I’d like to know what Moon Mullican is singing here, since he co-wrote the song. “His tom-tom beats ???” Sounds like “oh (or ol’) chief (or cheat?) McCloud” to me, but that doesn’t make sense. It’s right at 1:40 here.
Hank Williams sings “Chief Blue Cloud,” which neither makes sense nor is what Mullican is singing. Johnny Horton changed it to the logical “so big and proud.” I know others have come up with something, but none of the ones I’ve seen are what Moon is singing. Can anyone figure it out?
I can plainly hear “tom-tom beats” but the next phrase, which I represented with the row of question marks, is what I can’t make sense of. I can sort out the syllables to some degree, but I can’t see how they form words that logically fit the song.
The entire rest of the (English parts of the) song is easy to parse and makes narrative sense.
ETA: While “chieftan” may (or may not) be part of it, I’m also looking for the word that rhymes with (or is?) “loud.”