Where the West Commences - Don't Fence Me In

By Jim Poulton

Fence and beaverslide in the Big Hole Valley, Montana. Credit: My-West.com ©

Originally written in 1934, Don’t Fence Me In languished in song limbo for a full ten years before it was heard by much of anyone – except for Cole Porter and maybe his mother. Porter had written the song for a film - Adios Argentina - that was never released. He’d based the lyrics on a poem by a Montana writer named Robert Fletcher. Fletcher and the producer of Adios Argentina were friends, and when Porter was asked to write a cowboy song about the west (you can imagine Porter’s surprise – he’d never written a cowboy song before), the producer suggested he buy the rights to Fletcher’s poem and use it for some of the lyrics.

Porter borrowed a number of lines from Fletcher, including ‘Give me land, lots of land,’ ‘on my cayuse’ (I had to look it up too – a cayuse is a North American horse, wild or tame, that is small, stocky, speedy and has incredible endurance – it’s named for the Cayuse people of eastern Washington and Oregon), ‘straddle my old saddle,’ and ‘where the West commences.’

Cayuse Horse. Credit: Indianscoutoz

The song was finally heard when it was featured in Hollywood Canteen, a musical filmed in 1944 to entertain the troops in World War II, starring Roy Rogers and his horse. After Hollywood Canteen, Don’t Fence Me In went on to sell more than a million copies of sheet music – no small potatoes in 1944. Accounts differ as to what happened next. Either Porter realized Fletcher hadn’t received any credit or income from the song and decided to assign him a portion of the royalties, or Fletcher hired attorneys who negotiated his share of the proceeds. Either way, Don’t Fence Me In has become one of the most popular western songs of all time. Here are three very different versions – first by Roy Rogers, then by David Byrne and Willie Nelson. (You’ll be interested to know that James Brown, Ella Fitzgerald and Nokia (for a commercial) also did versions!)

Cole Porter. Credit: Ravennafestival.org

The Top 20 Country Love Songs of All Time - Number 3

Wilie Nelson - Always On My Mind

Photo courtesy of Bob Jagendorf

Maybe it’s the wild life he’s lived, but there is a tone in Willie Nelson’s voice that makes him sound like a thousand year old soul who’s seen everything in the world and has the wisdom to show for it. His isn’t the strongest voice we’ve ever heard, and when he hits the higher notes his timbre gets too thin, but Nelson is one-of-a-kind in the way he interprets a song.

Always On My Mind was originally recorded by Brenda Lee, and subsequently recorded by an unlikely diversity of performers, including Elvis Presley, B.B. King and the Pet Shop Boys. The most successful version, by far, was Nelson's. When he recorded the song in 1982, it hit number one in Country Singles and number 2 on Adult Contemporary Tracks, making it one of the rare crossovers. Nelson's version was voted Single of the Year by the Country Music Association in 1982.

Here's Brenda Lee's version:

Visit Nelson's website here. Purchase Always On My Mind at iTunes and Amazon MP3.