Cowboy Again for a Day

DESCRIPTION: The singer urges time (or film) to "turn backward." He wishes to replace airplanes and automobiles with "my sombrero and flaps." He recalls the old days. His wish is that someone "Make me a cowboy again for a day."
AUTHOR: unknown (attributed to Minna Irving in Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly)
EARLIEST DATE: 1910 (Leslie's Illustrated Weekly)
KEYWORDS: cowboy technology derivative
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (3 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 116, "Cowboy Again for a Day" (2 texts, 1 tune; the "B" text, "Moving Picture Cowboy," is heavily adapted and should probably count as a separate piece, but surely never existed in oral tradition)
Ohrlin-HellBoundTrain 56, "Make Me a Cowboy Again" (1 text, 1 tune)
ADDITIONAL: Leslie’s Illustrated Weekly, Volume 111, No. 2874, October 6, 1910, p. 347 (available on Internet Archive), "The Cowboy's Return" (1 text)
Roud #5092
RECORDINGS:
Peg Moreland, "Make Me a Cowboy Again" (Victor V-40272, 1930; on MakeMe)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Rock Me to Sleep, Mother" (tune)
cf. "Backward, Turn Backward (I)" (tune, lyrics)
NOTES [136 words]: For background on the "Backward, turn backward" lyric, ultimately derived from "Rock Me to Sleep, Mother" by Elizabeth Akers Allen, see the notes to "Backward, Turn Backward (I)" as well as to "Rock Me to Sleep, Mother."
The page in Leslie's Illustrated Weekly containing this attributes it to "Rododore Theovelt," an obvious twist on "Theodore Roosevelt," but the table of contents (p. 339) credits it to "Minna Irving." This version of course does not mention all the technology found in the later texts. The cover illustration of the 28-page issue shows a soldier in uniform loading a rifle and smoking a cigarette but does not have a headline to explain it; the first story in the issue is an unattribued piece "Is the Automobile an National Menace?"
Thanks to Jim Dixon for finding the Leslie's citation. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FCW116

Go to the Ballad Search form
Go to the Ballad Index Song List

Go to the Ballad Index Instructions
Go to the Ballad Index Bibliography or Discography