Where does this expression come from? (f'er, fighter, wild bull rider)

Factual Questions
1

I’m a fucker and a fighter and a wild bull rider, with a pretty fair windmill hand!"

Any idears?

2

I’ve never heard of this expression, and a Google search didn’t bring up a single page containing the phrase. Where did you hear it?

3

I’m still curious about this expression, and I’d at least like to get some more info from the OP, so I’m bumping this.

On an entirely unhelpful note, I can’t help but hear Johnny Cash’s voice when reading the saying, for some reason.

4

I’m not the OP, and I’ve never heard the phrase before, but a bit of Googling finds most of the constituent parts:
[ul]
[li]The ZZ Top song “She’s a Heartbreaker” contains the line:[/li][QUOTE]
She’s a lover ’n fighter, she’s a wild bull rider
[/QUOTE]

[li]The Becky Hobbs song “Honky-Tonk Saturday Night” has the lines:[/li][QUOTE]
I want a lover and a fighter and a wild bull rider,
To hold me tight on this honky-tonk Saturday night.
[/QUOTE]

[li]The Amarillo Globe-News had an obituary on February 21, 2003 for one David Carl Edwards, that says:[/li][QUOTE]
He loved to say he was a “lover, a fighter and a wild bull rider, and a pretty good windmill hand.”
[/QUOTE]
(if you Google “David Carl Edwards”+“windmill hand”, the first link leads to the obit, but registration is required. The cached version gives the relevant text, however. In addition, the second Google hit leads to a mirror here.
[/ul]

Although lover (or the OP’s f***er), fighter, and wild bull rider seem obvious, I can only assume that a “windmill hand” is someone who builds / tends / repairs windmills (which presumably around Amarillo might be used for pumping water or oil). Either that or it’s guitar-playing in the style of The Who’s Pete Townshend, but that seems unlikely in this context.

Hope this helps – otherwise I’ve got nothin’.

5

Hi guys,

Sorry it took me so long to write back, but I forgot all about this post! I actually read it in a wrestler’s biography (To Be the Man - Ric Flair), and I wondered where the hell it came from.

I assumed a song, so it wouldn’t surprise me if it originated with ZZ Top. Seems like this is an obscure redneck rephrasing.

But what do I know? :frowning:

Stay out of trouble,
Panzram

6

I’m a fu**er, I’m a fighter, I’m a wild bull rider
I’m a purdy good windmill hand.

I’ve got cows on the ranch, money in the bank
And a Cadillac behind the Beer Joint

I’m a bear so I wrestle alligators and
I get loud when I drink…
So I drink a little all the time.
I have no idea where it comes from.
My cousin used to get stoned and sing it often.

7

I’m a little late to this party, but I hope someone will read this…

When I was a teenager about 1972, myself and a couple of friends were at a 7-11 in Seattle late one night (probably trying to buy beer) and met a wild-looking dude outside. He was a bit drunk, and talking to anyone who would listen. Naturally we gathered around, and he came out with this:

“I’m a fucker and a fighter and a wild horse rider
I done the most from coast to coast
Anything you done, I done it twice and I done it better.
So don’t ya be givin’ ME no guff.”

There was lots more but that’s what I remember.

Years later I discovered that it was classic cowboy ‘brag talk’. They’d have a kind of fanciful rap bragging about their exploits and what they could do, like being born with spurs on or lassoing and riding tornadoes. Always wished I could go back and egg that guy on some more.