Big Blaze

Lyrics

Big Blaze
FAST — hard-driving 90s rodeo country; galloping melodic bass, pounding drums, aggressive acoustic rhythm, blazing fiddle, bright electric country guitar, pedal steel, warm powerful male vocal, enormous three-part harmonies
Intro
[Low galloping bass begins alone; kick drum joins like heavy hoofbeats; acoustic guitar builds before a blazing fiddle tears into the full band]
Verse 1
He came out of Wyoming
Big as midnight, mean as sin
White fire down his forehead
And nobody breaking him
Seventeen hands of trouble
With a reputation made
From leaving better cowboys
Flat-backed in the arena clay
They hauled him south one summer
Put a number by his name
By the third night every cowboy
Already knew Big Blaze
Pre-Chorus
Bass pounds harder; fiddle climbs
Some horses buck for freedom
Some buck because they're scared
Blaze came out of every chute...
Like he'd been waiting for you there
Chorus
BIG BLAZE!
White lightning down his face
Eight seconds might be glory
But forever knows his name
He'll twist you toward the heavens
Then introduce you to the ground
By the time that buzzer's calling...
There ain't nobody left around
Every cowboy thinks he's different
Till that gate gets pulled away
Then it's one man against a legend...
And the legend's Big Blaze
Turnaround
[Blazing fiddle over galloping bass and pounding drums]
Verse 2
He threw a boy from Amarillo
Who'd been winning all that year
Put a Montana champion
On his back behind his ears
Sent a Texas hand airborne
Before the second hand hit four
And a man with three gold buckles
Didn't make it halfway more
Every summer brought another
With a number on his back
Every winter Blaze went home...
With another perfect track
Pre-Chorus
[Three-part harmonies begin rising behind the lead]
They studied every movement
Every turn that horse could make
But you can't draw up a battle plan...
For an earthquake with a name
Chorus
BIG BLAZE!
Hear that grandstand come alive
There's a thousand people wondering
If tonight's the night he finds
The one man who can stay there
When the whole world starts to shake
But eight seconds lasts forever...
When you're sitting on Big Blaze
He ain't chasing any trophy
He don't know what's there to gain
But every cowboy chasing glory...
Has to go through Big Blaze
Instrumental
[Fiddle and electric guitar trade furious runs while the bass maintains a heavy hoofbeat rhythm; pedal steel screams into the turnaround]
Verse 3
Years rolled through the circuit
And the stories traveled far
That blaze became as famous
As the names above the bars
Little boys along the railing
Watched him thunder through the dirt
Then went home and rode the fence posts
Till their blue jeans nearly burst
And every one imagined
Someday drawing number eight
Not because they thought they'd beat him...
Just to say they faced Big Blaze
Bridge
[Arrangement drops to bass, acoustic guitar and low fiddle]
That's the thing about a legend
It ain't whether someone wins
It's how many men keep coming
Just to measure up against him
Champions come and champions go
Silver buckles lose their shine
But there's one name that still gets louder...
Every time they pull that line
Drums begin pounding harder
Verse 4
Then one August Saturday
Blaze came walking down the chute
Older now around the muzzle
Still had thunder in his boots
Crowd rose before the rider
Ever settled on his back
They weren't there to see the cowboy...
They were there to watch that
Gate swung wide—
Full band surges
He hit the dirt
Then hit the sky
Turned back hard
And kicked up high
One second
Three
Then five went by
Six had every soul upright
Seven came—
That cowboy held—
And somewhere between then and eight...
ALL INSTRUMENTS CUT
The whole arena waited.
Final Chorus
[Full band explodes; enormous three-part harmonies]
BIG BLAZE!
White lightning down his face
You can count it down in seconds
But you can't measure what he made
Every scar
Every story
Every cowboy that he raised
Every kid who saw him thunder...
And went home dreaming of Big Blaze
Let the champions have their buckles
Let the record books keep names
Long after nobody remembers
Who rode who on what day...
They'll remember when that gate flew wide
And thunder shook the place
They'll remember that white streak coming—
BIG BLAZE!
Outro
[Galloping bass continues; fiddle reprises the opening melody]
Years later there's an empty chute
And dust across the ground
But ask an old hand 'bout the toughest...
And watch him turn around
He'll point toward that arena
Like he still can see those days
A streak of white...
A wall of horse...
And one name rolling through the stands—
Three-part harmony rises
BIG...
BLAZE.
[One enormous final hoofbeat-like band hit]