Maybe we should listen to ghosts

For centuries ghosts have been a part of human culture, and the great civilizations of old took great interest in them: From ancient Sumer, Babylon, Assyria, and Egypt, to the Bible; From Homer’s Oddysey to ancient Rome; From the middle ages to the Renaissance, and even to the modern era;

For some reason, humans have been interested in ghosts for thousands of years.

The stories about ghosts are numerous, as is befitting something that has been an aspect of human culture for so long, but there is one story that has been popularized greatly in the last decade: the story of the wild hunt (popularized mostly thanks to the video game “The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt”).

As one can easily read in Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost):

The wild hunt is a folklore motif occurring across various northern European cultures. Wild Hunts typically involve a chase led by a mythological figure escorted by a ghostly or supernatural group of hunters engaged in pursuit. The leader of the hunt is often a named figure associated with Odin in Germanic legends, but may variously be a historical or legendary figure like Theodoric the Great, the Danish king Valdemar Atterdag, the dragon slayer Sigurd, the Weld psychopomp Gwyn ap Nudd, biblical figures such as Herod, Cain, Gabriel, or the Devil, or an unidentified lost soul either male or female. The hunters are generally the souls of the dead or ghostly dogs, sometimes fairies, valkyries, or elves.

Seeing the Wild Hunt was thought to forebode some catastrophe such as war or plague, or at best the death of the one who witnessed it. People encountering the Hunt might also be abducted into the underworld or the fairy kingdom. In some instances, it was also believed that people’s spirits could be pulled away during their sleep to join the cavalcade.

But why does that interest us? And what does that have to do with the popular music of the 20th century? Good questions!

You see, in 1948, Stan Jones (an American songwriter, film, and television actor) wrote a song called “(Ghost) Riders in the Sky: A Cowboy Legend”. Check the next page for the lyrics!

Yippie-yi-yay

Yippie-yi-o

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-plowin’ through the ragged skies
And up the cloudy draw

Yippie-yi-yay

Yippie-yi-o

Ghost riders in the sky

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

Yippie-yi-yay

Yippie-yi-o

Ghost riders in the sky

Their faces gaunt
Their eyes were blurred
Their shirts all soaked with sweat
They’re riding hard to catch that herd
But theu 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

Yippie-yi-yay

Yippie-yi-o

Ghost riders in the sky

As the riders loped on by him
He heard one call his name
‘If you wanna save your soul
From hell a-riding on our range

Then, cowboy, change your ways today
Or with us you will ride
A-trying to catch the devil’s herd
Across these endless skies’

Yippie-yi-yay

Tippie-yi-o

A ghost herd in the sky

The ghost riders in the sky

You can even listen to the original version here:

You can even check out this cover by Neil LeVang from 1961:

But the version I enjoy the most is by Johnny Cash, from 1979:

This song’s popularity didn’t end in the late 70s though, here’s another cover from 1990 (granted, Johnny Cash is a part of the band that plays it, but it still was popular enough to be played at a concert at the time):

The song tells the story of a cowboy who sees the wild hunt in the sky. It adopts the notion that witnessing the wild hunt is a bad omen.

In this case – one of the wild hunt riders even speaks to the cowboy and warns them that they should change their ways as fast as possible, or else they’d be damned to join the wild hunt and ride with them forever in the skies, trying to catch the devil’s herd of red-eyed cows.

To me, this song bears memories of my time in the army. Being at a resort with my platoon, and getting to know a person that later became one of my best friends.

We took a walk on the beach, just singing and talking about ancient Rome. Years later, when my mom fell ill, that friend’s father was the head of the division that tried to treat her up to her very last moments.

This song, and others that we sang that day, marks the beginning of the friendship that prolonged my mother’s life by whatever long it did.

In popular culture, this song caught the attention of hundreds of performers, and Vaughn Monroe even reached number 1 in Billboard magazine with his version of the song.

This song has, without a doubt, earned its place as one of the popular songs of the 20th century thanks to its ability to take the listener to the wild west and to make the listener imagine they’re seeing the wild hunt in the sky telling them to change their ways to the better.

Ghosts in popular culture have taken the role of evil beings, but maybe, just this once, we should listen to this friendly ghost, doomed to roam the sky forever, chasing a herd that they’ll never catch, telling us to become better people.