Punchin' Dough

DESCRIPTION: The cook points out to the cowboys that "While you're punchin' cattle I'm punchin' the dough." His life is much like theirs, except that he fights with food where they fight with animals. He intends to be "boss of this end of the show."
AUTHOR: Credited by Thorp to Henry Herbert Knibbs
EARLIEST DATE: 1921 (Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys)
KEYWORDS: cowboy cook food
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Thorp/Logsdon-SongsOfTheCowboys, pp. 131-132, "Punchin' Dough" (1 text)
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 37, "Punchin' Dough" (1 text, 1 tune)
DT, PNCHDOUG*
Roud #5098
RECORDINGS:
Jules Allen, "Punchin' the Dough" (Victor V-40263, 1930; rec. 1929)
Harry Jackson, "The Round-Up Cook" (on HJackson1, CowFolkCD1)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Budd Lake Plains" (theme)
cf. "The Pot Wrassler" (theme)
NOTES [38 words]: The cook on a cattle run was usually an old cowboy who could no longer do the work. It's hardly surprising that he looked on the cowboys as "kids" -- nor that he used his control over the chuck to keep the cowboys in line. - RBW
Last updated in version 5.3
File: FCW037

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