Indian Cowboy - Townes Van Zandt

If you ever go out to the circus

Where the Wallendas walk on the wire

I’ll tell you a tale to remember

When the white horses leap rings of fire

It was a cold night in Oklahoma

The show was about to begin

The animals they were all restless

When the star horse she broke from her pen

She was a mare of high spirit

Just like a whore on Saturday night

She’s kickin’and buckin’past the men who were brushin'

The elephants lyin’on their sides

Next to the tent sat some lanterns

They were dangerously close to the hay

That mare headed straight for those lanterns

Some fool had put there by mistake

Then up stepped some Indian Cowboy

His lasso went whirlin’throught the air

In the full dead middle of danger

He roped that runaway mare

Then the elephants raised up their trumpets

Two of them broke from their chains

Stampeded that Indian Cowboy

Who had saved the big top from flames

So if you ever go out to the circus

Where the Wallendas walk on the wire

You just remember that Indian Cowboy

When the white horses leap rings of fire