Tying Knots in the Devil’s Tail Michael Martin Murphey

Oh way up high in the Sierra Peaks
Where the yellow-jack pines grow tall
Sandy Bob and Buster Jiggs
Had a round-up camp last fall

They’d taken their ponies and their runnin’ irons
And maybe a dog or two
And they allowed their brand on every long-eared calf
That come within their view

Now many a long-eared dogie
That didn’t push [brush?] up by day
Had his old ears whittled and his old hide sizzled
In a most artistic way

Now Sandy Bob, he said one day
As he throwed his seegar down
“I’m tired of this cow-ography
Cowpiography
And I allows I’m goin’ to town.”

Well they saddled their ponies, and they struck ’em a lope
And how them boys did ride
And them was the days that an old cowboy
Could oil up his old insides