Sam Bass: The Ballad and the Man

Western Folklore, Summer 2003 by McEntire, Nancy Cassell

The outlaw of the American West is a colorful figure that is well suited to folk expression. His exploits are made sensational in newspaper accounts, exaggerated in legend, formalized in song, and personalized in local narratives. A fearless rebel, he turns against the authority of the law or government, often gaining the support of ordinary people who have endured cruelly and corruption at the hands of their own bosses and who are eager to focus on the successes of those who have dared to beat the system. Traditional accounts of the outlaw's robberies and death-defying adventures change over time: they can be generalized to acquire timeless heroic traits or they can be localized to fit personal recollections.

This article examines the life of Sam Bass, an Indiana boy who ran away and became a Texas desperado. Sam Bass was remembered as a man who risked his life to commit one robbery after another, alluding captors with stunning success until the betrayal of a former gang member led to his fatal ambush. As a legendary figure, he was compared to Jesse James; similar accounts of robbing the rich to give to the poor were ascribed to both men. Outlaw heroes like Sam took on sheriffs and rangers and they won, despite overwhelming odds. Stories about their ability to handle a gun referred to superhuman speed and accuracy.

The facts concerning the actual life of Sam Bass, the ballad of Sam Bass, and the stories circulating about him in Indiana recall the process of folklorization defined by Texas folklorist Américo Paredes more than three decades ago. In an article published in the journal Aztlán, "Jose Mesquita and the Folklorization of Actual Events," Paredes noted how historical data is altered over time and transmuted into various folklore patterns (Paredes 1973:33-36). His interpretation of the transmutation of factual information to ballad and to legend provides a helpful tool in analyzing the case of Sam Bass: First, the depiction of the life of Sam Bass told in song serves as an illustration of how historical content gives way to the demands of the ballad form itself (1973:14). Then, as the Sam Bass of the ballad is further described in legends and tall tales, biographical details give way to exaggerated accounts of the generalized outlaw hero.

Who was Sam Bass? In the vicinity of Round Rock, Texas, there is plenty of information about the man himself. Sam Bass (1851-1878) owned one of the fastest horses in Texas. he robbed the Union Pacific Railroad in September of 1877 and got away with more than $60,000 in gold; he gave portions of the stolen money to strangers who were needy; finally, he was betrayed and mortally wounded at Round Rock on the day of his 27th birthday.

This remarkable biography is eminently suited for a ballad plot; thus it is not surprising that the outlaw ballad "Sam Bass" began circulating shortly after Sam's death in 1878.! Generally attributed to the composer John Denton of Gainesville, Texas, this musical summary of Sam's life became a staple of the cowboy singer's repertoire (Gard 1936:iii; Boatright 1950:120; Rosenberg 1982:169). Texas folklorist J. F. Dobie commented in 1927 that ". . . the songs that all the cowboys knew and sang were 'Sam Bass,' 'Little Joe the Wrangler,' Oh, Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie,' and other such songs now familiar to the whole country" (Dobie 1927:157-58).

An appraisal of some of the many printed versions of this outlaw ballad reveals that it went through a period of stability as a piece for dance hall entertainment and then, as it was sung in less formal settings, demonstrated a number of stylistic variations. One of the earliest printed versions of the ballad, collected in 1906 in Indiana by Henry Beiden, includes observations from the contributor, George Williams: "This song I heard sung by the boys in the country several years ago. I don't remember who sung it first. I once saw it in print among a collection of songs, but the people in the country did not learn it there" (Beiden 1955:400). Here the singer confirms that even though the ballad could be found in print, it was circulated mainly through oral transmission.

Another early text, collected by cowboy participant-observer N. Howard "Jack" Thorp, is prefaced with this comment: "'Sam Bass,' by John Denton, Gainesville, Texas, 1879. This is the most authentic report on authorship I have received" (Thorp 1921:135). Thorp included the text of the outlaw ballad in his 1908 edition of Songs of the Cowboys. In an autobiographical account of collecting songs while working as a trail driver, "Banjo in the Cow Camps," Thorp offered the following insights about collecting and publishing "Sam Bass" and about early fieldwork practices:

Two of the songs we sang that night [spring of 1889], I know, were important for me. One was "Sam Bass." This famous song, if you don't remember, has to do with a cowboy turned train robber and outlaw, and betrayed by one of his pals. It is supposed to have been written by John Denton of Gainesville, Texas, about 9 189 79 .... I first heard some of it sung at a dance hall in Sidney, Nebraska, and one the boys in Nigger Add's camp had sung a couple of verses. My host this evening sang five verses, three of which I had not heard. Into the notebook they went. When I published by first little book, nearly twenty years later, I had found three more verses, making eight which appeared in the first printed version. But there were more. I printed eleven in my bigger book in 1921. This will indicate how songs grow. Versions were likely to vary from singer to singer. Verses were added, eliminated, altered, and otherwise "improved" as they went the rounds. In my first version of "Sam Bass" it was "Jonis" who was due to get a scorching "when Gabriel blows his horn"; in the later version it was "Jim Murphy." Take into account that many of the songs had to be dry-cleaned for unprintable words before they went to press, and you get some notion of the chore a song collector had who was only a cowboy himself. (The Atlantic Monthly, August 1940, pp. 197-98)