Home on the Range

"Home on the Range" is a classic western folk song sometimes called the "unofficial anthem" of the American West. It is also the official anthem of the state of Kansas. Dr. Brewster M. Higley of Smith County, Kansas, wrote the lyrics in the poem "My Western Home" in 1872.[1][2] In 1947, it became the Kansas state song. In 2010, members of the Western Writers of America chose it as one of the Top 100 western songs of all time.[3]

This article is about the song. For other uses, see Home on the Range (disambiguation).
"Home on the Range"
Song
GenreWestern folk song
Composer(s)Daniel E. Kelley
Lyricist(s)Brewster M. Higley

History
Dr. Brewster M. Higley, late 19th century

In 1871, Higley moved from Indiana to Smith County, Kansas, under the Homestead Act. He lived in a small cabin near West Beaver Creek.[4] He was inspired by his surroundings and wrote "My Western Home", published in the Smith County Pioneer in 1872.[5] That home is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Home on the Range Cabin.

Higley's friend Daniel E. Kelley (1808–1905) wrote the melody on his guitar.[6] Higley's original words are similar to those of the modern version of the song, but not identical; the original did not contain the words "on the range".[5] The song was eventually adopted by ranchers, cowboys, and other western settlers, and it spread throughout the United States in various forms.[7] In 1925, Texas composer David W. Guion (1892–1981) arranged it as sheet music published by G. Schirmer.[8] The song has since gone by a number of names, the most common being "Home on the Range" and "Western Home".[9] It was officially adopted as the state song of Kansas on June 30, 1947, and is commonly regarded as the unofficial anthem of the American West.[9][10]

Bing Crosby recorded the song on September 27, 1933, with Lennie Hayton and his orchestra for Brunswick Records.[11][12] The origin of "Home on the Range" was obscure and widely debated at the time. It was published in 1910 in Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads by John Lomax, who said that he learned it from a black saloon-keeper in Texas. Its popularity led to a plagiarism suit that created a search for its background.[13]

Modern usage

Bing Crosby recorded the song again in 1938 and 1939.[14] Frank Sinatra also recorded the song on March 10, 1946; his version was released in Great Britain and was not available in the United States until 1993. Others who have recorded the song include John Charles Thomas, Connie Francis, Gene Autry, Burl Ives, Pete Seeger, Johnnie Ray, Slim Whitman, Steve Lawrence and Tori Amos. "Home on the Range" is often performed in programs and concerts of American patriotic music and is frequently used in plays and films. The song is also the theme opening music for the early Western Films starring Ray "Crash" Corrigan and his two co-stars under their movie roles as "The Three Mesqueteers". It is also featured in the 1937 screwball comedy The Awful Truth (sung by Irene Dunne and Ralph Bellamy), the 1948 film Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (sung by both Cary Grant and Myrna Loy), the 1967 off-Broadway musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown (sung by the cast as a glee club rehearsal number), the 1980 film Where the Buffalo Roam (sung by Neil Young over the opening credits), the 2009 film The Messenger (sung by Willie Nelson over the closing credits), and the 1946 western film Colorado Serenade (sung by actor Roscoe Ates). A parody version is sung by villain Percival McLeach in the 1990 animated film The Rescuers Down Under.

The song has made its way into screen shorts for children and adults, as in the 1954 Looney Tunes cartoon Claws for Alarm, where it is sung by Porky Pig. Likewise, Bugs Bunny sings the song in both The Fair-Haired Hare (1951) and Oily Hare (1952), the latter containing original lyrics specific to Texas oilmen.

The song is used in The Simpsons episode "Lisa's Substitute" in which Lisa is inspired by a substitute teacher who dresses as a cowboy and sings the song with commentary.[15][16]

In the video game Red Dead Redemption 2, while playing online the player can unlock an instrumental version of the song which can be heard at the player's camp when the character Cripps plays it on his harmonica.

