Wild Cyclone
Words and Music by Woody Guthrie
Contact Publisher - Woody Guthrie Publications/BMG Chrysalis

The last big buffalo run is done
And the hides are stripped and gone,
I’m standin’ here in Dead Ghost City
On a pile of rattling bones.
Three Prong Pete runs down my street
He’s yellin’ out his lungs,
There’s a wild stampede comin’ through town
And it’s led by the Wild Cyclone!

I dodged in back of some bales of hay
As the wild herd jostled past,
Well, I could not spot their leader horse
‘Cause they all went past so fast!
A wind-burned girl rode in that herd
And I seen her toss her loop,
Her horse, he fell, and the girl did yell,
“I’ve missed that Wild Cyclone!”

I lifted her up from that dusty street
On top of my bales of hay,
She pulled her hair and cried and said,
“That Cyclone got away!”
She said, “I’ve trailed him six long years,
Since he was just a colt!”
I squeezed her hand and said, “I’ll help you
Snag that Wild Cyclone!”

We bought for her a saddling dunn
With an Indian bridle, too,
Stopped our pack on a swayback bay
And trailed for a week or two.
In Dry Grass Valley we pitched our camp
Where the cold water springs did run
Laid every trap in the Broomtail book,
But we missed that Wild Cyclone!

One day just when the sun comes up
My gay friend grabs him in,
Throws a noose loop on a mare
And told me with a grin,
“We’ll build a pen around this mare
And the Cyclone’s bound to come,
Before too many moons roll by
We’ll have that Wild Cyclone.”

A small rail fence we built around
This fair young nickery mare,
That same old night as the moon was bright
Old Wild Cyclone was there.
He pushed the gate of the rail corral
And he rubbed his lady’s nose,
We laced our gates with leathery straps
And trapped that Wild Cyclone.

My windburned girl did feel so gay
She kissed my leathery cheek,
Then both rode back to Dinghorn Town
To the Justice of the Peace;
We bred this fair and prettyful mare
To the stormy Wild Cyclone,
It’s now our kids ride past us on
The fastest horse that roams.


© Copyright by Woody Guthrie Publications, Inc.
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