Song of the Bandit
(Bob Nolan)
Long, long ago in old Wyoming lived a maid,
Fair as the sweetest flower bloomin’ in the glade.
She loved a bandit bold who roamed the prairie o’er
And every night she’d listen for his call.
Then, far to the west, his voice came ringin’,
Ridin’ a wild horse, he came singin’…
“Hee lee o lee yip I o lee aye!”
“Hee lee o lee yip I o lee, yip I o lee aye!”
He brings a token to his love.
Swift as the wind he goes
High in the hills he knows she’s waiting singing,
“Hee lee o lee yip I o lee aye!”
“Hee lee o lee yip I o lee aye!”
One day he rode away but never to return.
Danger was waiting now, his love must never yearn.
Long days and lonely nights she waited all in vain
Till winter passed and summer came again.
Still every night when the moon came shining,
For his song her heart was pining…
“Hee lee o lee yip I o lee aye!”
“Hee lee o lee yip I o lee, yip I o lee aye!”
He brings a token to his love.
Swift as the wind he goes
High in the hills he knows she’s waiting singing,
“Hee lee o lee yip I o lee aye!”
“Hee lee o lee yip I o lee aye!”
One night an angel brought a message from her love.
Told her he waited in the starlight sky above.
Softly, she closed her eyes and bade the angels go
And then the whole world echoed to his song
For straight down a moonbeam he came riding,
Out of the sky on a winged horse gliding…
“Hee lee o lee yip I o lee aye!”
“Hee lee o lee yip I o lee, yip I o lee aye!”
He brings a token to his love.
Swift as the wind he goes
High in the hills he knows she’s waiting singing,
“Hee lee o lee yip I o lee aye!”
“Hee lee o lee yip I o lee aye!”
Click here to
listen to entire song.
N. B. All the recordings on this page are by the Sons of the Pioneers:
1963 The recording you are listening to features Tommy Doss.
1937 A Columbia (ARC) recording featuring Bob
Nolan, recorded on October 26, 1937.
1940 An Orthacoustic radio transcription
featuring Bob Nolan.
Photocopies of sheet music for
this song are available from Calin Coburn, Bob Nolan's grandson.
Email Calin for more details.
Introduced to the public in the 1937 Columbia / Charles Starrett film, "Outlaws of the Prairie", "Song of the Bandit" is still one of Bob Nolan's most popular songs. Bob describes it this way: "From the days of Robin Hood, we’ve all been interested in romantic outlaws. The west had its share of Robin Hoods, too, and one of these struck my imagination. The result – the wild, yodeling melody of The Song of the Bandit. I had read an old English poem called The Highwayman. It was very impressive to me so I turned it into a western atmosphere and it’s almost word for word. Marty Robbins said that is his favorite, too, and that it inspired him to write El Paso.”
