Faster Horses

I was rolling down the Georgia highway with a buddy of mine when he asked if I had ever heard the song ‘Faster Horses’. I shook my head, so he pulled it up on his phone and pressed play.

A nostalgic, classic country tune reminiscent of Hank Williams filled the truck as singer and songwriter Tom T. Hall started telling this story:

"A young man walks up to an old cowboy who wears the scars of a hard-working life on his body. He is thin and has leathery skin from the months and years on the trail. His eyes reveal a sort of harshness while at the same time promising wisdom. The young man asks this cowboy to share the mysteries of life with him.

The cowboy thinks a bit and replies with this line:

‘It’s faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, more money.’

Upon a short pause, he continues,

‘It don't do men no good to pray for peace and rain. Peace and rain is just a way to say prosperity. And buffalo chips is all it means to me.’ (For those who didn’t grow up herding cattle, buffalo chips refer to dried bison dung.)

The young man, unsatisfied with the answer he received, reveals that he is a poet, uninterested in horses, women, whiskey, and money, but instead is searching for the truth. As a poet, he burns with a passion for searching and writing.

Upon hearing this, the old cowboy calls him a liar, believing all men want the same thing. He repeats his answer, to which the poet grabs him by the collar and yanks him to his feet in disbelief that a man could think so simply of life.

The cowboy pulls his revolver before the poet can react. The poet reports feeling ‘somethin' cold and shiny laying by my head, so I started to believe the things he said.’

Years later, the young man says his poet days are behind him, and he is back to being himself. He has settled into a comfortable life and now has a son. He shares that if his boy should ever ask him what he has learned, he would undoubtedly answer, ‘Son, it’s faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, more money.’"

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What a song! Tom T. Hall is the writer, and I think it’s safe to say he did not let the world pull him away from being a poet and philosopher searching for the truth.

Let’s dissect the lyrics and see what it is really about.

The young protagonist finds himself on a journey to find truth and life’s purpose. In doing so, he learns of the world's surface-level and materialistic values. However, being committed to his pursuit, he ignores them. He pushes deeper, expecting something more meaningful to be found in life than simple pleasures such as material possessions, sexual pleasures, status, and wealth.

The fact that the poet is asking these questions makes the cowboy, who thought he had figured life out, uncomfortable. Instead of admitting he had given up on his own quest and joining the poet on his journey, the cowboy forces his set of values upon him.

The cowboy in this story represents a resistance we all face when we ask questions about life, God, or philosophy. Now, obviously, this doesn't really happen with a gun in our heads. However, people will try to pull us from your search since it forces them to consider more profound things than they would like to.

The poet gives in to the pressure of the revolver barrel on his head and adopts the ways of the cowboy. Years pass, and he speaks of his poet days being behind him as if that was just a stage in his life and nothing more. He is now finally ‘himself’. The world has successfully sedated him into not asking questions. He complies, believing he has found the true meaning of life in the concise words of the cowboy: There truly is nothing that matters beyond faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, and more money.

One day, his son will come to him, filled with a desire to learn and grow, asking all sorts of questions, and the person who answers him will be the man who had once pondered those very things. And his answer will not be wise, insightful, or meaningful but simply, ‘It’s faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, more money.’

What are my takeaways from this song?

Think, write, ask questions.

Do not let others stop you from becoming a philosopher.

Search for God and the truth in the face of adversity.

Shy away from the pleasures of the world.

Be a poet.