Pitch, You Old Piebally, Pitch

DESCRIPTION: "You've been roped and saddled, bridled and straddled, I've spurred and quirted you too." Despite the trouble the animal has caused, the singer says, "I'll ride you, ole hoss, till you drop." Half friendly, half exasperated, he says, "pitch, you piebally"
AUTHOR: attributed to Kearney Moore in the Powder River Jack Lee Songbook (but see NOTES)
EARLIEST DATE: 1937 (Powder River Jack & Kitty Lee Songbook)
KEYWORDS: cowboy horse work
FOUND IN: US(Ro)
REFERENCES (2 citations):
ADDITIONAL: Powder River Jack and Kitty Lee's _Songs of the Range: Cowboy Wails of Cattle Trails_, Chart Music, 1937, pp. 38-39, "Pitch, You Old Piebally, Pitch" (1 text, 1 tune)
Federal Writers' Project [WPA], _Wyoming: A Guide To Its History, Highways, and People_ 1941 (available on Google Books), pp. 148-149, "[Pitch, You Old Piebally, Pitch]" (1 text)
NOTES [81 words]: The WPA Guide to Wyoming calls this "a variation of E. A. Brinistool's "A Corral Soliloquiy" and says it was popular in the Jackson Hole area. The latter poem was published in Trail Dust of a Maverick (p. 140) in 1914. The dependence is clear, but in the Brinistool version, the horse is a "pie-bitier" and the order of the lyrics somewhat different. Nor is a tune indicated. My guess would be that Kearney Moore rewrote Brinistool's poem, then Powder River Jack Lee fitted a tune. - RBW
Last updated in version 2.7
File: PRJL038

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