Gillian Welch & David Rawlings - When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings

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“When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings”
written by Gillian Welch & David Rawlings
nominated for Best Original Song at the 91st Academy Awards

Artwork: Lordymercy
Animation: Josh Stafford

Lyrics:
Let me tell you buddy there’s a faster gun
Coming over yonder when tomorrow comes
Let me tell you buddy and it won’t be long
Till you find yourself singing your last cowboy song

Yippie ki yi yay when the roundup ends
Yippie ki yi yay and the campfire dims
Yippie ki yi yay he shouts and he sings
When a cowboy trades his spurs for wings

When they wrap my body in the bindling sheet
And they take my six irons and pull the boots from my feet
Unsaddle my pony she’ll be itchin’ to roam
I’ll be half way to heaven under horse power of my own

Yippie ki yi yay when the round up ends
Yippie ki yi yay and the campfire dims
Yippie ki yi yay he shouts and he sings
When a cowboy trades his spurs for wings

Yippie ki yi yay I’m glory bound
No more jingle jangle I’ll lay my guns down
Yippie ki yi yay he shouts and he sings
When a cowboy trades his spurs for wings
When a cowboy trades his spurs for wings

[evelyndawson]

I just love this song so much. It actually moves me to tears when I place it in the context of the cowboy life which was so hard, so small and had so few expectations. When I read books like The Power of the Dog, or E Annie Proulx's stories I am so touched by the hardship of the lives lived in this milieu and this song so perfectly captures the humbleness, futility and fatalism of these lonely men. Thank you Mr Rawlings & Ms Welch for this beautiful musical evocation of those times and those men.

[kellybyrd]

The sounds that these two folks make together is like a lullaby for my soul.

[LennyAlves]

We are making history here, mates! This song is the best! God bless The San Saba Songbird.

[boomshanka]

This gem will be played at my funeral.

[LH-bsij]

Gillian and Dave are my absolute favorite and I listen regularly to all of their CDs. Peace for the soul.

[simons]

What a fantastic piece of work. Pure genius. Wins the oscar in my book

[Stogie]

What a beautiful rendition of the song

[TheEaglewoman]

Dave & Gillian are so talented! ♥♥ They have written so many beautiful songs that are timeless, yet they sound like they were written in days gone by a long time ago! Priceless!!

[steveoneill]

Gillian and David, together, are
Perfect, , , Helping Me along

[AJAMAS]

Just beautiful!  The dark humor of the movie version is replaced with soulful reverie!  "I'm Glory Bound!  ...I'll see y'all there, and we can sang together and laugh about all the meanness in the used-ta-be"

[ThePinkfloyd]

Perfection! Thank you - both of you - for being such a big part of the soundtrack of my life.

[graciousfew]

Great songwriting, I think Willie's version is even better.... will be the only bit of the Oscar's worth watching!

[avahattam]

gutted that this bit of genius didn't win the oscar - but so glad for that classic gillian and david performance!

[iandehmel]

God dang she's got a beautiful voice.

[loniduncan]

I love this song but then I love every song these 2 write/sing.

[mikelabomusic]

I feel like i’ve been waiting forever for this!

[filippotenisci]

Love this song! I descovered Gillian Welch's music watching Criminal Minds. After that I started to listen all her song's every day! Greetings from Italy

[tankmaster]

Goosebumps within the first 2 seconds after the vocals started... that didn't take long!

[johnandrewmunroe]

So deeply touching. You two should have won the Nobel Prize of Beautiful by now. Where is this prize? Maybe it's in everyone buying your music for full price. Love you guys!

[gordynoble]

Oh How I Love Gillian how sweet to may have heard Ms Emmylou Harris doing some backup on this song. Awesome Dave Rawlings Oh Yes Oscar Worthy