Jim Cope
As a kid, stories and heroes were simpler
I still remember having cowboys over for dinner almost every night
They were wild and free, honest and brave
They honored their word, if they gave it,
They might get bushwhacked, they might get surprised
But in the end, they always came out on top.
Every night before bed time,
they rode into my living room
The black and white TV came alive
with gallant horseback riding heroes,
Admired by townsfolk and rancher’s
daughters alike...
But cowboy heroes don’t settle down
They live life on their own terms;
They are wild and free
As I grew older, a cowboy life, it seems,
got more complicated
white hats and black hats were not
so easy to see
They didn’t always mean what Roy Rogers
and Gene Autry said they did; nowadays
Sometimes a gun doesn’t care who it kills
Sometimes the range isn’t so easy or free
A lot more like real life; fully nuanced and in color
Never Better Than Later is my ode to the Old West
and some interesting parts just East of the Old West
Songs about cowboys, indians and miners
Tall tales told of lives not so simple
as the ones of my childhood TV heroes.
They’re still elemental, though,
like a rough cut diamond,
They grown full of interesting facets worth exploring.
Some reflect more light, some remain more hidden in shadow
But They are all stories worth listening to, again
And like a good whiskey, or
a well trained cutting horse,
they just get more interesting with
age and complexity
And in my memory, they’re still wild and free