Rocky Banks of the Buffalo- Johnson (WS) 1997
[This is a fairly recent parody and is likely not traditional but composed. Recorded for Folk Legacy in 1997 by Lisa Null and Bill Shute on "The Feathered Maiden and other ballads."
Notes Rocky Banks of the Buffalo from Bill Shute: I heard this song in La Crosse, Wisconsin, sung by Glenn Walker Johnson, who lives by a waterfall and sings for his own pleasure. He says he learned it from one Pratt Remel of Little Rock, Arkansas. This is an up-beat variant of Babylon (Child #14,) with a feminist twist, American Indian images, and a vitality as modern as the story is old.
Tuning: Regular (A major, Hexatonic) Jimmy Driftwood should sing this song. I have used almost a Johnny Cash style back-up, but with bluegrass overtones. I wish I could play the first solo on mouth-bow. I play with a flatpick. Vocal: Lisa; Guitar: Bill, Lisa. (2:55)
R. Matteson 2012, 2014]
THE ROCKY BANKS OF THE BUFFALO- From Glenn Walker Johnson; La Crosse, Wisconsin who got it from Pratt Remel of Little Rock, Arkansas.
There were three maids lived under a bluff,
Shickel-i-shoe and a shuffle-o
In the Ozark mountains wild and rough
On the rocky banks of the Buffalo.
One day a wild man came along,
And he was mighty fierce and strong.
He courted them the whole day long,
And on his pipes he played this song.
He said to the youngest, "Won't you be my wife?
Or I'll take your hide and I'll take your life."
"Before I'd be a wild man's wife,
I'd lose my hide and I'd lose my life!"
He took her hide and he let her go,
And she danced all night on the heel and toe.
He said to the second, "Won't you be my bride
Or I'll take your hair and I'll take your hide!"
"Before I'd be a wild man's bride
I'd lose my hair and I'd lose my hide!"
He took her hair and turned her loose
And she looked just like a new plucked goose.
He said to the oldest, "Won't you be my squaw?
Or I'll take your pelt to my mother in law."
She said, "Now wild man, that cannot be,
I'm a tough old gal and you can't fool me!"
He throwed at her his hunting knife,
But it bounced right back and took his life.
She put the hide back on her kin;
They were twice as pretty and young again.