" is the key to this song's darker meanings, confirming that the gay cowboys were nefarious for rounding up young boys and roping them into the cowboy lifestyle. This indoctrination process is completed after eating "bacon and beans most every day," as "bacon and beans" is cowboy slang for greasy, hearty sex. The last verse in the song is self-explanatory. I hope this in-depth, well-researched deconstruction of "The Old Jizm Trail" by Sex Ritter has enhanced your understanding of the old cowboy lifestyle.

Signing off,

Dr. Chester von Schrödonger

Song Meaning