Paula Cole - Where Have all the Cowboys Gone? Lyrics Meaning

Publish date: 2024-05-06

Hollywood has always glamorized cowboys. The strong, silent, rugged macho man in a Stetson hat has always been a powerful image. Women wanted to marry a John Wayne or Gary Cooper, while men wanted to BE John Wayne or Gary Cooper.

Paula Cole is singing about the reality behind that image. The narrator of that song fell in love with a rugged, macho rural male and lost her virginity to him in the back of his car. She fell in love with him and married him... and only then learned that life with a REAL cowboys isn't so glamorous after all.

The "cowboy" she married doesn't have any tender feelings and doesn't think much about her needs. He works hard all day, then spends his nights either drinking or watching TV. She attends to all his wants, but he doesn't even notice that she HAS any wants of her own.

Cowboys, ranchers and farm workers in rural America don't make much money, so she and her husband are barely scraping by, financially. They had to sell their car, and he took a job at a farm far away.

So, she's left raising children by herself, working her fingers to the bone, while her husband drinks away the little money he earns.

She's left wondering... what happened to the man I idealized? I THOUGHT he was going to be the kind of romantic cowboy I saw in movies. But there's nothing romantic or glamorous about this life at all.

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