A Word To Texas Jack - Slim Dusty, Barry Thornton

Texas Jack, you are amusin', great Lord Harry, how I laughed

When I seen your rig and saddle with its bulwarks fore-and-aft

Holy smoke!

In such a saddle how the dickens can ya fall?

Why, I’ve seen a gal ride bareback with no bridle on at all!

How I’d like to see a bushman use yer fixins, Texas Jack

On the remnant of a saddle he can ride to hell and back

Why, I’ve heard a mother cheerin' when her kid went tossin' by

Ridin' bareback on a bucker that had murder in his eye

You may talk about your ridin' in the city, bold an' free

Talk o' ridin' in the city, Texas Jack, but where’d you’d be

When the stock horse snorts an' bunches all 'is quarters in a hump

And the saddle climbs a sapling, an' the horse-shoes split a stump?

No, before you teach the natives you must ride without a fall

Up a gum or down a gully nigh as steep as any wall

You must swim the roarin' Darling when the flood is at its height

Bearin' down the stock an' stations to the Great Australian Bight

You can’t count the bulls an' bisons that you copped with your lassoo

But a stout old Myall bullock perhaps could learn you somethin' new

You had better make your will an' leave your papers neat an' trim

Before you make arrangements for the lassooin' of him

As you say you’re death on Injuns!

We’ve got somethin' in your line

If yer think your fightin’s equal to the likes of Tommy Ryan

Take your carcass up to Queensland where the alligators chew

And the carpet-snake is handy with his tail for a lassoo

Ride across the hazy regins where the lonely emus wail

An' ye’ll find the dark’ll track yer while yer lookin' for his trail

He can track yer without stoppin' for a thousand miles or more

Come again, and he will show yer where yer spat the year before

But you’d best be mighty careful, you’ll be sorry you came here

When you’re skewered to the fragments of your saddle with a spear

When the boomerang is sailin' in the air, then heaven help ya!

It will cut yer head off goin', an' come back again and scalp ya!

Texas Jack, you are amusin', great Lord Harry, how I laughed

When I seen your rig and saddle with its bulwarks fore-an'-aft;

Holy smoke!

In such a saddle how the dickens can ya fall?

Why, I’ve seen a gal ride bareback with no bridle on at all!