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

by Katie Lee (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Review
“A joyful, spirited and valuable contribution to the literature and music of the West.” (Sing Out! )

Product Description
This classic of cowboy lore including illustrations by cowboy artist William Moyers, first published in 1976, is now available only from the University of New Mexico Press.

“A joyous book about cowboy songs and their singers. Arizona’s Katie Lee has been crisscrossing the country for years collecting and singing folk songs and especially cowboy songs. Many of these, often thought to be old and traditional, are comparatively recent and were written by a single person within living memory. . . . Katie Lee sets the record straight. . . . Ten Thousand Goddam Cattle, the title of one of the songs she sings, is written in a breezy, conversational style with a refreshingly unlaundered vocabulary. The text is liberally sprinkled with verses of the songs and there is a separate compendium of songs giving melody and discography and other pertinent information about each.”—Arizona Highways

“A beautiful job, exact, comprehensive and witty. Should remain a basic history of the subject for many years to come.”—Edward Abbey

“A perfect blend of scholarship and feeling for the country and the people and the traditions. . . . a book to treasure. Katie Lee has matched her fine performing capability with a book that blends verse, prose and music for the most enjoyable single volume on the cattle industry since Frank Dobie died.”—El Paso Times

“A joyful, spirited and valuable contribution to the literature and music of the West.”—Sing Out!

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Product Details

• Paperback: 271 pages
• Publisher: University of New Mexico Press; 3rd edition (January 1, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826323359
• ISBN-13: 978-0826323354
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,714,633 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Well, maybe it is four stars for musicologists..., January 17, 2005

By	William E. Adams (Hobbs, NM USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Ten Thousand Goddam Cattle: A History of the American Cowboy in Song, Story and Verse (Hardcover)

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.