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Most Promising Officer

from Diesel Town by Rick Todd

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about

I wrote Most Promising Officer after many days exploring the backcountry of Palo Duro Canyon in the Texas Panhandle and studying its history. Ulysses S. Grant called Colonel Ranald Mackenzie "the most promising young officer" in the Army. Mackenzie whipped the Comanche in Palo Duro Canyon in 1874. Two years later he did the same to the Cheyenne on the Tongue River of Wyoming's Big Horn Mountains. Mackenzie fought without the brutality that usually accompanied the genocide against Native Americans. That's scant praise. The obvious contrast was with George Armstrong Custer. Both men faced ignoble ends; Mackenzie went mad, and Custer, of course, "...got what he deserved". I think the most important line is the one that follows: "For the rest of us, the judgin's not in".

lyrics

MOST PROMISING OFFICER

I wandered the trail a mile or three
A day or maybe a week
'Til I came to the crossroads place
Where I could no longer speak
I raised my face up to the sky
Where the prairie sun burns white
On the lonely Llano Estacado
At the place of the Mackenzie fight

He was the most promising, most promising officer
The most promising, most promising officer

Now the ghost ponies wail in the bloody swale
Where their bones bleach white in the sun
At night a light flashes across the sky
Where the thunder stallions run
Up north in the Bighorn snow
Where the Tongue's clear waters flow
There's a cut-throat pony in the blizzard night
Where the Old Ones' feet were froze

He was the most promising, most promising officer
The most promising, most promising officer
The most promising, most promising officer
The most promising, most promising officer

I guess it's true when they say
That Custer died for our sins
I figure he got what he deserved
For the rest of us the judgin's not in
Mackenzie couldn't bear the burden
He could not still the cries
He could only dream of a Colt Army 45
Right between the eyes

He was the most promising, most promising officer
The most promising, most promising officer
The most promising, most promising officer
The most promising, most promising officer

I raised my face up to the sky
Where the prairie sun burns white
On the lonely Llano Estacado
At the place of the Mackenzie fight

credits

from Diesel Town, released July 1, 2023
Rick Todd: Vocals, mandolin, button accordion
Eric Berg: Acoustic guitar
Leon "Lownote" Lange: Bass guitar
Danny "Freeze" Dobervich: Harmonica

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Rick Todd Amarillo, Texas

Rick Todd is a songwriter, performer and multi-instrumentalist based in Amarillo, Texas. His music resonates from a space between Americana, folk, and country. After a few lifetimes as a Telecaster-slinging rocker, farm manager, studio producer and engineer, and award-winning research scientist, Todd turned his creative talents to making music once again. The result is Diesel Town. ... more

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