Ragtime Cowboy Joe

DESCRIPTION: "The roughest, toughest man by far" in Arizona is Ragtime Cowboy Joe, who got his name because "He always sings raggy music to the cattle... On a horse that is syncopated gaited." But folks are advised not to cross him; his gun will make them dance
AUTHOR: Words: Grant Clarke / Music: Lewis F. Muir and Maurice Abrahams
EARLIEST DATE: 1912 (copyright)
KEYWORDS: cowboy music nonballad
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Fife/Fife-CowboyAndWesternSongs 107, "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" (1 text, 1 tune)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 107, "Rag Time Cowboy Joe" (1 text)
Averill-CampSongsFolkSongs, pp. 239, 318, 490, 500, "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" (notes only)
DT, RAGTMJOE*
Roud #11097
RECORDINGS:
Girls of the Golden West, "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" (Columbia 37724, 1947)
Ranch Boys, "Ragtime Cowboy Joe" (Decca 5074, 1935)
SAME TUNE:
Tips (File: NeTT021)
Doc Roberts, "Ragtime Chicken Joe" (Conqueror 8566, 1935)
NOTES [75 words]: Edward Foote Gardner, Popular Songs of the Twentieth Century: Volume I -- Chart Detail & Encyclopedia 1900-1949, Paragon House, 2000, p. 297, estimates that this was the twenty-ninth most popular song in America in 1912, peaking at #12 in October 1912 (#1 for the year being I. Wolfe Gilbert and Lewis F. Muir's "Waiting for the Robert E. Lee"); p. 500 says that it also reached #19 in October 1949, probably based on a recording by Jo Stafford. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.8
File: FCW107

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