HOME ON THE RANGE
Dr. Brewster Higley, a 19th c. poet and otolaryngologist from Kansas, wrote it. His brother in law, a fiddler, put it to music. Elmo has sung it. So has Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. Even Andrea Bocelli’s sung it.
But in recent years, with a revised understanding of the American expansion west, recent poets and lyrics have bent and twisted the simple ‘o give me a home where the buffalo home’ from the prevailing romanticization of the frontier and the settler mentality that characterized the westward expansion of the 19th century to more contemporary lyrical purpose. A song which fundamentally expressed the sentiments of many pioneers who sought a new beginning in the West, the lyrics to Home On The Range have been adapted to service psychedelic lover laments, bluesy bad boy posturing, and in several cases, to shed a light on the fate of the expense of the indigenous people who were expected to make way when the Westward pioneers blithely asked ‘o give me a home’.
FOWLER HS KANSAS
Somewhat loose version of the original prepare for a high school musical in 2012, with lyrics that included an arresting reference to displaced natives, sung with an appropriately twangy western duo.
The red man was pressed
from this part of the West
He’s likely no more to return
To the banks of Red River
where seldom if ever
their flickering campfires burn
TORI AMOS
Amos doubles down on the indigenous question, interweaving overt politics into her stanzas, in the “Cherokee Addition’ to the tune.
Eheay… heh… hee yeas,
America, oh, who discovered your ass?
The white men came, “
This land is my land, is your land,” they sang.
a thief down to his heels,
Hello trail of tears.
The Smokies could hide
a Cherokee bride,
Her brave was shot yesterday.
LESTER QUITZAU
https://youtu.be/bLo6urEMgSo?si=s4VBp6DyvnnemS49
Canadian, originally from Edmonton, Quitzau is active around Vancouver, He leaps well beyond the original lyrics, but in this case, by putting on the ‘hard core western bad boy’ hat.
Cardboard shack and rusted Cadillac
an old dog in a cactus coat
playing one eyed jacks with a lump in his throat
candy floss in Disneyland
too much work for the medicine man
wide eyes and alibis
smoking cheap cigars under blood red skies
Home, home on the range
Welcome to America ain’t it strange
ZERO – ROBERT HUNTER
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOhjNx32EW0
Yes, THE Robert Hunter, of Grateful Dead fame, author of Ripple, Friend of the Devil, Box of Rain and many other classic folk-rock songs by the marathon-band. Hunter wrote this (and a number of other songs) for a band called Zero, and turning it into a raspy Western Rock ‘she dumped me’ lyric with a jazzy saxophone and girl vocalist backup. (an account of how he wrote it, available online, recounts how Hunter walked into a studio where the band was working on some music, and ripped out the lyrics in four minutes).
Four in the morning, last shakes of night
Last time I checked, babe, nothing was right
Words I was reading slipped off the page
Left me here singing like a bird in a cage
Crickets are humming a sixty bar blues
Leave me here hanging by the skin of my shoes
Conversation just gets in my ear
Yes I love you but I don’t want to hear
I want a Home on the Range
Where the buffalo wander
And the women don’t change
RADIO POET!QUE: A Spoken Word Radio Review 