Beer for My Horses Lyrics

Performed by Toby Keith

Well a man come on the 6 o'clock news
Said somebody's been shot, somebody's been abused
Somebody blew up a building
Somebody stole a car
Somebody got away
Somebody didn't get too far yeah
They didn't get too far

Grandpappy told my pappy, back in my day, son
A man had to answer for the wicked that he done
Take all the rope in Texas
Find a tall oak tree, round up all of them bad boys
Hang them high in the street for all the people to see that

(Chorus)
Justice is the one thing you should always find
You got to saddle up your boys
You got to draw a hard line
When the gun smoke settles we'll sing a victory tune
We'll all meet back at the local saloon
We'll raise up our glasses against evil forces
Singing whiskey for my men, beer for my horses

We got too many gangsters doing dirty deeds
We've got too much corruption, too much crime in the streets
It's time the long arm of the law put a few more in the ground
Send 'em all to their maker and he'll settle 'em down
You can bet he'll set 'em down 'cause

(Chorus x2)

Please Click here to submit the Corrections of Beer for My Horses Lyrics

Please Click Here to Print Beer for My Horses Lyrics

Thanks to mario.macias for submitting Beer for My Horses Lyrics.


SERIOUSLY!!! | Reviewer: Max | 12/15/11

If you idiots think this is racist why dont you look at how blacks talk to themselves. they constantly drop the "N" word left and right at EACHOTHER!!! i'm a cop and in my honest opinion i think they should bring back corporal punishment. i dont care if it's blacks or whites hanging from a "Tall oak tree". as far as i'm concerned it should be the electric chair!

P.S amen to giving my horses beer and my partener whiskey! Toby and Willie have it right!!

---

get over it. | Reviewer: sense | 12/14/11

Just want to start by saying I consider myself a "liberal", but I will follow that by saying the song is whatever you interpret it as. If people still walk around calling everything racist than all the racist shit in the past lives on. If you shut the fuck up about it and let people have their own beliefs regardless of the implications and move on it will be a better America.

---

Racist?? Are you kidding me? | Reviewer: Ben | 12/6/11

Who are these idiots calling this song racist? This song isn't racist. Not even close. People need to learn a little something about the old west before they spout their racist dogma.

---

READ words, not memories | Reviewer: Anonymous | 12/1/11

I'm not entirely sure it's even worth attempting a post in favor of moderation, but here's a notion for both sides of the opposition- take a breather, sit down, and read the lyrics. No. I mean the lyrics. Not just the post above or below yours, or the sub-context you think you see. Does the song have a vigilante context? I think we can say that it does. Our first stanza tells us that terrible things are happening in this world, our second remembers a past where(in the rose colored glasses of memory) people didn't get away with it. The third stanza suggests action, to take up arms and personally amend the issue. Is vigilante-ism wrong? I'm gonna have to vote for the party that said yes. And before party two gets in an uproar, and before party one starts acting all superior and mighty, I'm sorry, but I'm still going to have to disagree with the idea that there is something inherently racist about the song. Whatever issues you have with Texas(I'm from MA, before you start preaching) THERE IS NO MENTION OF LYNCHING IN THIS SONG.
"Take all the rope in Texas/Find a tall oak tree/round up all of them bad boys/Hang them high in the street for all the people to see that..."
The song mentions HANGING. Public hanging? Yes. But not lynching. We can't assume, just because the state of Texas and justice are mentioned in the same song, that the song is about lynching. That's like saying, Russia and the early 1900s are in this song, it must be about murdering royal families. It's kind of a jump, ladies and gentlemen, even if it is the time period in which it occurred. Further, as indicated in other posts, if you don't know the race of the prosecuting party, or for that matter, the race of the prosecuted, how can it be racist? If you watch any of those old western movies (which is clearly what this song is referencing, more than anyone's actual "memories"), most of the outlaws that get rounded up and hung are white guys.

P.S. Whoever said Toby Keith was racist and ignorant. That guy voted for- and publicly supported- a black president.

---

@terry | Reviewer: Chase | 10/6/11

terry.....and obviously your ok will letting be get away with rape, murder, stealing, etc. Take your daughter, sister, or mother into the scene and picture how devastating it would be to have something done to them. I got $10 bucks you wouldn't want them to get go chill in jail with your money being spent, free meals, and something new to get off too.

---

Dumbasses | Reviewer: Anonymous | 10/6/11

Stop hating on Toby Keith, he's singing about real justice not the justice system we have today where criminals get better health care in prison than we do so just shut it, it's a song, build a bridge and get over it

---

Review | Reviewer: Anonymous | 7/17/11

I'm not exactly sure what's racist about this song!

Personally, I think it's just about punishing those who have done wrong (the hanging may be literal or symbolic), then celebrating a job well done of protecting the people!

And about the whole alcoholism thing, a little beer and whiskey never hurt any one!

