Just heard the great song “If I hurry I can still make Cheyenne”. What’s your interpretation on what’s going on in the song?
The first time I heard it, I thought that the singer told his wife that he was eliminated from the rodeo, and would be home soon. She reveals that she is leaving him, and he says 'if I hurry I can still make Cheyenne".I took this to mean that he missed her, and he lied about being eliminated and was coming home early. Since she left him anyway, he admits that he had lied, and he might as well continue to the next stage.
I have read other people who say that he really was eliminated, but was going to head to the next (unrelated) one.
I’m sure there is no definitive answer to this, but I think the two interpretations greatly change the song. In the first, he is a good man and was going to sacrifice what he loves doing to save his marriage. In the other, he comes off as callous and uncaring that she left him.
What do you guys think?
I forgot to include, here’s a link if anyone hasn’t heard it, but would like to give an opinion.
I always thought that Cheyenne was a different rodeo that he was going to go to and that he really was eliminated from the one he called her from. I never got the impression he missed her because when she said she was leaving, he didn’t seem too bothered by it.
Your probably right, makes the song alittle depressing tho. Well on the one hand if he was really that bad, he would have went to Cheyenne anyway. But I guess he wanted to make amends. Classic tale of too little too late.
Hmm. You say he’s calling his wife. My assumption had always been girlfriend. He’s saying he’s ready to come home and settle down. She has already given up waiting for him and thrown him over for a bank manager or dentist. Someone predictable and steady who won’t break her heart like a rodeo man.
Since he wasn’t going home for anything but her there’s no reason to now. Might as well give Cheyenne a shot.
When my brain fills in “the rest of the story” it’s not that he goes to Cheyenne, and wins.
This. Cheyenne is supposedly ‘the rodeo’, and he was essentially giving it up to be with his woman. When he discovers she has moved on, the line “if I hurry I can still make Cheyenne” is his way of saying there is no sense dwelling over it, I’ll go ahead and try to make it to the rodeo.
As a side note- George Strait TOTALLY wants me. He’s going to be my second husband hahhhaaa
I always interpreted this song completely differently. He’s just doing his typical rodeo routine, he’s been undependable because of his passion for it. He calls because he knows it’s been a while since he’s seen her, and she says ‘‘don’t bother’’ because she’s fed up with this lifestyle. His response, ‘‘I’m sorry it’s come down to this, there’s so much about you that I’m gonna miss’’ is sincere but there’s no damn way he’s going to leave the rodeo for her, which is clear by the way he says he can still make Cheyenne. I think the point of the song is that the rodeo has, and always will be, his top priority.
The singer is a rodeo man. He rides the circuit competing, but he’s not doing well ("…didn’t make the short go again"). This last time out he decides that he’s had enough for a while and wants to take a break.
Meanwhile, she has decided that she can’t be in love with a cowboy who’s gone all the time ("…there’s somebody new and he sure ain’t no rodeo man"). She tells him this and it breaks his heart. But he’s a rodeo man and a rodeo man bleeds in the inside! So, he says this dickish thing (“It’s all right baby; if I hurry I can still make Cheyenne”) not because he’s trying to be a dick, but because the rodeo’s all that’s left to him now.
He walks away from his love knowing that his behavior is what caused the breakup but unable to change. There’s always another rodeo.
This great song is part of a very specific country music topic: “Woman, you knew what I did when you married me. Quit trying to change me!” Sometimes it’s rodeo, sometimes it’s truck driving, but the message is the same. And actually, it’s not purely a country music thing, it’s a universal thing. Rodeo and trucking are just the most suitable examples for exploration within the confines of country music.
This “universal thing” is the woman (usually) who chases after a certain kind of man, and once she catches one, she wants him to stop being that kind of man. You see it in country songs like this one (she chased after rodeo guys, got one, wants him to stop).
You see it in letters to advice columns: “Dear Abby, my new husband is in the Navy, and I want him to get out. I just know he’s got women in other ports…” (You mean, women like you who move to port towns to meet sailors?)
I’ve seen it with friends in real life: “Yeah, she met me while I was playing music in bars for a living, and now she wants me to stop doing it because she just knows I’m only doing it to meet women.” (I’ve seen this one more than once.)
:dubious: Projecting, perhaps? Anyway, I think you might be reading a bit too much into this. Sure, it’s clear that there are mismatched aspirations between the couple in the song that have inevitably led to their final breakup, but AFAICT the problem was basically that the guy was completely neglectful, as he himself acknowledges (“I know I’ve been away too long, I didn’t write and I didn’t call”, etc.), and she just got fed up with it.
There’s no hint that she was specifically “chasing after rodeo guys”, either. Nor is she in fact trying to change him: she’s just telling him “this isn’t working, so goodbye”.
I always took the ‘I can still make Cheyenne’ line as his putting a brave face on it, after she told him not to bother coming home. He’s been missing her and is ready to come home, but since she’s not there anymore, well, then, it’s okay, he doesn’t really need her anyway.
See, this is what makes a really great song; a couple of perfectly valid interpretations, and no definitive way to say which one is “correct.”
I’ve always leaned toward the idea that he just wasn’t that engaged in the relationship - not in an assholish way, but just because he’s a rodeo man, and that takes up the majority of his time and energy. She leaves, and he’s genuinely sorry to see her go, but he’s not too broken up about it.
I think the song’s sadder that way, and I like me some sad songs.
I’ve always loved the Chris LeDoux/Garth Brooks song "Watcha Gonna Do With a Cowboy"for turning this trope completely on its head. He decides it might be time to settle down, and the woman’s thinking, “Oh, shit, what am I going to do with him now?”
Yup, me too. I also like how the start (and end) of the song is talking about her fear when she hears the phone ring, because he’s leading a dangerous life and she’s always secretly expecting the worst.
He loves her and she loves him, but neither of them can be happy with the life the other wants. So she gets a different guy and he goes on to the next ride. Neither of them is screaming or making a scene; they just know it’s the way it has to be.
The cowboys say, “Honey,
You’re a fine girl.
And I’ve called to tell you hello.
But the love that lassos my life is
Rodeo.”
(Yip-ee-YO-ki-yay, Yip-ee-YO-ki-yay)
Yeah, he’s been on the rodeo circuit for God knows how long, he finally got eliminated, and he’s calling home to tell his wife he’s coming home. He’s been gone for so long that she’s sick of it and found somebody who will be around. He’s broken up about it, but instead of fighting for her, he just swallows it and finds another rodeo to go to so he doesn’t have to face up to losing his wife. You can tell he’s crushed by it by the way he drops the phone and starts to walk away, and then stops and turns around and gives it one last look. But when he gets to Cheyenne, he’s just going to go on like before and pretend it never happened.
