The name seemed appropriate just because Imperial Valley was cattle country. Why not Cattle Call?
So
it was that Marial Hudson’s choice of Cattle Call would identify this
new rodeo 51 years ago. For her suggestion, she received a $25
government bond from the Chamber of Commerce, a handsome sum then.
Actually,
Cattle Call grew out of a 1934 song written in Kansas City by Tex
Owens. He had written it while stranded in a hotel by a snowstorm. The
melody was taken from “The St. Paul Waltz.”
As for the Cattle
Call song, Eddy Arnold made it his signature tune in 1944. His Cattle
Call volume reflects the sound and style of early pre-commercial songs
and attempts to capture the cowboy magic more clearly than a pure folk
recording.
THE CATTLE CALL SONG:
The cattle are prowlin’,
The coyotes are howlin’
Way out where the doggies roam
Where spurs are a jinglin’
He rides in the sun
‘Til his days work is done
And he rounds up the cattle each fall
Singing his cattle call
For hours he would ride
On the range far and wide
When the night wind blows up and slow
His heart is a feather
In all kinds of weather
He sings his cattle call
He’s browned as a fairy
From ridin’ the prairie
And he sings with an western drawl
Singing his cattle call