---

clearly a song praising lincing | Reviewer: terry | 7/4/11

String up people from trees? Being drunk on beer and whiskey and no trial? Its disgraceful to have a pop song about how great it is to get drunk and linch people. By the way, you ignorant drunk and drug addict morons, even when you are talking to a white person that does not mean they share your hatred of colored people, thank god there are lots of good white people, not like Toby Keith!

---

Ignorant liberals | Reviewer: Anonymous | 6/10/11

Nothing surprises me anymore but I continue to be amazed at the ignorant loons in this country. I suppose the Dukes of Hazard is racist too. It’s these crazy IGNORANT loony toons who put this disastrous president in office. Great song!

---

my two cents in the convo | Reviewer: tianna | 5/27/11

hey everyone i just want to say that this son is not racist it shows how the bad people in out society need t be stopped and who cares if it talkes about whisky and beer even cops can drink if they want to! so furthermore dont hate the song or the writters just listen to the song or not its a great song and has some great people singing it :)

---

Just Toby being Toby | Reviewer: Billy Bob Deniford | 5/28/11

The song is built on racist ideology. All anyone has to do is go take a hard look at Texas history and see who suffered the most for what men called 'justice' and you'll know it's racist. There's more to solving crime and setting society straight than hanging people and putting them in jail so even if you want to call it just a song it's still a stupid song but I mean this is America, it's cool. Stupid songs get made by stupid people all the time and so it's just something we get used to, like terrorism, like taxes.

---

Please, grow up, Tree Huggers | Reviewer: Orlando | 2/4/11

It's a fucking song, you stupid shits. It deals with how reality should be. Any person caught in the act kills, trying to kill, stealing, or any other malevolent action- Justice should be swift and final. Hang them or put them in jail quick. Look at what happened in Arizona few weeks back. Everybody saw this asshole shoot his gun and by law they have to address him as the "possible suspect". Stop wasting all this money in appeals.

---

really? | Reviewer: chri5 | 1/17/11

this song is not raciast, it simply uses the old west as a metaphor to imply how we need to take back our national justice system from crimanals, futhermore, lynching is not hanging but any punishment of death, and although lynching is linked to slave deaths 70% percent were killed by desiese and malnutration, lynching was more common in the time of the old west west and back then not all high positions were held by white people some quite famous marshalls and sheriffs were black , so get over the song you over sensitive people

---

Misplaced Anger | Reviewer: TJ | 7/10/10

In reading the comments posted on this site I was inspired to add a few of my own. There seems to be a small minded trend here that I truly object to, that being, if someone has an opinion other than your own, you belittle and berate them using ad hominem attacks rather than relying on sound argument to back up your opinion.

Everybody is entitled to express an opinion no matter how right or wrong that opinion is perceived to be without the fear of intimidation.

Attempting to silence another's opinion is indicative of what lengths people will go to in order to prove their feelings of righteousness.

In reading some of the vitriolic comments on this forum I notice the sword Damocles dangling above their heads. I think some best be careful lest you become the very murderer whose death you've advocated for, by falling prey to your own draconian measures of so called justice.

Just imagine a world where we can justify stringing people up from a noose, in a public square, as a form of punishment and amusement. If you want to pass judgement look no further than wrongheaded comments such as these.

Whatever you feel about this song it is undeniable that there is a common thread of vigilantism which runs through it. The song also misrepresents history by using baseless bravado and messages of moral superiority to bolster its claims. The author (of the song) does this by attempting to create a dividing line of good and evil whereby the "good guys", who are always righteous are located on one side of the line and the "bad guys" are on the other. If history has taught us anything it is that such views are not only dangerous but a direct threat to democracy.

If you do however want to debate such unfounded claims like the ones bandied about in this forum and the song in general; acts like lynching and vigilante justice have been deemed by our society and in Western ideology, as a whole, as wrong and unjust.

Vigilantism and this type of self-righteous point of view, spurred on by bravado as a punishment for crime, is the antithesis of a free society and forms the basis for why we sent troops to go die in a foreign land, in the first place.

We as a society have decided that pious decision making using harsh punitive measures as a form of retribution are not a sound means of ridding society of criminal behaviour. To string up a person by the end of a noose because someone believes they have committed a heinous act is no better than a public beheading or a public stoning.

This is why we have developed a process for acquiring the truth (in a legalistic sense) because it has been shown time and again, throughout history, that the person who usually hangs by the end of that rope is oft times there because he is personally disliked (for whatever reason, such as whistling at a white woman) as opposed to being guilty of a murder, rape or what have you.

When I hear these arguments about how we should round up all the murderers and rapists and mete out the Toby Keith brand of justice and then in the next breath the same people are espousing their love of God and country then I must question that love when it would seem they do not even trust the very institutions that exist here for us all, in the interest of all our safety, to ensure that justice is not only expedient but also that it is accurate and fair. Something that vigilantism could never do.

