Saturday, January 22, 2011

Lee Hazlewood, "Pray Them Bars Away" on Cowboy in Sweden

(Cross-posted from Commonplace)

I'm told I should be thankful
For everything I got
So thank you for rock walls
And the brave bulls, thanks a lot
And thank you for the good job
At twenty cents a day
And thank you for the break time
To pray them bars away

4 comments:

Ethan said...

Gonna be honest, I'm not sure I get the line about the "brave bulls." Otherwise, love.

Anonymous said...

maybe the jail guards, but it's almost poetry, so I assume I don't get any of it.

drip

davidly said...

Dunno, but in German "Bullen" is a reference "the pigs" don't take too kindly to.

Word verifier: immate

Ethan said...

haha, drip, you too? (with poetry)

Considering that it's Lee Hazlewood, I figure it could be anything from Oklahoman or Texan slang to Swedish slang weirdly translated to hippie-speak to something he made up to sound like one of those to something completely idiosyncratic (this is the man, after all, who said that velvet and morning rhymed). davidly, I wouldn't even put the German thing past him (and I'm glad to know that, too). Maybe the Swedes say something like it, too, you never know.

Actually, isn't there a western called The Brave Bulls? Could be something to do with that.