The Daily Dose is continuing with another song by U. Utah Phillips, the Golden Voice of the Great Southwest. This tune is called The Goodnight Loving Trail. I first heard it on an Ian Tyson record.

http://youtu.be/1ZL2E0173IY

It’s sort of a cowboy song. The title refers to a cattle driving trail from the 1860s, named after cattle ranchers Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving. However, it’s really a song about getting old. The “Old Woman” referred to in the song is the cowboy who is too old to wrangle or ride on the swing. Instead, he drives the chuck wagon. He’s the cook and he’s the doctor and he manages camp. Here are the lyrics:

Too old to wrangle or ride on the swing,
You beat the triangle and you curse everything.
If dirt was a kingdom, they you'd be the king.

     On the Goodnight Trail, on the Loving Trail,
     Our Old Woman's lonesome tonight.
     Your French harp blows like the low bawling calf.
     It's a wonder the wind don't tear off your skin.
     Get in there and blow out the light.

With your snake oil and herbs and your liniments, too,
You can do anything that a doctor can do,
Except find a cure for your own god damned stew

     CHORUS

The campfire's gone out and the coffee's all gone,
The boys are all up and they're raising the dawn.
You're still sitting there, lost in a song.

     CHORUS

I know that some day I'll be just the same,
Wearing an apron instead of a name.
There's nothing can change it, there's no one to blame
For the desert's a book writ in lizards and sage,
Easy to look like an old torn out page,
Faded and cracked with the colors of age.

     CHORUS

I love this tune. It's lovely and sad. "I know that some day 
I'll be just the same." So true. 

Let's listen to some other versions. 
Joe Ely does a great job of it...


Some of you may be surprised that Tom Waits recorded it.


And one more. this is Sara Grey and Kieron Means
http://youtu.be/ezPbES_tgMI