stan jones
Scared to death of a ghost tale an old cowboy friend told him during a working mission, 12-year old Stanley Davis "Stan" Jones (1914-1963) hurried back home to hide. About 20 years later he remembered the scene on his forest range, and wrote THE ultimate cowboy song.
I don't remember when I heard it the first time, nor with who, but it has always followed me. I've had a life-long attraction to cowboy songs, and I'm not ashamed. About the time I'd started picking up songs, learning to play the guitar, I couldn't pick up all the words, so I spent money on buying the notes postally from "Musikkforlaget Norge". Rats; they sent me a folder with truncated lyrics and piano notes & tab in G minor; impossible to play for a greenhorn. Same shit happened when I ordered the original of "Old Man River". Fraud!
Not many today know about "the singing ranger", but I found a site in memory of Stan Jones. Click the icon at the bottom of this page to know about a songwriter now more or less forgotten.
Legacy: (Ghost) Riders in the Sky was first recorded by Stan himself, late 1948. Rumours spread, and in spring 1949 Burl Ives, Vaughn Monroe, Bing Crosby, Peggy Lee, Sons of the Pioneers and Spike Jones(!) almost simultanously released versions. Most successful was Vaughn Monroe (with Orchestra and the Moon Men), reaching the top of the Billboard Charts and ranked as #1 Song for 1949. Latest recording so far (2024): heavy metal band "Devil Driver" in 2018 for album "Outlaws 'till the End".
an old cowpoke went ridin' out one dark and windy day
upon a ridge he rested as he went along his way
when all at once a mighty herd of red-eyed cows he saw
coming through the ragged skies and up a cloudy draw
"yippie-yi-aie : yippie-yi-oh!"
ghost herd in the sky ...
their brands were still on fire and their hooves were made of steel
their horns were black and shiny and their hot breath he could feel
a bolt of fear went through him as they thundered through the sky
for he saw the riders coming hard and heard their mournful cry:
"yippie-yi-aie : yippie-yi-oh!"
ghost riders in the sky ...
their faces gaunt • their eyes were blurred • their shirts all soaked with sweat
they're riding hard to catch that herd but they ain't caught them yet
cause they've got to ride forever on the range up in the sky
on horses snorting fire as they ride on hear them cry:
"yippie-yi-aie : yippie-yi-oh!"
ghost riders in the sky ...
as the riders rode on by him he heard one call his name:
"if you want to save your soul from hell a-riding on our range
then cowboy change your ways today or with us you will ride
trying to catch the devils herd across these endless skies"
"yippie-yi-aie : yippie-yi-oh!"
ghost herd in the sky ...
ghost riders in the sky ...
For the following CHORD section, fullscreen/horizontal mobile is recommended.
Chords in brackets may be omitted.
Bm D an old cowpoke went ridin' out one dark and windy day Bm D upon a ridge he rested as he went along his way Bm when all at once a mighty herd of red-eyed cows he saw G Em7 Bm coming through the ragged skies and up a cloudy draw Bm D Bm yippie-yi-aie yippie-yi-oh G Em7 Bm ghost herd in the sky
