Review of "The Whorehouse Bells Were Ringing" and Other Songs Cowboys Sing

Authors

Rick Cypert, Nebraska Wesleyan University

Date of this Version

1991

Document Type

Article

Comments

Published in GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY 11:4 (Fall 1991). Copyright © 1991 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Abstract

Readers whose sensibilities allow them to get beyond this book title and songs like "Peter Pullin' Blues" and "Honky-Tonk Asshole" (two of my favorites) will recognize what a valuable contribution Logsdon has made to the fields of folklore, history, and sociolinguistics. As he suggests in the preface, part of his purpose in this book is to place the romanticized image of the cowboy in its proper perspective. And despite the appeal of B-grade Western characters, as Logsdon says, there is a difference between what he calls "fake-lore" and "folklore."