Song title: Cowboys of the sea
Cowboys of the sea - Hammond demo
They ride beneath the waves at 20,000 leagues
On stallions stitched to seaweed strands
So smiling, so smiling
They herd the fishes of the deep
They ride for you and me
They ranch the rich and the sunken soil
At the bottom of the sea
In the dead of night, alive in sleep
I hear them calling me
Them deep sea desperadoes
Them midnight maelstrom freaks
The cowboys of the sea
So on wings of sleep I pierce the deep
And ride like a hurricane
At midnight still I paid my bill
And turned my back on the land
With the help of Old Paint, that seaweed nag
Its just Jesse James and me
We ride the depths and we rob the banks
With the cowboys of the sea
With a seaman's grip on navigation
And some fired, hired hands
We set forth to confront the nation
And lend a cowboy's hand
We do the dolphin's dance duet
My mermaid babe and me
Then I ride off into the blue sunset
At the bottom of the sea
And with the seaman's grip on submarining
And some aqualung outlaws
Our guns are made of solid dreamin'
And bullets of the cause
And with hand held high to touch the sky
A good Texas Ranger I'll be
But sometimes I feel like a lone stranger
'Midst the cowboys of the sea
Oh and man above he just cannot make love
He's must rape his mother sea
And because of his greed
We're a vanishing breed
We cowboys of the sea
Whoa the cowboys
Cowboys of the sea - Laurel Canyon demo
They ride beneath the waves at 20,000 leagues
On stallions stitched to seaweed strands
So smiling, so smiling
They herd the fishes of the deep
They ride for you and me
They ranch the rich and the sunken soil
At the bottom of the sea
In the dead of night, alive in sleep
I hear them calling me
Them deep sea desperadoes
Them midnight maelstrom freaks
The cowboys of the sea
So on wings of sleep I pierce the deep
And ride like a hurricane
At midnight still I paid my bill
And turned my back on the land
With the help of Old Paint, that seaweed nag
Its just Jesse James and me
We ride the depths and rob the banks
At the bottom of the sea
With a seaman's grip on navigation
And some fired, hired hands
We set forth to confront the nation
And lend a cowboy's hand
We do the dolphin's dance duet
My mermaid babe and me
Then I ride off into the blue sunset
At the bottom of the sea
And with the seaman's grip on submarining
And some aqualung outlaws
Our guns are made of solid dreamin'
And bullets of the cause
And with hand held high to touch the sky
A good Texas Ranger I'll be
But sometimes I feel like a lone stranger
'Midst the cowboys of the sea
Oh and man above he cannot make love
He's must rape his mother sea
And because of his greed
We're a vanishing breed
We cowboys of the sea Notes:
Two Laurel Canyon demo version are circulating, the lyrics are quite identical.
This song has never been published on any official release.
Very few performances of this songs are known (to me, at least!):
- 04/02/1972 The Backdoor Club, Richmond,VA ,USA during the BSB period
Data from the www.brucespringsteen.it database
Unique known live performance: 04/02/1972 The Backdoor Club, Richmond,VA ,USA
Song 'history':
During the early years (1965-1972), played live (at least) 1 time(s) with the Bruce Springsteen Band.
.
Keep in mind that only a small amount of the setlists of these years has surfaced, so it may have been played a lot more.
Apart from the above live performances, the song was recorded for the historical 'Hammond demos' in May 1972 and also for the Laurel Canyon / London Publishing demos
Data from the www.brucespringsteen.it database