A Stetson, a Duster and a Henry Rifle

[poliphilo]

Judy says we should write an outlaw ballad together. I have a brief anxiety attack, then crank out the first verse and a chorus and email them to her. I grew up on westerns. It was Britain in the 1950s and I wanted to be out there riding the purple sage.

No actual western is ever quite as good as the western in my head. Those that come closest? Stagecoach, My Darling Clementine, The Searchers, 3.10 to Yuma, The Wild Bunch, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid, Unforgiven.

Comments

[beentothemoon.livejournal.com]

I think that's charming. What about Hondo? The Magnificent Seven? Rio Grande? The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance? Also, why an outlaw song, rather than say, a train song?

[balirus.livejournal.com]

My grandfather lived all his life just a few miles away from the Chisholm Trail. I grew up just down the road from him and I remember as a child when he took me to pastures nearby to see some of the deep cattle ruts that still survived.

As for cowboys, he said almost all the trail riders carried guns on their hips. He only ever saw one street gunfight as a young child and it was in a nearby cattle town that dried up in the 30's. Quick and terrifying is how he remembered it, but it was a legal fight and the winner walked away.

You've got some good movies listed. I would also add Rio Bravo, High Noon, Red River, and The Cowboys (about young men on a cattle drive). And we can't forget Shane, one of the best cowboy movies there is.