Blue Prairie
Tim Spencer/Bob Nolan
Original copyright: May 8, 1936
Blue Prairie, blue echoes ring, blue as I sing
Of a longing blue as you.
Weary day and lonely night
Seem to say that nothin’s right.
Everything is feelin’ blue.
Here in my very soul I feel it, too.
Far in the distant hills I hear a cry
Then a silent hush but no reply.
Prairie, won’t you tell me true
Why have they spread this gloomy blanket of blue over you?
Refrain:
Blue prairie, blue are the skies,
Blue are the sighs of the night wind, fallin’.
Blue prairie, blue are the hills,
Blue are the trills of a night bird, callin’.
Every beating heart beats a rhythm that is blue
And the moon has cast a blue reflection in the dew
So the wind, while on its way
Seems to cry and sigh and say, “Blue!”
Blue prairie, blue echoes ring,
Blue, as I sing of a longing blue as you.
(Photo by Marc Phillips)
ABOUT THIS SONG
"The American West is All American! Someone said that Buffalo Bill Cody would have planted the flag of the United States on the trail of the Pony Express but God beat him to it. Cody said, 'Sure, there's the flag all around you—the stars up there in the sky, the red hills and the white snow on the mountain tops. And there behind you, there are the blue prairies.'"
(Bob Nolan in the Teleways Transcription #84)
Bob Nolan told Ken Griffis in a taped interview for his book Hear My Song, "Unless I did the major portion of the song, such as Blue Prairie, I wouldn't put my name on it. Over the years I did help Timmy on several tunes."
Blue Prairie was initially Tim's song but, unsatisfied with it as it was, he approached Bob Nolan for help. With its heartbeat rhythm and its progression up the chromatic scale, the song definitely has the Nolan stamp on it. Because Tim thought of it, Bob always insisted it was "Timmy's song" but he couldn't erase that Nolan sound.
The Sons of the San Joaquin stated that they "never ceased to marvel at how the repetition of the word ‘blue’ twenty times throughout the song fails to monotonize it, but rather becomes the catalyst upon which this song’s unspeakably beautiful musical imagery is built."
The song was so unusual and so lyrically beautiful that it has been recorded many times by the Sons of the Pioneers and other groups. It is still a favorite. The recording you are listening to as you read this was made by Rex Allen Jr. and the Reinsmen. It was used in at least two movies: Outlaws of the Prairie (1937) and Ridin' Down the Canyon (1942).
The song was registered for copyright on May 8, 1936.
SHEET MUSIC
The sheet music was first published in Sons of the Pioneers Original Songs of the Prairie No. 3 by Cross & Winge Inc, 1937.
RECORDINGS
SONS OF THE PIONEERS TRANSCRIPTION RECORDINGS
Standard Radio transcriptions B 3061-A; side KK (1935)
Orthacoustic Symphonies of the Sage, transcription disc TR-857, 7A (June 1944)
NBC Thesaurus transcriptions, disc 1804 side B (MS-064076)
Melody Roundup radio show, No. 707 (c. 1942-45)
Teleways Radio Productions transcriptions, Nos. 20, 51, 84, 128, 189, 225, and 246 (c. 1947-48)
Lucky U Ranch radio show (courtesy of Larry Hopper)
- Transcription disc TR-116/117 (November 26, 1951)
- Transcription disc TR-164/165 (December 26, 1951)
- Transcription disc TR-238/239 (February 13, 1952)
- Transcription disc TR-415/416 (June 17, 1952)
- Transcription disc TR-423/424 (June 23, 1952)
- Transcription disc TR-529/530 (October 22, 1952)
Smokey the Bear radio show No. 6 (1956)