Jump to content

The Lavender Cowboy

From Wikisource

This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.


The longest-living author of this work died in 1964, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 59 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

Public domainPublic domainfalsefalse


The Lavender Cowboy
by Harold Hersey

The Lavender Cowboy was originally a 1923 poem by Harold Hersey. It was then set to music and appeared in the 1930 Western Oklahoma Cyclone. Several versions have since been recorded and it has been banned from radio airplay due to the suggestive content of its lyrics.

14326The Lavender CowboyHarold Hersey

He was only a lavender cowboy,
The hairs on his chest were two,
But he wished to follow the heroes
And fight like the he-men do.

But he was inwardly troubled
By a dream that gave him no rest,
That he'd go with his heroes in action
With only two hairs on his chest.

First he tried many a hair tonic.
'Twas rubbed in on him each night.
But still when he looked in the mirror
Those two hairs were ever in sight.

But with a spirit undaunted
He wandered out to fight,
Just like an old-time knight errant
To win combat for the right.

He battled for Red Nellie's honor
And cleaned out a holdup's nest
He died with his six guns a-smoking
With only two hairs on his chest.