Home on the Range (chanson)

Home on the Range est une chanson américaine considérée comme une classique du genre western et un symbole du Far West.

Home on the Range

Chanson

Genre	western
Auteur	Brewster Higley (en)
Compositeur	Daniel E. Kelley (en)

Home on the Range

noicon (Raiford Penitentiary, Florida, 1939)

modifier

Album de Bing Crosby (1956)

Hymne officiel de l'État de Kansas depuis le 30 juin 1947^[1], ele est tirée d'un poème intitulé My Western Home écrit en 1872 par le docteur Brewster Higley (en) (1823–1911) qui s'était installé au comté de Smith au Kansas en vertu du « Homestead Act », et mis en musique quelque temps plus tard par son ami Daniel E. Kelley (en) (1808–1905).

Bing Crosby l'a enregistré en 1933^[2], et a sorti un album avec ce titre en 1956

Paroles

Oh, Give Me a Home on the Range
(Brewster Higley, Smith County Pioneer, 1873, Levi Moris/W. H. Nelson)

Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam,
Where the deer and antelope play,
Where never is heard a discouraging word
And the sky is not clouded all day.
Refrain
A home, a home where the deer and the antelope play,
Where never is heard a discouraging word
And the sky is not clouded all day.
Oh, give me the gale of the Solomon vale,
Where light streams with buoyancy flow,
On the banks of the Beaver, where seldom if ever,
Any poisonous herbage doth grow.
Refrain
Oh, give me the land where the bright diamond sand
Throws light from its glittering stream,
Where glideth along the graceful white swan
Like a maid in her heavenly dream
Refrain
I love these wild flowers in this bright land of ours,
I love, too, the curlew's wild scream,
The bluffs of white rocks and antelope flocks
That graze on our hillsides so green.
Refrain
How often at night, when the heavens are bright
By the light of the glittering stars,
Have I stood there amazed and asked as I gazed
If their beauty exceeds this of ours.
Refrain
The air is so pure the breezes so light,
The zephyrs so balmy at night,
I would not exchange my home here to range
Forever in azure so bright.
Refrain

A Home on the Range
(John A. Lomax, Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads, 1910)^[3]

Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam,
Where the deer and the antelope play,
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day.
Refrain
Home, home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day.
Where the air is so pure, the zephyrs so free,
The breezes so balmy and light,
That I would not exchange my home on the range
For all of the cities so bright.
Refrain
The red man was pressed from this part of the West,
He's likely no more to return
To the banks of Red River where seldom if ever
Their flickering camp-fires burn.
Refrain
How often at night when the heavens are bright
With the light from the glittering stars,
Have I stood here amazed and asked as I gazed
If their glory exceeds that of ours.
Refrain
Oh, I love these wild flowers in this dear land of ours,
The curlew I love to hear scream,
And I love the white rocks and the antelope flocks
That graze on the mountain-tops green.
Refrain
Oh, give me a land where the bright diamond sand
Flows leisurely down the stream;
Where the graceful white swan goes gliding along
Like a maid in a heavenly dream.
Refrain
Then I would not exchange my home on the range,
Where the deer and the antelope play;
Where seldom is heard a discouraging word
And the skies are not cloudy all day.
Refrain

Utilisations

La chanson est utilisée dans la comédie Cette sacrée vérité (1937), interprétée par le couple mal assorti que forment Irene Dunne et Ralph Bellamy.

Une version modifiée de la chanson apparaît dans le jeu vidéo Fallout: New Vegas (2010), décrivant un monde post-apocalyptique.

Notes et références

1. (en) « Home on the Range », sur Kansapedia - Kansas Historical Society (consulté le 18 novembre 2018)
2. (en) « Bing Crosby Discography - part 1a Commercial Recordings- Pre Decca », sur bingmagazine.co.uk (consulté le 2 juin 2023).
3. (en) John A. Lomax, Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads, New York, Sturgis & Walton Company, 1910, 39–43 p. (OCLC 7288334, LCCN 10030589), « A Home on the Range »

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