Apart from the pointless lyrics, this song rocks!

---

In regards to John from 10/7/08 | Reviewer: Skyla | 7/6/10

This song loves to hate. | Reviewer: John | 10/7/08

Just to let anyone know, Toby Keith and Scotty Emerick DID write this song, while Keith and Willie Nelson performed it. This song is incredibly offensive because it directly glorifies and promotes alcohol abuse and lynching: quite possibly one of the BEST combinations any man has ever thought up. For anyone who tries to argue that this song is "race-free", just look at the history of lynching and how it has been tied to race, including murder of Latino, black, Jewish, interracial couples, or any hated group. This is based in fear, hatred, and an unsupported accusation. Sounds like witch trials to me. I'm shocked that any media outlet plays this song, especially where I first heard it on The Colbert Report. Again, this ideology of hatred comes from the minds of Toby Keith and Scotty Emerick, and Willie Nelson must not be excused for being coerced into singing this song. Toby Keith needs to start actually thinking and writing good songs rather than spewing hatred onto a page, adding a catchy little tune, and perpetuating the evils of the white supremacist social system that continues today through the roots of America's histories.



-------


First, let me point out that it does not matter who wrote the song. The simple fact is, it was written and Toby Keith and Willie Nelson sang it. If they sang it, they more than likely agreed with it and are therefore not bothered by what other people think about them for singing it. This song is a huge hit and no one anyone else says about it is going to change that.

Second, this song is in no way offensive. If you do a poll, most people will more than likely say that they would prefer to pay for a murderer to be put to death rather than pay to feed a murderer for the rest of their lives, which is what lynching would do. It would kill the murderer/rapist/thief instead of us having to pay to feed them three meals a day for the rest of our lives with our taxes.

Third, I argue that this song is race-free. If you really DO look at the history of lynching, you will find more true cases of lynching from the 1800's, in the Old West, when robbers/rapists/murderers were all lynched instead of put in a cell where they could break out and do more damage to society. If you are bringing up slavery and actually look at the history of death for slaves, which is what I presume you are talking about, if their owners wanted them dead, they were more than likely shot. And most slave owners that killed slaves did it because they thought their slave betrayed them in some way. But in fact, disease was the cause for about 70% of slave deaths that occurred in the U.S. This was also the case for slaves that died on ships from Africa. And if you look at the history of slavery, you will find that it originated in Ancient Rome, where SLAVES WERE WHITE. So if you have the nerve to say that this is a racist song because it talks about lynching, which was used for slaves, look at the facts before you make your accusations. Not all slaves were a minority. DO NOT misinterpret this as me saying I am for slavery. I am in no way supportive of it. I despise it. I am merely trying to point out facts. Fourth, there is absolutely no way for this to be based on fear, hatred and/or unsupported accusation. If the artists of this song were afraid, they would never have released it. If they hated someone/something, they would have gone on air saying it instead of singing a song about it that would confuse people (like everyone who thinks this song is race-related). Fifth, except for in the movie Two Sovereigns for Sister Sarah, supposed witches were burned alive or pressed to death, not lynched. Get your facts straight. I don't know why you're shocked about media outlets playing this song. Have you ever heard Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue? Same concept. The only difference is that that song is about terrorists, while this one is about CRIMINALS. Also, I highly doubt that Willie Nelson was coerced into doing anything with/about this song. The simple fact about Willie Nelson is that he does what he wants when he wants. And lastly, I think that this song shows a lot of thinking and research and is not just words spewed onto a page with a catchy little tune added to it. As I pointed out earlier, the lynching of criminals was popular in the 1800's, as was the use of saloons, which are also mentioned in the song. If it was modern-day, they more than likely would have said bar or pub. And as far as "perpetuating the evils of the white supremacist social system that continues today through the roots of America's histories", let me just point out that there are several black officials in high places. For example, Conaleezza Rice is a black woman that was the U.S. Secretary of State under President George W. Bush. We also now have a black president. If we are in a supremacist social system, it would be a Democratic/Republican supremacist social system, not a white one. Democrats and Republicans fight with each other about our governmental and social systems WAY more than whites and blacks do. All you have to do to know that is watch the news once in a while.

So, to sum up my summarization and review, GET A CLUE. Look at the lyrics before you say anything negative about a truly great song. As the song says,
"Justice is the one thing you should always find
You got to saddle up your boys
You got to draw a hard line
When the gun smoke settles we'll sing a victory tune
We'll all meet back at the local saloon
We'll raise up our glasses against evil forces
Singing whiskey for my men, beer for my horses."

---

Reviews By Pages:   1    2    3   

The following area is only for review, if you want to submit the lyrics or the corrections of the lyrics, please click the link at the end of Beer for My Horses Lyrics.

• Toby Keith Biography
• Toby Keith Albums
• Toby Keith Lyrics
• Toby Keith Gallery