Praefectus Praetorio
R.I.P. Brother of the Quill
South Dakota’s first poet laureate lived much of his life alone in a prim cabin in the heart of Custer State Park. He wore whipcord breeches and polished riding boots, a Windsor tie and an officer’s jacket. He fed the deer flapjacks from his window in the mornings, paid $10 a year in ground rent and denounced consumerism at every turn. “Lord, how I pity a man with a steady job,” he wrote in his diary in 1941.
Born January 1, 1883, Badger Clark (no connection to Wisconsin, you Badger Fans) built a career writing what many today call “cowboy poetry,”
In his 1915 book of poems, Sun and Saddle Leather, was a poem, “A Border Affair.” An Arizona cowboy named Bill Simon happened upon a copy of the poem and composed a melody to go with it and turned the poem into a popular campfire singalong. Before long, it had become a fixture in the folk canon. The song came to be known by the first line, Spanish is a loving tongue.
In 1963, A year before they married, the famed Canadian folk duo Ian Tyson and Sylvia Fricker (one of my favorite folk acts - Sylvia was so hot!*) recorded “Spanish Is a Loving Tongue” on their album Four Strong Winds; the lyrics’ cowboy spirit may have particularly spurred the interest of Tyson, a former rodeo rider.
Spanish is the lovin' tongue,
Soft as music, lights as spray.
'Twas a girl I learnt it from,
Livin' down Sonora way.
I don't look much like a lover,
Yet I say her love words over
Often when I'm all alone -
'Mi amor, mi corazon.'
Nights when she knew where I'd ride
She would listen for my spurs,
Fling the big door open wide,
Raise them laughin' eyes of her
And my heart would nigh stop beatin'
When I heard her tender greetin',
Whispered soft for me alone
'Mi amor! mi corazon!'
Moonlight in the patio,
Old Señora noddin' near,
Me and Juana talkin' low
So the Madre couldn't hear -
How those hours would go a-flyin;!
And too soon I'd hear her sighin'
In her little sorry tone -
'Adios, mi corazon!'
But one time I had to fly
For a foolish gamlin' fight,
And we said a swift goodbye
In that black, unlucky night.
When I'd loosed her arms from clingin'
With her words the hoofs kep' ringin'
As I galloped north alone -
'Adios, mi corazon'
Never seen her since that night,
I kain't cross the Line, you know.
She was Mex and I was white;
Like as not it's better so.
Yet I've always sort of missed her
Since that last wild night I kissed her,
Left her heart and lost my own -
'Adios, mi corazon!'
*
Born January 1, 1883, Badger Clark (no connection to Wisconsin, you Badger Fans) built a career writing what many today call “cowboy poetry,”
In his 1915 book of poems, Sun and Saddle Leather, was a poem, “A Border Affair.” An Arizona cowboy named Bill Simon happened upon a copy of the poem and composed a melody to go with it and turned the poem into a popular campfire singalong. Before long, it had become a fixture in the folk canon. The song came to be known by the first line, Spanish is a loving tongue.
In 1963, A year before they married, the famed Canadian folk duo Ian Tyson and Sylvia Fricker (one of my favorite folk acts - Sylvia was so hot!*) recorded “Spanish Is a Loving Tongue” on their album Four Strong Winds; the lyrics’ cowboy spirit may have particularly spurred the interest of Tyson, a former rodeo rider.
Soft as music, lights as spray.
'Twas a girl I learnt it from,
Livin' down Sonora way.
I don't look much like a lover,
Yet I say her love words over
Often when I'm all alone -
'Mi amor, mi corazon.'
Nights when she knew where I'd ride
She would listen for my spurs,
Fling the big door open wide,
Raise them laughin' eyes of her
And my heart would nigh stop beatin'
When I heard her tender greetin',
Whispered soft for me alone
'Mi amor! mi corazon!'
Moonlight in the patio,
Old Señora noddin' near,
Me and Juana talkin' low
So the Madre couldn't hear -
How those hours would go a-flyin;!
And too soon I'd hear her sighin'
In her little sorry tone -
'Adios, mi corazon!'
But one time I had to fly
For a foolish gamlin' fight,
And we said a swift goodbye
In that black, unlucky night.
When I'd loosed her arms from clingin'
With her words the hoofs kep' ringin'
As I galloped north alone -
'Adios, mi corazon'
Never seen her since that night,
I kain't cross the Line, you know.
She was Mex and I was white;
Like as not it's better so.
Yet I've always sort of missed her
Since that last wild night I kissed her,
Left her heart and lost my own -
'Adios, mi corazon!'
*
