"Walking the Cow"
Song by Daniel Johnston
from the album Hi, How Are You
Released1983
Genre
Length3:35
LabelStress
Songwriter(s)Daniel Johnston

"Walking the Cow" is a song written and recorded by singer-songwriter Daniel Johnston from his 1983 album Hi, How Are You. The title was inspired by an illustration on a wrapper for Blue Bell ice cream depicting a young girl attempting to lead a reluctant cow by its reins.[1]

Johnston recorded an updated version of the song on his 2010 album Beam Me Up![2][3]

Covers

Austin band The Reivers included their version of the song as a bonus track on the 1988 CD release of Translate Slowly, their 1984 debut album.[4]

During Johnston's wave of popularity in the early 1990s, several musicians released covers of "Walking the Cow". Mike Watt's group Firehose included a version on Flyin' the Flannel (1991). Kathy McCarty of Glass Eye included it on her 1994 Daniel Johnston tribute album Dead Dog's Eyeball.[5] Also in 1994, the Austin surf-rock band Whirled Peas released a version on their second and final album, War and Peas. In October of that year, Pearl Jam covered the song in a performance at Neil Young's Bridge School Benefit concert, and this subsequently became available on the bootleg album In Rock We Trust.[6]

Watt performed the song on a 1995 solo tour; a recording opens his live album Ring Spiel Tour '95, released in 2016. Pearl Jam's Eddie Vedder used the song to open every show of his 2008 solo tour.[7]

It was covered by A Camp on their 2001 album A Camp.[8]

On the 2004 tribute album The Late Great Daniel Johnston: Discovered Covered, TV on the Radio contributed their cover of the song.

On September 11, 2020 — the one-year anniversary of Johnston's death — Electric Lady Studios released a video tribute album, Honey I Sure Miss You, via YouTube. It included a cover of "Walking the Cow" by the indie-pop band Lucius.[9]

References

  1. ↑ Yazdani, Tarssa; Goede, Dan (2006). Hi, How Are You?: The Life, Art & Music of Daniel Johnston. San Francisco: Last Gasp. p. 56. ISBN 978-086719-667-2.
  2. ↑ Houle, Zachary (June 18, 2010). "Daniel Johnston and BEAM: Beam Me Up!!". PopMatters. Retrieved April 25, 2013.
  3. ↑ Dorof, Jakob (April 2013). "Daniel Johnston – Beam Me Up!". Tiny Mix Tapes. Retrieved April 25, 2013.
  4. ↑ Jason Cohen, "A Songwriter's Struggle", Austin Chronicle, September 18, 1992, reprinted in The Austin Chronicle Music Anthology (University of Texas Press, 2011), ISBN 978-0292722705, p. 114. Excerpts available at Google Books
  5. ↑ Chris Walters, "Kathy McCarty: From Glass Eye to Dead Dog's Eyeball", Austin Chronicle, September 16, 1994, reprinted in The Austin Chronicle Music Anthology (University of Texas Press, 2011), ISBN 978-0292722705, p. 140. Excerpts available at Google Books.
  6. ↑ "Answers – The Most Trusted Place for Answering Life's Questions". Answers.com.
  7. ↑ "Flashback: Pearl Jam Cover Daniel Johnston's 'Walking the Cow'". Rolling Stone. September 12, 2019. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
  8. ↑ "Walking the Cow Lyrics – A Camp". LyricsBox.
  9. ↑ "Honey I Sure Miss You". YouTube. Archived from the original on December 21, 2021. Retrieved December 20, 2020.
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