The Cowboy And The Hippie - Chris Ledoux

On a highway through the desert beneath an overpass

Sat two hikers just watchin' cars go by

Now one was wearin' sandles with straggly matted hair

Rose colored glasses for his eyes

Now the other was a cowboy, he’d been down on his luck

Lost his money at the Tuscon Rodeo

And he sat beside what remained of his trusty pickup truck

And like the hippie now he’s thumbin' down the road

Now some folks don’t realize but it’s a well know fact

Cowboy’s and hippies ain’t never got along

Now was it just coincidence or some weird act of fate

That brought these two together on the road?

Well they sat there without talking while the morning sun rose high

When a hot desert breeze commenced to blow

And the fragrance of the incense and six weeks without a bath

Finally drifted down and reached the cowboy’s nose

Well, man that really did it, he couldn’t take no more

And he tied his old bandana 'round his face

Said, «You greasy stinking hippie you’d put a skunk to shame

Boy, you’re a discrace to the human race»

Now the hippie he just sat there and gave the cowboy a smile

Said, «Man you don’t smell so sweet yourself

Well I’m not too sure what that green stuff is on your boots

And on your jeans but whew it’s enough to make a buzzard belch»

The cowboy said, «Now listen I ain’t gonna that that stuff from you

No long haired freak’s gonna talk to me that way, get up»

Well the hippie said, «Now hold on man, what good’s that gonna do

You know fighting never settles nothing anyway»

Said, «You know man, in a lot of ways we’re an awful lot alike

Once you get down beneath the skin

Like two books with different covers but the same words inside

We’re both brothers of the wind»

«Now we both love our freedom and we’ll answer to no man

And you’ve heard it said to thine own self be true

We’re just a couple of free spirts drifting across the land

Doing exactly what we want to do»

Said, «Now me I got my thing and you, you got yours

And I don’t see why we can’t get along

They say the closest thing to freedom is livin' on the road

In a country where freedom’s almost gone»

Well the cowboy, he just stood up there and never said a word

But you know this hippie sure made a lot of sense

Well they shook hands and parted as a truck pulled to the side

And the hippie he went east and I went west