It was on a day the cowboys were abandoned from the range
Metal touched world as a master
They rode their ponies down in the cities of gold
To leave them for ever after
Now the sun was swollen, red and old
The earth it was windy, dark and cold
Where the highway ends the desert takes its toll
So dusty, red and angry
It was a time when men died out on the prairie
From not having a decent friend
At nights the ghosts to the more rough riders
Was a howl in the canyon winds
You can hear 'em crying
Good God, I think they're dying
When them rangers down in Dallas
Had all but given it up and left
And those that hung on hoping
Were trying their best to, to forget
The way those outlaws and desperadoes
Right from the cheapest to the best
Rode in on ponies made of skin and bones
Give up their rusty guns and went back home
And the governor was sent down from Population Control
And marshal law was passed
Riverboat gamblers put their money on faith
For the time for hope had passed
In the cold blue light of the desert night
There was a thousand starry ships
And men came down from still I don't know where
With death on their fingertips
Now there's no more kings in Texas
I swear they rounded up each and everyone
And old Atlanta Conestoga
Reached from the Rocky Mountains into the old dead sun
Now Anna Maria walks the plains alone
The last of a struggling people
She thinks of all those outlaws who wanted to reach for the skies
And got stuck up on a steamboat
Oh you can hear them crying
Good God, I think they're dying
In the wind you can hear them sighing
Outtake recorded on 28 June 1973 at the 914 Sound Studios, Blauvelt, New York City. Later appeared on the
semi-legal CD Before The Fame.
Another demo preoccupied with visions of the Wild West, this one features some great work on the organ
from Danny Federici. This would have been worthy of a place on either of the first two albums, probably being
more suited to Greetings From Asbury Park, NJ.
