Buffalo Skinners Lyrics - Singles - Arlo Guthrie

Traditional, arranged 

by Arlo Guthrie 

Come all you old time cowboys 

And listen to my song 

Please do not grow weary 

I'll not detain you long 

Concerning some wild cowboys 

Who did agree to go 

And spend the summer pleasant 

On the range of the buffalo. 

Well I found myself in Griffin 

In eighteen eighty-three 

When a man by the name of Creagho 

Come a'walkin' up to me 

Sayin "How do you do young fella 

And how'd you like to go 

And spend the summer pleasant 

On the range of the buffalo". 

Well me being out of work right then 

To that drover I did say 

"My goin' out on the buffalo range 

Depends upon the pay 

But if you pay good wages, 

Transportation to and fro 

I think I might go with you 

On the range of the Buffalo". 

Well yes I pay good wages 

And transportation too 

If you'll agree to work for me 

Until the season's through 

But if you do get homesick 

And you try and run away 

You'll starve to death out on the trail 

And you'll also lose your pay 

Well with all the flatterin' talkin' 

He signed up quite a train 

Some ten or twelve in number 

Of able bodied men 

And our trip it was a pleasant one 

Through all New Mexico 

Until we crossed Pease River 

On the range of the buffalo 

It was there our pleasures ended 

And our troubles all begun 

A lightnin' storm come up on us 

And made the cattle run 

We got full of the stickers 

On the cactus that did grow 

And the outlaws waited to pick us off 

In the hills of Mexico 

Well the working season ended 

But the drover would not pay 

He said "You spent your money boys 

You're all in debt to me". 

But the cowboys never put much stock 

In a thing like a bankrupt law 

So we left the bastard's bones to bleach 

On the range of the buffalo.