Most songwriters likely don’t consider the possibility that their lyrics will one day be used in the Senate for non-musical purposes, and we’d wager a bet that this is certainly true of Tom T. Hall’s tongue-in-cheek Western tune, “Faster Horses (The Cowboy And The Poet)”.
Hall released his original composition on his 1976 album, Faster Horses. The song describes a poet coming upon a weather-worn cowboy who was thin as a whip and whose skin was like leather. The poet, eager to learn the true meaning of life, approached the cowboy and asked him for life’s most important aspirations.
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“He spat between his boots, and he replied / It’s faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, more money,” Hall sang. As the song continues, the poet becomes angry and starts a fight with the cowboy, only to back down when he realizes the cowboy has a gun. After that, the poet is willing to accept the cowboy’s words as truth.
“If my boy ever asks me / what it is that I have learned / I think that I will readily affirm / Son, it’s faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, more money.”
From a Rough-and-Tumble Saloon to a Senate Hearing
Tom T. Hall’s “Faster Horses (The Cowboy and The Poet)” boasts the same witty humor as other hits that made him famous, like Jeannie C. Riley’s “Harper Valley P.T.A.” It became an instant classic in the Western song canon. Decades after its mid-1970s release, the Western Writers of America officially included “Faster Horses” on its list of the best 100 Western songs of all time.
The year that Hall released Faster Horses, the U.S. Senate held a hearing before the Subcommittee on Financial Institutions of the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. The second session of the 94th Congress featured Mr. Alex Sheshunoff, President of Sheshunoff & Co., a banking consulting firm, speaking before the committee. Sheshunoff began his statement by explaining that his company had researched “what bank customers really want from the banks they do business with.”
“We asked them what they really wanted,” he continued, “and what do you think is important, and what you really want. And unfortunately, just as we were able to publish our market research, it was preempted by Mr. Tom T. Hall from Nashville, Tennessee, when he said, ‘Faster horses, younger women, and older whiskey.’”
New Hampshire Senator Thomas McIntyre replied, “Say that again. Faster horses, younger women, and older whiskey?”
“And more money,” Sheshunoff replied. “Since this committee is primarily concerned with banking, we are going to focus on the ‘and more money’ part.” Senator John Tower chimed in, “The other three, the Congress is not competent to deal with.”
We’d say so.
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