"Cowboy Man" is a song written and recorded by American singer-songwriter
Lyle Lovett. It was released in October 1986 as the second single from his album ''
Lyle Lovett''. The song peaked at number 10 on the ''
Billboard''
Hot Country Singles
Hot Country Songs is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States.
This 50-position chart lists the most popular country music songs, calculated weekly by collecting airplay data from Nielsen BDS along with digital sa ...
chart.
Content
The song is in the key of
B-flat major
B-flat major is a major scale based on B, with pitches B, C, D, E, F, G, and A. Its key signature has two flats. Its relative minor is G minor and its parallel minor is B-flat minor.
The B-flat major scale is:
:
Many transposing ins ...
, mainly following the chord pattern B-E-B-F7-B. Written by Lovett himself, it was one of four songs included on a
demo
Demo, usually short for demonstration, may refer to:
Music and film
*Demo (music), a song typically recorded for reference rather than release
* ''Demo'' (Behind Crimson Eyes), a 2004 recording by the band Behind Crimson Eyes
* ''Demo'' (Deafhea ...
tape that he submitted to
ASCAP's Merlin Littlefield.
Described by ''
The Orlando Sentinel
The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is the primary newspaper of Orlando, Florida, and the Central Florida region. It was founded in 1876 and is currently owned by Tribune Publishing Company.
The ''Orlando Sentinel'' is owned by parent company, '' Tribune ...
'' writer Thom Duffy as "a bit of
Texas swing that features a shuffling beat and a
fiddle crying like the horn of a passing freight train", the song is about the narrator's pursuit of a
cowgirl
A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the ''vaquero'' ...
whom he wants to marry.
Chart performance
References
Songs about cowboys and cowgirls
1986 singles
Lyle Lovett songs
Curb Records singles
Song recordings produced by Tony Brown (record producer)
Songs written by Lyle Lovett
1986 songs
{{1986-country-song-stub