SLS: Chasin’ Wild Horses

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Play a song about the American West, or one that mentions cowboys, a sheriff, an outlaw, horses, cactus, or tumbleweeds – that is Jim’s invitation to this week’s Song Lyric Sunday, which as he tells us in his informative and entertaining post, Yee-Haw Get Along Little Doggies, is to mark the 145th anniversary of the Gunfight at the OK Corral. I have a couple of tunes for you that fit the bill, plus a fun bonus that is way off the mark – you’ll see when you get there!

My first choice for today, and the one which gives my post its title, comes from The Boss:

Bruce Springsteen, with Chasin’ Wild Horses, which of course he wrote, and genius.com has the lyrics.

The song was a track on Bruce’s nineteenth studio album, Western Stars, which was released in June 2019 and reached #1 in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and in many European countries, but only made #2 in the US and #4 in Canada – slackers! It became his 20th US top-10 album and abroad was met with widespread acclaim from critics, who found the music elegiac and evocative of the American West. That is why I chose this song, and for its mentions of wild horses, which really fit today’s theme. A full performance of the album was filmed and released by Warner Bros. Pictures in September 2019 – my chosen video comes from that. I love Bruce’s more reflective songs, and this is a good example of them.

When he announced the album in April 2019 he said that it was influenced by “Southern California pop music” of the 1970s, including artists such as Glen Campbell and Burt Bacharach, and called it “a return to my solo recordings featuring character-driven songs and sweeping, cinematic orchestral arrangements”, with a press release characterising it as about a “range of American themes, of highways and desert spaces, of isolation and community and the permanence of home and hope.” Core themes for much of his music, and much needed nowadays.

My second song for today comes from another of my favourites:

Tom Petty, with Two Gunslingers, and here of course are genius.com with the lyrics.

As the clip showed, this was a track on Into The Great Wide Open, the eighth studio album by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, which was released in July 1991, reaching #3 in the UK, #4 in Canada and #13 in the US, and also made top tens and twenties around the world. It is one of my favourites of his albums, and I played it to bits. Tom wrote this song around the time of the first Gulf War, and described it as a subtle demand for peace and an expression of how one person can choose to stop fighting. The two opposing gunslingers face off in the street, question why they are fighting, and mutually decide to walk away instead of shooting each other. If only it were that simple – even you know who might be capable of working that out, instead of shouting about continuing a fight he started and is doomed to lose. The Wild West setting for the song feels very appropriate, I think.

I promised you a bonus track, which I said is nowhere near what I think Jim might have been expecting for today. It takes its theme from the more common current use of the word ‘cowboy,’ which is taken as a description of a rogue, particularly in the phrase ‘cowboy builders.’ But this is the fabulous Kirsty MacColl, and I just had to play it:

Don’t Come The Cowboy With Me Sonny Jim, and I hope you can see why I love this and Kirsty so much. And before I forget, here are the lyrics from genius.com.

That is so typical of Kirsty’s wry songwriting, and I love the way the video harks back to cowboy days even though the song is actually a warning to girls not to allow themselves to fall for a wrong’un. This was a track on her second album, Kite, which came out in May 1989 and peaked at #34 in the UK. It became the fourth, and final, single taken from the album in March 1990, but only made #82 in the UK. I always enjoyed her records – I have the full set – and she was a sad loss when she was killed by a cowboy speedboat driver in December 2000, at just 41.

That’s me done for the day. As always, I hope you have enjoyed the music, and thank Jim for running the show so well.

I’ll see you again for some more sweet Tuesday Tunes, so until then stay warm and dry out of the storms, if you are suffering them too. Take care 🤗

39 thoughts on “SLS: Chasin’ Wild Horses”

  1. Three wonderful choices Clive. Is it really 26 years since we lost the lovely Kirsty? What a talent. I have Western Stars on vinyl and it’s wonderful; though not every Bruce fan I know embraced it. To me it’s a great songwriter stretching the breadth of his skills.

    And as for Tom, what a clever song, carrying a sharp lyric with a catchy melody. Not easy to do.

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  9. Great write Clive and track selections too – I’d not heard the Tom Petty song before but I liked it and of course you can’t go wrong with Kirsty – just brilliant 🙌

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  10. Kirsty McColl made me smile with her spot on Patsy Cline look; love this bonus track, Clive! Always fab to hear the great Tom Petty and this terrific wild west-themed plea for peace never disappoints. While I’m not a fan of Springsteen or his delivery of this song, it’s a good song. Excellent write up.

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  12. Wonderful selections, Clive and I love the story that is told in Bruce Springsteen’s song ‘Chasin’ Wild Horses’ and his hushed vocals.  The Tom Petty song ‘Two Gunslingers’ is an unappreciated deep cut that was great to hear today.  The Kirsty MacColl song was new to me but I enjoyed her voice and the slide guitar sounds.

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    • Thank you, Jim, I’m pleased you enjoyed them. Both the Bruce and Tom ones are, to my mind, under-appreciated and deserving of an audience, and both tell good stories. Kirsty is, I think, just about unknown over there but I love her music and am always looking for a chance to play it. This is a great video too 👍

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