dream ranch

AI helped me get lined out this morning. With my sidekick near, I woke with a cowboy tune in my head.

I couldn’t remember the exact words, only their lyrical meter and sentiment about trusty things by your side. Once at my desk with coffee, I worked through word searches on the internet and, with AI help, identified the music as “My rifle, my pony and me,” sung by Dean Martin, with Ricky Nelson and Walter Brennan accompaniment, in the 1959 John Wayne movie Rio Bravo.

I was glad to identify the tune but the setting was sunset instead of sunrise and I struggled with some of the other lyrics, especially “… with my three good companions, just my rifle, pony and me …”

I also am not a fan of Rio Bravo. But further research, and a dive into AI, revealed the tune I remembered had evolved from a theme in John Wayne movie that I do like, Red River, by the same songwriters.

Here’s Meta AI: “The song “My Rifle, My Pony, and Me” was written by Dimitri Tiomkin and Paul Francis Webster. It was featured in the 1959 movie Rio Bravo, where it was sung by Dean Martin and Ricky Nelson. Tiomkin composed the music, while Webster wrote the lyrics. The melody is based on a tune Tiomkin had previously used in the movie Red River.”

And here are the complete lyrics:

The sun is sinking in the west
The cattle go down to the stream
The redwing settles in the nest
It’s time for a cowboy to dream

Purple light in the canyons
That’s where I long to be
With my three good companions
Just my rifle, pony and me

Gonna hang (gonna hang) my sombrero (my sombrero)
On the limb (on the limb) of a tree (of a tree)
Comin’ home (comin’ home) sweetheart darlin’ (sweetheart darlin’)
Just my rifle, pony and me
Just my rifle, my pony and me

(Whippoorwill in the willow
Sings a sweet melody
Riding to Amarillo)
Just my rifle, pony and me
No more cows (no more cows) to be ropened (to be ropened)
No more strays will I see
Round the bend (round the bend) she’ll be waitin’ (she’ll be waitin’)
For my rifle, pony and me
For my rifle, my pony and me

And what is it with cowboys drivin’ and ridin’ to Amarillo?

My first question led me to learn that (click here for music) “Amarillo by Morning,” as recorded by George Strait in 1982, was written by Terry Stafford and Paul Fraser, and first recorded by Stafford in 1973.  

Meanwhile, this photo of Cowboy 1 might have worked better for my morning reverie today. I posted it with some morning thoughts five years ago, (click here) “Coffee with Cowboy and O’Keeffe.”

It was kind of a cloudy morning but we’re working it out.