Yippie-i-oh, Yippie-i-ay!

“An old cowboy went riding out one dark and windy day
Upon a ridge, he rested as he went along his way
When all at once a mighty herd of red-eyed cows he saw
A-plowing through the ragged sky and up the cloudy draw” – (Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend (Stan Jones) © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

“(Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend” is a song written in 1948 by American songwriter, film and television actor Stan Jones. Jones wrote the song while he was working for the National Park Service in Death Valley, California. Serving as a guide for a group of Hollywood scouts who were searching for suitable filming locations for their Western movies, Jones would sing “Riders in the Sky” when they wanted to hear a campfire song.

Through these associations as a park ranger, and having competed in rodeos in his younger days, he was assigned to serve as technical director during the making of the film, The Walking Hills. It was then that he met and became friends with director John Ford, which led to his work in the Hollywood entertainment industry.

“Their brands were still on fire and their hooves were made of steel
Their horns were black and shiny and their hot breath he could feel
A bolt of fear went through him as they thundered through the sky
For he saw the riders coming hard and he heard their mournful cry” – (Ghost) Riders in the Sky (Stan Jones)

Stan Jones had stated that he was inspired to write the song from a story that he was told when he was twelve-years-old. A Native American man, possibly Apache, who lived in Cochise County, not far from Jones’ hometown of Douglas, Arizona, had told him of his belief that when souls vacate their physical bodies, they reside as spirits in the sky, resembling ghost riders.

One occasion while Jones was outside looking at the clouds with a boyhood friend, he retold the tale which the old Indian had shared with him. The boys then imagined in the cloudy shapes that they beheld the ghostly riders and stampeding cattle that he would later describe in the lyrics of his song.

“Yippie-i-oh
Yippie-i-ay
Ghost riders in the sky” – (Ghost) Riders in the Sky (Stan Jones)

Other sources claim that Stan Jones was inspired to write his song by an old Texas ghost story:

The tale is told that in the fall of 1889 a seasoned trail boss named Sawyer was driving about a thousand head of cattle north through Texas to the railheads in Kansas. One night, while he and his cowboys were looking for a suitable place to bed down for the night, they spotted a “nester” – a range settler – cutting a few head from the rear of the herd.

When confronted by Sawyer, the homesteader explained that as the heard had passed-by, a few head of his unbranded cattle had wandered over and mingled with the main herd, and he was just collecting his own stock.

Sawyer, who along with his crew of cowboys, was worn-out, dusty and cranky from a hard day of driving, told the settler that he would have to wait until morning to reclaim his mavericks. The settler complained and insinuated that Sawyer was trying to steal his stock but backed down when the cowboys closed ranks and he could plainly see that they were all armed.

Sawyer and his crew then bedded down with their cattle, atop a little mesa where they had sweet grass on the flat and sweet water below. As the cattle settled down a guard rotation was assigned and the other cowboys lay down to get some sleep.

During the night a storm that had been threatening earlier in the evening finally arrived and in the midst of the thunder, lightning, wind, and rain, the herd stampeded: not toward the sweet drinking water, but off the cliffs on the other side. In the commotion, 700 hundred head of cattle and two of Sawyer’s cowboys were killed on the rocks below.

Sawyer, after they were finally able to get the remaining cattle under control, expressed his confusion to his crew as to what had caused the herd to stampede. One of the dazed cowboys claimed that he thought he had seen the homesteader waving a blanket and shouting at the back of the herd, still trying to reclaim his own cattle.

At sun-up a short time later, Sawyer and his men went after the nester. They blindfolded him and his horse, tied him in the saddle and with a hard slap on the terrified horse’s rump, they drove him over the cliff, leaving him to die below with the cattle & cowboys that had perished in the stampede.

Sawyer and his crew then rounded up the remaining herd and continued along the trail toward Kansas.

“Their faces gaunt, their eyes were blurred, their shirts all soaked with sweat
He’s riding hard to catch that herd, but he ain’t caught ’em yet
‘Cause they’ve got to ride forever on that range up in the sky
On horses snorting fire, as they ride on hear their cry” – (Ghost) Riders in the Sky (Stan Jones)

The next season, another trail boss bedded down a herd atop that same mesa. While this time there was no storm – and no nester – during the night the cattle stampeded all the same, with nearly the entire herd, and several cowboys, being driven off the cliff onto the rocks below.

It was not long before the little table became known as Stampede Mesa, and was mostly avoided by cattle drovers. Some cowboys would still take cattle through the area though, and stories began to circulate of a ghostly figure on horseback waving a blanket while riding toward the herd, while other ghostly figures could be seen riding around the herd, desperately trying to drive the steers away from the cliffs.

Although there is another variation of this grisly ghost story, its influence is evident in the lyrics of Jones’ classic song of spectral cowboys, which he set to the tune of an old Irish folk song, “Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye” (also the basis of “When Johnny Comes Marching Home Again”)

“As the riders loped on by him he heard one call his name
If you want to save your soul from hell a-riding on our range
Then cowboy change your ways today or with us you will ride
Trying to catch the devil’s herd, across these endless skies” – (Ghost) Riders in the Sky (Stan Jones)

Stan Jones recorded the song in late 1948 with his group, Death Valley Rangers. It was then recorded by Burl Ives in February 1949. Ives’ version went to #21 on the Billboard charts and remained there for six weeks.

In March of 1949, it was recorded by Vaughn Monroe and His Orchestra. Their recording remained on the Billboard charts for 22 weeks, eventually reaching #1. Billboard ranked “(Ghost) Riders” as the #1 song for 1949.

The song has been recorded by dozens of artists through the years, including Bing Crosby, Frankie Laine, Johnny Cash, Eddy Arnold, Peggy Lee, Christopher Lee, Spike Jones, Gene Autry, The Outlaws, The Sons of the Pioneers, Dick Dale, Roy Clark, Peter, Paul & Mary, Marty Robbins, Duane Eddy, and the Blues Brothers. A recorded version of the song has charted in nearly every decade since its original publication.

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Members of the Western Writers of America named “Ghost Riders” as the greatest Western song of all time.

In his short career, Stan Jones wrote almost entirely in the Western music genre. He composed songs for several movies by John Ford and other producers, including The Searchers and Rio Grande.

Three of his songs, “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky”, “The Searchers Theme”, and “Cowpoke”, were chosen by members of the Western Writers of America as being among the Top 100 Western songs of all time.

Stan Jones died from cancer in Los Angeles in 1963 at the age of 49. He was buried at Julia Page Memorial Park in his hometown, Douglas, Arizona.

In 1997, he was posthumously inducted into the Western Music Association Hall of Fame.

“Yippie-i-oh
Yippie-i-ay
Ghost Riders in the sky” – (Stan Jones) © Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/(Ghost)_Riders_in_the_Sky:_A_Cowboy_Legend

https://culture.fandom.com/wiki/(Ghost)_Riders_in_the_Sky:_A_Cowboy_Legend

Stampede Mesa: The Story Behind “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Jones_(songwriter)