Slim Dusty - Cattle Camp Reverie lyrics

rate me

Theres a rustle through the tree tops as the night wind softly sighs

The cattle rest and the bushland is so still

From the distance comes the jingle of the horses hobble chains

As they graze the grass round about at will

Then I gaze into the embers of my dying campfires glow

And the pictures that I see there make me frown

For they come along and taunt me what I might have been and done

When the cattle are all bedded and the horses hobbled down

I was once a horseman, a rider of renown

Who loved it all the glamour and the glare

The handshakes and the backslaps

And the false friends that you meet

But when the heart is young then everything seems fair

A home of friendly neighbours with kiddies running round

I threw away to wear a tinsel crown

And they always come and taunt me as I sit alone at night

When the cattle are all bedded and the horses hobbled down

For as you grow older and must give the game away

Youre just a name that blazed awhile ago

And the friends youve made have left you for another name thats new

Then you take to droving cattle its the only job you know

Then by some lonely fireside youll be dreaming all alone

Whilst the boys are having fun theyre back in town

I know because Im here tonight with a lifetime to regret

When the cattle are all bedded and the horses hobbled down

Theres a rustle through the tree tops as the night wind softly sighs

The old campfire has burned into the ground

And my dreams have slowly drifted like the smoke into the trees

When the cattle are all bedded and the horses hobbled down

[From the Album To A Mate: Slim Dusty Remembers Mack Cormack

Re release Jun 1996, Barcoo Bill]