THE MAKING OF A NATION - Early Country Music: Cowboys Told A

THE MAKING OF A NATION - Early Country Music: Cowboys Told About Their Lives in Song
By Harold Braverman

Broadcast: Thursday, September 01, 2005

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Announcer¹: THE MAKING OF A NATION -- a program in Special English.

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Here is Kay Gallant² with our program.

 
 
Narrator: Last week, we talked about the growth of the cattle industry. This industry started in Texas during the eighteen seventies. With its growth came a new kind of worker -- the man who watched and took care of the cattle. These men who watched the cows and rode with them as they moved across the wild lands were often young. Just boys. And so they were called "cowboys. "

People all over the world have seen all sorts of films about the cowboy. And he is often shown in television shows. But the real life of the cowboy is not often shown. His work has been hard, and his life lonely and full of danger.

The cowboy has told his own story in many songs and ballads⁴. Hundreds of these have come from cowboys whose names are not known. They just sang these songs as they rode on the saddles⁵ of their horses across the cattle lands. Or, as they sat at their campfires at night.

They sang about the things that were close to them. Horses and cows and danger and death. Often, they sang about the long ride to the cattle markets where the cows were sold for beef, as in this song called, "Git Along Ltle Dogie."

Dogie is another name for a young cow, especially one which wanders away from the herd⁶. The song tells how the young cowboy keeps driving the dogies forward. He feels sorry for them, because they will soon be sold for meat. But that's their hard luck, not his. And he keeps pushing them on while he sings.

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One of the most famous of cowboy ballads is this one, called "The Chisholm Trail."

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Day and night, the horse was at the cowboy's side. A cowboy was as proud of his horse as he was of his skill in riding him. There is this feeling in the song "I Ride An Old Paint." A paint, or pinto, is a horse of three or more different colors.

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The cattle herds⁷ were driven a very long way to the cattle markets and had to be kept and watched on the open trail for many weeks. And the trail took the cowboys over rough country in all kinds of weather. The wild prairie lands were not friendly to men or animals. It was a lonely land. And the howling of wolves and winds at night made it more so.

Across this strange land, no man in the early days of the west knew just where death was waiting for him. A listener hears the mournful feeling cowboys had for the prairie in this song called, "The Dying⁸ Cowboy."

He does not want to be buried out in these wild lands -- in the lone³ prairie -- as the song says. Still, the dying cowboy does not get his wish. There is no choice. He can be buried only in the lone prairie in a narrow grave⁹ six by three. . . Six feet deep and three feet wide.

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Announcer: You have been listening to the Special English program, THE MAKING OF A NATION. Your narrator was Kay Gallant.

1 announcer   

n.宣布者；电(视)台播音员，报幕员

参考例句：

• The radio announcer said it was nine o'clock.电台播音员报时9点整。
• The announcer tells the listeners what programme comes next.广播员告诉听众下一个是什么节目。

2 gallant   

adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的

参考例句：

• Huang Jiguang's gallant deed is known by all men. 黄继光的英勇事迹尽人皆知。
• These gallant soldiers will protect our country.这些勇敢的士兵会保卫我们的国家的。

3 lone   

adj.孤寂的，单独的；唯一的

参考例句：

• A lone sea gull flew across the sky.一只孤独的海鸥在空中飞过。
• She could see a lone figure on the deserted beach.她在空旷的海滩上能看到一个孤独的身影。

4 ballads   

民歌，民谣，特别指叙述故事的歌( ballad的名词复数 )； 讴

参考例句：

• She belted out ballads and hillbilly songs one after another all evening. 她整晚一个接一个地大唱民谣和乡村小调。
• She taught him to read and even to sing two or three little ballads,accompanying him on her old piano. 她教他读书，还教他唱两三首民谣，弹着她的旧钢琴为他伴奏。

5 saddles   

马鞍( saddle的名词复数 )； （自行车或摩托车的）车座； （动物的）脊肉

参考例句：

• I'll tell you about it while Frank saddles the horse. 趁弗兰克给我备马的这会儿功夫，我把事情讲给你听吧。
• The interior pairs of cables will be supported on saddles. 当中的各对拉索支承在鞍座上。

6 herd   

n.兽群，牧群；vt.使集中，把…赶在一起

参考例句：

• She drove the herd of cattle through the wilderness.她赶着牛群穿过荒野。
• He had no opinions of his own but simply follow the herd.他从无主见，只是人云亦云。

7 herds   

兽群( herd的名词复数 )； 牧群； 人群； 群众

参考例句：

• Regularly at daybreak they drive their herds to the pasture. 每天天一亮他们就把牲畜赶到草场上去。
• There we saw herds of cows grazing on the pasture. 我们在那里看到一群群的牛在草地上吃草。

8 dying   

adj.垂死的，临终的

参考例句：

• He was put in charge of the group by the dying leader.他被临终的领导人任命为集团负责人。
• She was shown into a small room,where there was a dying man.她被领进了一间小屋子，那里有一个垂死的人。

9 grave   

n.墓穴，坟墓，雕刻工，抑音；adj.庄重的，严肃的，重大的，低沉的；vt.雕刻

参考例句：

• Marriage is the grave of love.婚姻是爱情的坟墓。
• This is a very grave matter indeed.这问题的确非常严重。