Ten Thousand Goddam Cattle: A History of the American Cowboy in Song, Story and Verse

Rating:
Summary: Well, maybe it is four stars for musicologists...
Review: Katie Lee knows a lot about her subject, the traditional cowboy song, but less about compelling writing or sensible organizing of a book-length manuscript. First published in 1976, this partial history of dozens of cowboy songs was reissued in 2001 by the University of New Mexico Press. Ms. Lee, who was a professional folksinger as early as the '40's and who knew Woody Guthrie, Cisco Houston, Burl Ives and others who were major contributors to the preservation and popularization of these kind of songs (more folk than "country" is one way I'd describe them, distinctively "western" in setting) isn't writing autobiography here. She instead wants to show how one might research the origins of an old beloved song, and even find the site of the events written about when the buildings and people have long departed. Along the way, in her quest to find a vanished townsite south of Santa Fe, she comments on the probable origins of dozens of western ballads, more of them the lesser-known ones. She quotes extensively, in heavy dialect and bad grammar, many aging cowboys she knew. Rather than being a charming look at a lost vocabulary, however, her quotes become a bit tedious. Better editing would have been a blessing, for Ms. Lee, while obviously knowing and loving her subject, is not a compelling writer. Casual readers will probably find more than they want to know about her, and her friends, and the songs. However, in terms of preserving one version of the probable origins of many cowboy ballads from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this is a valuable book, despite its flaws of organization. Ms. Lee lives in Arizona, and most of the book involves that state, with Santa Fe's environs being a strong supporting player in the tale. She laments the loss of a way of life, a way of song-writing, a way of singing, and a way of looking at the world and one's place in it. If you feel the same about the vanished old west, this book's likely to interest you.