Ragtime Cowboy Joe

AKA
First Published1912

Writer/composerGrant Clarke, Lewis F Muir and Maurice AbrahamsRoudRN11097

Music Hall PerformersThe Hill Billies, Daisy Dormer, Gene Greene, Hedges Brothers and Jacobson, The Three Rascals
Folk performancesCollected from the singing of:
Creecy, Mildred N. ; USA : Washington : 1936
Bond, Frank ; England : Hampshire ; 1965
Hancock, George ; England : Yorkshire : 1972
Goodchild, James ; England : Hampshire : 1976
From Sheet Music,(personal collection) as sung and recorded by The Hill Billies

Out in Arizona where the bad men are,
And the only friend to guide you is an Evening Star,
The roughest, toughest man by far
Is Ragtime Cowboy Joe.
Got his name from singing to the cows and sheep
Every night they say he sings the herd to sleep
In a basso rich and deep,
Crooning soft and low

He always sings ... raggy music to his cattle
As he swings back and forward in his saddle
On his horse - that is syncopated gaited
And with such a funny metre to the roar of his repeater

How they run when they hear the feller's gun
Because the Western folks all know:
He's a hifalootin' scootin', shootin, son-of-a-gun from Arizona
Ragtime Cowboy, Ragtime Cowboy Joe.
[twice]

Dressed up ev'ry Sunday in his Sunday clothes
He beats it for the village where he always goes,
And ev'ry girl in town is Joe's
'Cause he's a ragtime bear;
When he starts a-spieling on the dance hall floor,
No one but a lunatic would start a war
Wise men know his forty-four
Makes men dance for fair.

A song introduced in to the British Halls by The Hedges Brothers and Jacobson, a relatively short lived trio from San Francisco who were very popular in the UK during the ragtime craze of 1911-12. The craze saw dozens of ragtime songs imported from the US being major hits on the British stage. Ragtime Cowboy Joe was performed by a number of other artistes, including Daisy Dormer and had a longer shelf life than most ragtime pieces – it was revived in both the 1930s and 40s..

It featured in the repertoire of at least three English traditional singers.

As recorded by The Hill Billies in 1935:

Sources:

  • Entries in the Roud Indexes at the Vaughn Williams Memorial Library: https://archives.vwml.org/search/all:single[folksong-broadside-books]/0_50/all/score_desc/extended-roudNo_tr%3A11097
  • Ballad Index
  • Mudcat Thread
  • Kilgarrif Sing Us
  • Lyrics and Sheet Music for The Hill Billies: personal collection
  • Sheet Music cover: V&A
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