Cowboy - Van Dyke Parks

Paniolo cowboy in a field of sugar cane

Once there was a forest where they hid there in the rain

Cowboy bowboy cowboy

Wanderin' Wahini under locks of raven hair

Beads of inspiration Hopin' he would not forget just where

Heyup cowboy!

Up above the canopy in the highest branches of a tree

He would take her longingly and say «One day you’ll belong to me»

I forgot to mention it was nineteen forty-one

Zeros kept a-comin' like to blanket out the sun

Cowboy cowboy

So they lay suspended dreaming of some kind of god

With their limbs akimbo and extended to the mind of God

Cowboy

And the night without regret says it’s time to let your hair down low

There they lay in silhouette he would say I’d stay yet have to go

King Kamehameha met with Captain Cook uopn the shore

Lookin' at all the cattle asked him «What the hell are these for?»

Cowboy cowboy cowboy

Gone now is the forest and the lovers of the trees

Now there is a chorus playing golf who say in Japanese

Kau-boi