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"A Cowboy's Work Is Never Done"
The only really brand-spanking new Sonny Bono song on the album, "Cowboy" was released as a single in January of 1972.
Cher's solo hit "The Way of Love" was also released in January of 1972, reaching #7 in January.
"Cowboy" peaked at #8 in February on the Billboard hits chart, and #4 in March on the Billboard adult contemporary chart. The single charted in Germany as well, released in August of 1972 but reaching only #48.
Cher biographer Mark Bego called "Cowboy" "a cute novelty number" but it's really more substantial than that. It's an effective piece of western drama. Of all Sonny's western metaphor songs, this one is the best, using the game of playing cowboy to illustrate the childhood to adult progression from innocence to experience. William Blake would be proud. The song begins Clint Eastwood style with
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly's wah-wah-wah sounds. Then, a drum roll (a musical tumbleweed strolls across the frame), then punctuated horns (a cowboy comes strutting in, bow-legged, invincible). The bass is the stagger of the cowboy. Spanish horns echo the narrative, the strumming strings the horse. The rhythm section and percussion is effectively evocative of a western theme.
There is a part in the chorus where the drums almost trip to illustrate the idea of the cowboy stumbling, losing his swagger as both he and the game age. Cher sings most of the lines as the voice of the cowboy's girl.
Sonny only sings to underscore certain lines. His singing of the last line is the only place where the song ever feels melodramatic. This is some of Sonny's strongest lyric writing.
He had been perfecting this innocence to experience metaphor for years
(see also "Bang Bang My Baby Shot Me Down)"
but he nails it here.
The song is full of 6-gun details and hyperbole: "I was so handsome women cried/and I got shot but I never died." In the beginning, we think the song is about the unrequited love of a girl for her cowboy: "I could play if I'd do everything he'd say/Girls seemed to just get in his way/Those days we weren't considered fun/A cowboy's work is never done." But then we come to the surprise: "He'd fight crime all the time; he'd always win/Until his mom would break it up...and call him in." Ah! These are little kids and she's just a little girl trying to horn in on all the cowboy fun. Then there's the big gun shot to the gut, the mature realization that adult games cause pain, not fun: "Ride! I'd like to ride again someday/I think I'd still know how to play/I play games now but it's not fun." For more on western themes in Cher songs, see the first issue of the Cher Zine: Superpak Vol. 1, "The Gunslinger Ballads."
Although it was a top ten hit, this song was not well-remembered, not getting nearly the degree of oldies, radio play as "Baby Don't Go" and "The Beat Goes On," two songs which reached similar heights on Billboard, #8 and #6 respectively. And this was to be their last hit song as Sonny & Cher
[
Click to View YouTube Video]Sonny & Cher's Band: Musicians on their Live album recorded a few months earlier included: Michel Rubini on piano, Bert Fanette on organ,
David McDaniel on bass, and Darrell Norris on percussion.
Glen D. Hardin may have also played piano on the record. Before then, he also recorded with Elvis and Johnny Cash. Matt Betton played drums on the Live album. He also played with Jimmy Buffett and Hank Williams Jr.,
Dean Parks and David Hungate played guitars.
Parks has worked with Joe Cocker, Neil Diamond, Aretha Franklin, Billy Joel., B.B King, Carole King, Madonna, Lyle Lovett, Dolly Parton, Roy Orbison, and Barbra Streisand among many others. In fact, Betton and Parks went on to become very prominent session musicians.
Hungate, on the other hand,
switched from guitar to bass and went on to become a founding member of Toto. Toto was formed in 1978, when Hungate got together with David Paich (keyboards, vocals) — a veteran of Sonny & Cher's second Live album in 1973, Steve Lukather (lead guitar, vocals), Bobby Kimball (lead vocals), Steve Porcaro (keyboards) and Steve's late brother Jeff Porcaro (drums) — another veteran of Sonny & Cher's band from 1973. In fact, three members of Toto worked together as part of Sonny & Cher's live band in 1973. David Paich on keyboards, Jeff Porcaro on drums, and David Hungate on bass.
Dan Ferguson also worked in Sonny & Cher's live band in 1973 playing guitar, as did Dean Parks.
Any of these players could have been involved with the All I Ever Need Is You project. Although Snuff Garrett claims that many tracks were cut while Sonny & Cher were out on the road, which may have tied up some of these very players.
Snuff's Band: According to The Wrecking Crew documentary, Wrecking Crew session players worked on "Gypsys, Tramps and Thieves" on the album Snuff Garrett produced for Cher in 1971, so it's conceivable that they played on this album as well. The Wrecking Crew also played on "Half Breed," "The Beat Goes On" and "I Got You Babe." It's possible drummer Hal Blaine (who also worked on Cher's Stars album) and bassist Carol Kaye (whose web site alleged that she taught David Hungate) were involved."
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