Me and my good partners
we were riding back to our camp
we were feeling very fine
and the air was clear and slightly damp
and we were riding back to have ourselves a party
to celebrate the robbing of the train

We were talking kind of low and lazy
about not having to go out soon again
you know we hadn't been back home two hours
we heard a hawk cry out in the night
and you know that's a signal from young Billy, who's our sentry

He's saying something here ain't exactly right
so we quick grabbed some of our hardware
stumbled out of our home
in two minutes flat we had found her
an Indian girl all alone

and Eli said, "Let's take her back to the cabin"
I said, "You don't know she might be the law, yeah"
He said, smiling kind of nasty
"It ain't too damn likely she'll beat me to the draw."

As we were walking back through the darkness
I heard the Duke, he's our dynamiter, say
he said, "What's your name, sweet little Indian girl?"
She said, "Raven." and she looked away
Right then I didn't trust her, no and I said so, oh no

Now, Eli, he's our fastest gunner
He's kind of mean and young from the South
he said, "Fat Albert, you're getting kind of old and weird now."
"You'd better get your twelve gauge shot gun right out."

Now Eli and the Duke they got down to it
they each wanted the Indian girl for their own
but when they finally got around to asking her
you know she said she'd come to take young Billy home
Eli said he'd kill young Billy
he'd kill the Duke, and probably me too, yeah

The Indian girl said, "Go ahead now do it"
I said "Stop it", and she bit my thumb nearly clean through
and when they finally started to break down the door
I smeared my face up with blood from my thumb
I laid down on the floor and played real good possum

You know I'm crazy but I ain't real dumb
now I'm dying here in Albuquerque
I must be the sorriest sight you ever saw
you know the reason I'm the only man here to tell it
you know that Indian girl, she wasn't an Indian she was the law



Lyrics submitted by hari66

Cowboy Movie song meanings
Add Your Thoughts

6 Comments

sort form View by:
  • 0
    General Comment

    Although I am sure the reality is different, I am amazed at how unrehearsed this song feels. It's like being at a campfire and someone is telling a story, and in the flickering of flames you are transported to another world. Does he really die in Albuquerque (had to Google spelling, lol)? If this song really has the intentional characterizations of Stills, Nash and Young as noted above, it is beyond colossal in its brilliance.

    Dartmanon May 29, 2015   Link

Add your thoughts

Log in now to tell us what you think this song means.

Don’t have an account? Create an account with SongMeanings to post comments, submit lyrics, and more. It’s super easy, we promise!

More Featured Meanings

Album art
The Spy
Doors, The
Like a lot of the other comments are saying, I think this mainly about voyeurism. If the song was about his girlfriend, then why would he use the word spy. If you are a spy it means you shouldn't be caught, that is kind of the whole point, and if you are a voyeur, the whole point of the pleasure you get from it, is the fact that the other people don't know you are watching them. See a bit of a connection there?
Album art
Grand Theft Auto
Insane Ian
The way this song speaks to me🥺🥺when I sing it I feel like I relate
Album art
Battle Royale
Word Alive, The
This song is def a twin to "Unfair" (a song she has been quoted as saying is about falling in love with someone who is already in a relationship) so it is presumably about the same person. Given the references to buying an apartment and not being able to see her love interest "after tonight," it's most likely that she's moving away and she'll "wait a day to break the bad news" (i.e. notifying him that she's leaving once she's already gone). And, of course, the fact that she sees in him a fellow "idealist" and "dreamer" (terms commonly given to people with the INFP personality on the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)) portends that she'll always be left wondering if they would've been perfect together.
Album art
The Night We Met
Lord Huron
This is a hauntingly beautiful song about introspection, specifically about looking back at a relationship that started bad and ended so poorly, that the narrator wants to go back to the very beginning and tell himself to not even travel down that road. I believe that the relationship started poorly because of the lines: "Take me back to the night we met:When the night was full of terrors: And your eyes were filled with tears: When you had not touched me yet" So, the first night was not a great start, but the narrator pursued the relationship and eventually both overcame the rough start to fall in love with each other: "I had all and then most of you" Like many relationships that turn sour, it was not a quick decline, but a gradual one where the narrator and their partner fall out of love and gradually grow apart "Some and now none of you" Losing someone who was once everything in your world, who you could confide in, tell your secrets to, share all the most intimate parts of your life, to being strangers with that person is probably one of the most painful experiences a person can go through. So Painful, the narrator wants to go back in time and tell himself to not even pursue the relationship. This was the perfect song for "13 Reasons Why"
Album art
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.