Don't Fence Me In
Don't Fence Me In
#0Don't Fence Me In
Posted: 4/5/05 at 11:33amCole Porter - anyone know the show?
" ...the happiness in the tune convinces me that I'm not afraid."
kissmycookie
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/21/04
#1re: Don't Fence Me In
Posted: 4/5/05 at 11:38amgoogle tells me it's Cole Porter during his Hollywood exile... From "Hollywood Canteen."
#2re: Don't Fence Me In
Posted: 4/5/05 at 11:41am
Thanks Cookie!
I can always count on you. :)
Ok, back to work.
Have a great day!
xoxoxox
" ...the happiness in the tune convinces me that I'm not afraid."
brdlwyr
Broadway Legend Joined: 1/14/05
Jon
Broadway Legend Joined: 2/20/04
#4re: Don't Fence Me In
Posted: 4/5/05 at 11:54amWhoever told Cole Porter to write a cowboy song had a sick sense of humor.
kissmycookie
Broadway Legend Joined: 7/21/04
Matt_G
Broadway Legend Joined: 5/1/04
#6re: Don't Fence Me In
Posted: 4/5/05 at 12:00pmI just finished listening to John Barrowman singing this song. :)
"Noah, someday we'll talk again. But there's things we'll never say. That sorrow deep inside you. It inside me, too. And it never go away. You be okay. You'll learn how to lose things..."
#7re: Don't Fence Me In
Posted: 4/5/05 at 1:05pm
Cole Porter wrote the song on a bet. One of his friends told him he was too "sophisticated" to write a simple cowboy song.
Porter wrote a delightful lyric, won the bet--and made then tons of money when Roy Rogers recorded the song! The version by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters is still entertaining, and of course Ella Fitzgerald does it divinely on her Cole Porter song book.
The only "sophisticated" part of the song is that the first verse is about the cowboy not wanting to be fenced in by jail, while the surprise in the second verse is about not wanting to be fenced in by a woman.
===
Wildcat Kelly, lookin’ mighty pale,
Was standin’ by the sherrif’s side,
And when the sherrif said "I’m sendin you to jail!"
Wildcat raised his head and cried
"Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above,
Don’t fence me in!
Let me ride through the wide open country that I love,
Don’t fence me in!
Let me be by myself in the evenin’ breeze,
Listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees,
Send me off forever, but I ask you please,
Don’t fence me in!
Just turn me loose,
Let me straddle my old saddle
Underneath the western skies.
On my cayoose,
Let me wander over yonder
Till I see the mountains rise.
I want to ride to the ridge where the west commences,
Gaze at the moon till I lose my senses,
I can’t look at hobbles and I can’t stand fences--
Don’t fence me in!"
Wildcat Kelly, back again in town,
Was standin by his sweetheart's side,
And when his sweetheart said, "Come on, let’s settle down!"
Wildcat raised his head and cried
"Oh, give me land, lots of land under starry skies above,
Don’t fence me in!
Let me ride through the wide open country that I love,
Don’t fence me in!
Let me be by myself in the evenin’ breeze,
Listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees,
Send me off forever, but I ask you please,
Don’t fence me in!
Just turn me loose,
Let me straddle my old saddle
Underneath the western skies.
On my cayoose,
Let me wander over yonder
Till I see the mountains rise.
I want to ride to the ridge where the west commences,
Gaze at the moon till I lose my senses,
I can’t look at hobbles and I can’t stand fences--
Don’t fence me in!"
#8re: Don't Fence Me In
Posted: 4/5/05 at 2:24pm
I think this is a great song!!
The rhyming schemes are inventive and the tune is infectous. I catch myself singing it sometimes as I walk down the sidewalk.
(and I like the Talking Heads version as well. Fun.)
"ubiquitous"
#9re: Don't Fence Me In
Posted: 4/5/05 at 2:32pmI walk down the street singing it too, Andy---the Andrews Sisters arrangement!
Tenorific2
Leading Actor Joined: 2/16/05
#10re: Don't Fence Me In
Posted: 4/5/05 at 3:48pmIt makes me wanna go play cowboy!! Alas I'm from the suburbs!!
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