Tumbling Tumble Weeds

Bob Nolan
Original copyright: 1934

Cover of the Sunset Music Co sheet music of Tumbling Tumble Weeds

Days may be dreary, still I’m not weary,
My heart needs no consoling.
At each break of dawn, you’ll find that I’ve gone
Like old tumbleweeds, I’m rolling.

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.
I know when night has gone
That a new world’s born at dawn.
I’ll keep rolling along,
Deep in my heart is a song,
Here on the range I belong,
Drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds.

The above lyrics are from the first published version of the song, from Sunset Music Co. in 1934.


ABOUT THIS SONG

“Have you ever seen a tumbleweed go racing across the desert and hit a fence? It’s just that sound. That one note—"Dri-fting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds." If you close your eyes, that’s what you hear when you see a tumbleweed hit a fence—till it gets on the other side.”
Bob Nolan, in a taped conversation, courtesy of Richard Goodman.

There is an interesting history to this Bob Nolan composition, one of his best-loved and an icon of Western music. Laurence Zwisohn gave an excellent concise description in the Pioneer News in 1978:

“Most Sons of the Pioneers fans who have read Ken Griffis’ book Hear My Song are familiar with the story of how Tumbling Tumbleweeds came to be written. In the fall of 1932, Bob Nolan wrote a poem titled Tumbling Leaves. Later Bob added music and the Sons of the Pioneers began singing the song on their radio broadcasts. Since Tumbling Leaves didn’t have a western lyric, the words were changed slightly to Tumbling Tumbleweeds. The song became one of the Pioneers’ most requested numbers and soon became their theme song.

A few months ago, Bob Nolan mentioned to Ken Griffis that he hadn’t written the opening verse to the song. That verse which begins, I’m a rovin’ cowboy, ridin’ all day long… has long been thought to be from the pen of Nolan. In truth, his original verse had a rather short life and has been dwelling in obscurity for the past forty-four years.

Tumbling Tumbleweeds was originally published by Sunset Music, a small, local Los Angeles purchase in May 1934. The song met with success and the publishing rights were purchased by the larger Sam fox Publishing Company, based in Cleveland. The nationally distributed edition of the song appeared in July 1934, only seven weeks after the original edition was published in Los Angeles. However, when the Fox edition appeared, a new verse had been inserted.

I’m a rovin’ cowboy, ridin’ all day long.
Tumbleweeds around me sing their lonely song.
Nights underneath a prairie moon,
I ride alone and sing a tune.

Nolan isn’t particularly fond of this verse, saying it is rather artificial and a Tin Pan Alley conception of a western lyric. Neither Bob nor anyone else knows who wrote the revised verse. Nonetheless, the second verse is the one the Pioneers sang on their two Decca recordings of the song.

Just to verify that the Sunset verse was the one Bob had written, I took it over to him and asked him if it was his. Bob took out his guitar, picked out the melody and sang the lyrics in a rather dramatic fashion. It had been years since he had seen his original verse, and he carefully took his time about playing and singing it. When he finished, Bob put his guitar down and said he still didn’t know why the publishers had changed it. Even after all these years he still prefers his original verse to the substitution.

Days may be dreary
Still I’m not weary.
My heart needs no consoling.
At each break of dawn
You’ll find that I’ve gone
Like old tumbleweeds, I'm rolling.

—Larry Zwisohn, Pioneer News 1, No. 2. (May-June 1978)

There is at least one printing error in the Sunset Music copy of the original verse. “For the only time while I knew him, Bob went to another room and came back with a guitar. He sat down, strummed the guitar and sang his original verse. At one point he hit a bad chord, looked at the sheet music, played the same bad chord a second time, smiled and said, ‘They’ve got a mistake here.’ He finished singing the verse, looked at me and said he still didn’t know why they had changed it”
—Larry Zwisohn, in a letter to Elizabeth Drake McDonald on June 29, 1999

Nolan himself spoke about the song and its origins on several occasions.

I originally wrote the song about tumbling leaves. During a period of time, in singing it over the radio with the Sons of the Pioneers, of which I was an original member, the listening audience would request it under the title, 'Sing about the tumblin' weeds.' After many such requests, I changed the words to tumbling tumbleweeds, changing the tune slightly to accommodate the extra syllables. The Sons of the Pioneers then had an hour on the radio every day which prompted us to make 'Tumbling Tumbleweeds' our theme song."
Bob Nolan, to Edythe Jacobs

The song itself—the melody—had different lyrics altogether and I don’t know if it was quite by an accident that we—somebody—thought of Tumbling Tumbleweeds. I didn’t at the time. The announcer at KFWB said, ‘Why don’t you... They keep requesting this Tumbling Weeds song.’ …the song at the time was Tumbling Leaves and … I’d say about 7 out of 10 requests for the song came in [for] Tumbling Weeds, see, so Harry Hall said, ‘Why don’t you change the lyrics and make it Tumbling Weeds? Tumbling Tumbleweeds.’

