Indian Cowboy Songtext

von Townes van Zandt

Well, the next time you go to the circus
Where the Wallendas walk on the wire
Here's a tale for you to remember
When the white horses leap rings of fire

It was a cold night in Oklahoma
And the show was about to begin
And the animals they were all restless
When the star horse she breaks from her pen

She was a mare of high spirit
Like a hooker on Saturday night
And kickin' and buckin' past the men that were brushin'
The elephants down for the night
Well, next to the tent sat a lantern
Dangerously close to the hay
And that mare headed straight for that lantern
Some fool had left there by mistake

Well and up jumps this Indian cowboy
And his lasso went whirlin' through the air
In the full dead middle of the danger
He ropes that runaway mare

Well, the elephants raised up their trumpets
And two of them broke from their chains
And stampeded that Indian cowboy
That had saved the big top from flames
So if you ever go out to the circus
Where the Wallendas walk on the wire
Remember that Indian cowboy
When the white horses leap rings of fire