"Zebra Dun" is a traditional American cowboy song from at least as early as 1890. Jack Thorp said he collected it from Randolph Reynolds at Carrizzozo Flats in that year.Thorp, N. Howard (1921). Songs of the Cowboys, New York: Houghton Mifflin, p. 171. The song tells of a stranger who came upon a cowboy camp at the head of the Cimarron River. When he asks to borrow a "fat saddle horse", the cowboys fix him up:
Thorp published the song under the title "Educated Feller" in 1908.Thorp, N. Howard (1908). Songs of the Cowboys, Estancia, New Mexico: News Print Shop, p.27. Two years later, John Lomax published a substantially longer version as "Zebra Dun" in Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads. "Zebra Dun" was one of the most popular songs among the cowboys and is included in many song books. In 1928, Jules Verne Allen was the first to record it.Russell, Country Music Records, p.55.
Record: Victor V-40022
References
Bibliography Lomax, John A., M.A. Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads. The MacMillan Company, 1918. Online edition (pdf) Russell, Tony. Country Music Records: A Discography, 1921-1942. Oxford University Press, 2004. Thorp, N. Howard "Jack". Songs of the Cowboys. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1908, 1921.