Just the same melody except that it didn’t have that tilted note in the latter part. It went da da da da da da da da da dum. And once I used the tumbleweed at the end of the phrase, I had to put in that tilt—ta-dum—where it hits the snag. Da da da da da da da da da dum ta dum."
Bob Nolan from Ken Griffis' Interview of January 2, 1972

It seems to me that it’s always been man’s nature to wander over the face of the earth in search of food, in search of wealth, and in search of adventure. The old west brought many, many men, torn from the roots of their eastern homes to travel the wide open spaces in search of these illusive things. And today, it seems to me, these same men live on, drifting and roaming in the spirit of tumbling tumbleweeds."
Bob Nolan in his introduction to Teleways Transcription #26

When asked what he considered a turning point in his career, Bob answered, “When Rudy Vallee first sang my Tumbling Tumbleweeds on his program in 1933."
Calin Coburn Collection Volume 1, #184

NOLAN: I didn’t copyright it until 1934 but I wrote it in 1930.
GRIFFIS: Tumbling Tumbleweeds?
NOLAN: Tumbling Tumbling Leaves. The Tumbling Leaves. I’m sorry. That was the title.
GRIFFIS: That was in 1930.
NOLAN: Yeah.
GRIFFIS: But then you copyright Tumbling Tumbleweeds in 1934?
NOLAN: Yeah.
GRIFFIS: Now was it written as a poem or did it have music with it?
NOLAN: Yes. I wrote Tumbling Leaves, words and music. Let’s see. I never even thought of making it Tumbling Tumbleweeds, but Tumbling Leaves. I was just sitting in my little cottage out in West Los Angeles. My girl, Mickey, was working at the Old Soldier’s Home and I was working up in the hills in Bel Air Country Club, caddying. It was on a Sunday afternoon when I started to work on this song and Mickey was in the kitchen. Oh, she was going to do a cuisine for our Sunday evening dinner. That’s where it was written – out in West Los Angeles sometime in the year 1930. I think that was the same time of the year that the boys were trying to get me to come back….
GRIFFIS: Tumbling Leaves would have the same melody that you …?
NOLAN: Same melody. Only one note was changed. Instead of drifting along with the tumbling leaves, it was drifting along with the tumbling tumbleweeds. Well, I had to do something if I was going to change it from leaves to tumbleweeds but I had to because everybody that requested the doggone song, see we sang it and, My God, the requests coming in for Tumbling Leaves, see. “Sing that Tumbling Weeds song.” I didn’t think of it first. Our damn engineer thought of it. Why don’t you change it to Tumbling Tumbleweeds?
GRIFFIS: Did you ever copyright Tumbling Leaves? Did you ever think of copyrighting it?
NOLAN: No, no. It wasn’t really copyrighted until 1934.
GRIFFIS: As Tumbling Tumbleweeds.
NOLAN: M-hmm.
Bob Nolan, from Ken Griffis' Interview of January 12, 1972

As important as the song was to Bob Nolan and the Sons of the Pioneers it was perhaps equally as important to other performers of the emerging genre of western music:

“One of Gene’s (Autry) first million-selling records was his superb rendition of the Pioneer’s theme song, “Tumbling Tumbleweeds”, written by Bob Nolan. It became the title of the first Autry musical western for Republic Pictures in mid-1935, and its success prompted Gene to ask on more than one occasion the renowned cowboy poet for another hit song along the same lines. “Sure, Gene,” Nolan would always respond from his customary perch in the cafe he frequented. “I’m working on a new song just for you.” Somehow, that promised song which would have undoubtedly been a classic was never delivered, but Gene did sing Bob’s “Cool Water.”
—John Guyot Smith, 1997

For more information about this song see the excellent essays “Tumbling Tumbleweeds: Evolution of a Western Standard,” by Lawrence Hopper, and “The Sad History of Tumbling Tumbleweeds,” by Laurence Zwisohn.

SHEET MUSIC

RECORDINGS

SONS OF THE PIONEERS TRANSCRIPTION RECORDINGS

Standard Radio transcriptions, No. 1729

10-2-4 Ranch radio Show, December 31, 1943 (01)

10-2-4 Time radio show: January 2, 1945 (02)

Teleways Radio Productions transcriptions, Nos. 26, 57, 102, 142, 166, 194, 213, 260

Lucky U radio programs courtesy of Larry Hopper:
- Audition Disc No. 1 and No. 2.
- Transcription Disc TR-119/120 (November 28, 1951)
- Transcription Disc TR-485/486 (August 21, 1952)

Smokey the Bear radio shows, 1955 No. 4 and 1958 No. 1