"Long, Tall Texan"

[Marsha Alley]

Oh no no....you're right, musta been some Yankee.

As recorded by Murry Kellum in 1963 and Lyle Lovett in 1998:

Well I'm a long tall Texan
I wear a ten-gallon hat
---backup singers--(he rides from Texas in a ten-gallon hat)
Yes I'm a long tall Texan
I wear a ten-gallon hat
(He rides, etc.)
Well people look at me and they say
(oh lawd oh lawd)
Is that your hat?
(He rides from Texas etc.)

In the second verse he rides a big white horse
In the third he enforces justice for the law.

But it's always "oh lawd, oh lawd," with the d almost silent.

Marsha
/that's right, I'm not from Texas, but I left my heart there


  ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU<mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>>
  Poster:       Wilson Gray <wilson.gray at RCN.COM<mailto:wilson.gray at RCN.COM>>
  Subject:      "Long, Tall Texan"
  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Do any of y'all remember the song, "Long, Tall Texan," popular in the
  early 'Sixties, I believe? Its chorus was, according to a lyrics site:

  Well, I'm a long, tall Texan
  I enforce justice for the law

  He rides from Texas to enforce the law

  Well, I'm a long, tall Texan
  I enforce justice for the law

  He rides from Texas to enforce the law

  Well, people look at me and say
  "Hurrah, hurrah, is you the law?"

  He rides from Texas to enforce the law

  This must have been transcribed by a Northerner, because nobody from
  down home would misspell [^ r^] as "hurrah." I've never seen this
  string in any kind of writing or in any kind of print, so I don't know
  how one *would* spell it. "Uh ruh," perhaps? But "hurrah" can't
  possibly be right.

  -Wilson Gray