Quest (Grugan of the Regulars)

Michael Longcor and Martha Keller

Appears on the albums Lovers, Heroes & Rogues (1988), and Kitchen Junk Drawer (2001). Michael's material is available from Firebird Arts and Music.

Quest (Grugan of the Regulars)

Words by Martha Keller, adapted and with music by Michael Longcor.
Music Copyright ©1988 by Firebird Arts & Music/BMI.
Used by permission

Grugan of the Regulars, Grugan of the cavalry,
Grugan in Dakota doing duty as a scout,
Riding with his troopers to report on any deviltry,
A-swooping through a swarm of Sioux, he put the lot to rout.

Hanging to their ponies and a-yelling as coyotes do,
With rifle fire a-spitting fire behind them as they fled.
They left to fall, as feathers fall, whichever way the bodies fell,
They left to lie, as feathers lie, the bodies of their dead.

Grugan of the Regulars, Grugan of the U.S.A.
Captain under Miles, he was, or maybe it was Crook,
Saw a line of light that lay like slime upon a waterway,
The shine of glass that water has, and stopped to take a look.

Lighted from his horse to kneel beside the feathered dead to feel
A body that was serpent-scaled, a body in a sheath.
Saw a Sioux was wearing steel from head to foot, from head to heel,
Though silver-scaled chain armor veiled the copper skin beneath.

It wasn't found in Canada. It wasn't found in Mexico,
But by what tribe it first was found, or who it was they slew,
When or how it happened so, we never will be knowing, though
Grugan found it wrapped around a dead Dakota Sioux!

(alternate melody)
Francisco Coronado, at the head of all his company,
A-seeking seven cities, O those cities of despair,
When seeking after Cibola, he crossed the prairie northerly
Kansas, to Quivera, did he leave a body there?
Was old Leif Ericson the first to seek the setting sun?
Or was it Madoc, after all, that Welshman out of Wales?
Was Radisson the first upon the River, or a dead and gone
Conquistador, a-searching for the treasure of the tales?

(returns to original melody)
Grugan of the Regulars, Grugan of the U.S.A.
Captain under Miles, he was, or maybe it was Crook,
Saw a line of light that lay like slime upon a waterway,
The shine of glass that water has, and stopped to take a look.