Major versions compared
Dr. Brewster Higley (1872, 1927, 1960) William and Mary Goodwin (1904) John A. Lomax (1910)
Oh, give me a home where the Buffalo roam
Where the Deer and the Antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the sky is not cloudy all day.
Chorus
Home, home on the range,
Where the Deer and the Antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word,
And the sky is not cloudy all day.
Oh! give me a land where the bright diamond sand
Throws its light from the glittering streams,
Where glideth along the graceful white swan,
Like the maid in her heavenly dreams.[17]
Chorus
Oh! give me a gale of the Solomon vale,
Where the life streams with buoyancy flow;
On the banks of the Beaver, where seldom if ever,
Any poisonous herbage doth grow.
Chorus
How often at night, when the heavens were bright,
With the light of the twinkling stars
Have I stood here amazed, and asked as I gazed,
If their glory exceeds that of ours.
Chorus
I love the wild flowers in this bright land of ours,
I love the wild curlew's shrill scream;
The bluffs and white rocks, and antelope flocks
That graze on the mountains so green.
Chorus
The air is so pure and the breezes so fine,
The zephyrs so balmy and light,
That I would not exchange my home here to range
Forever in azures so bright.
Chorus
Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam,
Where the deer and the antelope play;
There seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the sky is not cloudy all day.
Chorus
A home, a home
Where the deer and the antelope play,
There seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the sky is not cloudy all day.
Yes, give me the gleam of the swift mountain stream
And the place where no hurricane blows;
Oh, give me the park where the prairie dogs bark
And the mountain all covered with snow.
Chorus
Oh, give me the hills and the ring of the drills
And the rich silver ore in the ground;
Yes, give me the gulch where the miner can sluice
And the bright, yellow gold can be found.
Chorus
Oh, give me the mine where the prospectors find
The gold in its own native land;
And the hot springs below where the sick people go
And camp on the banks of the Grande.
Chorus
Oh, give me the steed and the gun that I need
To shoot game for my own cabin home;
Then give me the camp where the fire is the lamp
And the wild Rocky Mountains to roam.
Chorus
Yes, give me the home where the prospectors roam
Their business is always alive
In these wild western hills midst the ring of the drills
Oh, there let me live till I die.
Chorus
Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam,
And the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day.
Chorus
Home, home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day.
Where the air is so pure, the zephyrs so free,
The breezes so balmy and light,
That I would not exchange my home on the range
For all of the cities so bright.
Chorus
The red man was pressed from this part of the West
He's likely no more to return,
To the banks of Red River where seldom if ever
Their flickering camp-fires burn.
Chorus
How often at night when the heavens are bright
With the light from the glittering stars
Have I stood here amazed and asked as I gazed
If their glory exceeds that of ours.
Chorus
Oh, I love these wild prairies where I roam
The curlew I love to hear scream,
And I love the white rocks and the antelope flocks
That graze on the mountain-tops green.
Chorus
Oh, give me a land where the bright diamond sand
Flows leisurely down the stream;
Where the graceful white swan goes gliding along
Like a maid in a heavenly dream.
Chorus

References
  1. "Home on the Range - Kansapedia - Kansas Historical Society". Kshs.org. Retrieved 22 February 2019.
  2. International, Rotary (September 1955). "Home on the Range". The Rotarian: 40.
  3. Western Writers of America (2010). "The Top 100 Western Songs". American Cowboy. Archived from the original on 10 August 2014.
  4. "Kansas Historical Society: Home on the Range". Kansas Historical Society.
  5. Pulver, Florence (1946). "Re: Home on the Range". The Rotarian. 68 (2): 2–3, 54. Dr. Spaeth accepted this later Spaeth 1948, p. 205
  6. "Home on the Range". Kansas Historical Society.
  7. Spaeth, Sigmund Gottfried (1948). A History of Popular Music in America. New York: Random House. p. 205.
  8. "Kansas Historical Society: Home on the Range History". Kansas Historical Society. April 2017.
  9. Silber, Irwin, ed. (1967). Songs of the Great American West. New York: Macmillan. pp. 221–223. OCLC 1268417.
  10. Harris, Cecilia (2014). "A Symbolic State: Home on the Range" (PDF). Kansas! Magazine. 2014 (Spring): 17–26, page 19. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 August 2014. Retrieved 10 August 2014.
  11. "A Bing Crosby Discography". BING magazine. International Club Crosby. Retrieved April 18, 2017.
  12. Whitburn, Joel (1986). Pop Memories 1890-1954. Wisconsin: Record Research inc. p. 104. ISBN 0-89820-083-0.
  13. Giddins, Gary (2001). A Pocketful of Dreams. New York: Little, Brown & Co. pp. 338–339. ISBN 0-316-88188--0.
  14. "A Bing Crosby Discography". BING magazine. Retrieved November 23, 2015.
  15. Gates, Anita (December 5, 1993), "The Voice Is Familiar but I Can't Place the Overbite", New York Times, retrieved 2020-04-22
  16. Fear, David (August 8, 2017), "The Best of Dustin Hoffman: 20 Essential Roles", Rolling Stone, retrieved 2020-04-22
  17. Flatt, Christina. "10 of the Best Cowboy Songs". Rtpr.com. Real Time Pain Relief. Retrieved 9 June 2016.
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