Roy Rogers Tribute Medley

**The Roy Rogers Tribute Medley** was a medley arranged by Riders In The Sky after the death of Roy Rogers on July 6th, 1998. On July 11th, the Riders debuted the medley on TNN's *Grand Ole Opry Live* television show (the date of Rogers' memorial service). The medley was comprised of songs that had come to be associated with Rogers over his music and acting career: *Pecos Bill*, *Blue Shadows On The Trail*, *Lights Of Old Santa Fe*, *Don't Fence Me In*, *Along The Navajo Trail*, *Tumbling Tumbleweeds*, concluding with a eulogy written by Too Slim and *Happy Trails*. The Riders would continue to perform the medley towards the end of their live shows for the next year, where they would occasionally substitute *Tumbling Tumbleweeds* for *Skyball Paint*.

## Lyrics

(PECOS BILL)

*Pecos Bill was quite a cowboy down in Texas*

*And a western superman to say the least*

*He was the roughest-toughest critter*

*Never known to be a quitter*

*And he never had no fear of man nor beast*

*So yippie-yi-yay-yi-yay yippie-yi-yo*

*He's the toughest critter west of the Alamo*

*Pecos roped a raging cyclone out of nowhere*

*He saddled it and straddled it with ease*

*And while that bronco bucked and tossed 'em*

*Pecos brushed his teeth and flossed 'em*

*And he tamed that ornery wind down to a breeze*

*So yippie-yi-yay-yi-yay yippie-yi-yo*

*He's the toughest critter west of the Alamo*

(BLUE SHADOWS ON THE TRAIL)

*Blue shadows on the trail*

*Blue moon shining through the trees*

*And a plaintiff wail from the distance*

*Comes a driftin' on the evening breeze*

*Move along blue shadows*

*Move along*

*Soon the dawn will come and you'll be on your way*

*But until the darkness sheds it's veil*

*There'll be blue shadows on the trail*

(LIGHTS OF OLD SANTA FE)

*In the dawn see the shadows fall*

*Where the night seems to cover all*

*In the hills you see them shining*

*See the lights of old Santa Fe*

*Hit the trail time for us to part*

*To the place where I've left my heart*

*And we'll find a silver lining*

*In the lights of old Santa Fe*

(DON'T FENCE ME IN)

*Give me land lots of land under starry skies above*

*Don't fence me in*

*Let me ride through the wide open country that I love*

*Don't fence me in*

*I wanna be by myself in the evening breeze*

*Listen to the murmur of the cottonwood trees*

*Send me off wherever but I ask you please*

*Don't fence me in*

*Just turn me loose*

*Let me straddle my old saddle underneath the western sky*

*On my cayuse*

*Let me wander over yonder 'till I see the mountains rise*

*I wanna ride to the ridge where the west commences*

*Gaze at the moon until I lose my senses*

*I can't look at hobbles and I can't stand fences*

*Don't fence me in*

(ALONG THE NAVAJO TRAIL)

*Everyday along about evening*

*When the sunlight's beginning to fail*

*I ride through the slumbering shadows*

*Along the Navajo trail*

*Whadda know it's morning already*

*Another dawn and so silvery pale*

*It's time to climb into my saddle*

*And ride the Navajo trail*

(TUMBLING TUMBLEWEEDS)

*See them tumbling down*

*Pledging their love to the ground*

*Lonely but free I'll be found*

*Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds*

*Cares of the past are behind*

*Nowhere to go but I'll find*

*Just where the trail will wind*

*Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds*

(HAPPY TRAILS starts)

(A EULOGY TO THE KING OF THE COWBOYS by Too Slim)

Imagination saddled up and ridden hard, as far as a young mind's eye could see. Across a landscape of action and self-reliance and deeply-felt happiness, truth and work their own reward. Friends of the fire, songs and jokes and Dale and Gabby and a good horse, a smart horse. Smarter than the black hat and the black heart, even the horse knew he was King Of The Cowboys. Long live the King. He gave a boy in a dark room a plain, a mountain, a river, a life's landscape for imagination saddled up and ridden hard.

(HAPPY TRAILS)

*Happy trails to you*

*Until we meet again*

*Happy trails to you*

*Keep smiling until then*

*Who cares about the clouds when we're together*

*Just sing a song and bring the sunny weather*

*Happy trails to you*

*Till we meet again*

## Riders Recordings

* *The Grand Ole Opry Live* (July 11th, 1998)
* *Riders Radio Theater*: *War of The Worlds* (1999)