I'm an old man now and my best years are behind me. My time has past. You're still young and you still have a chance. There's hope with you. Take your mask off, go find the best young man you always had a crush on. Dance with him, kiss him, confess your love, and start a family. It isn't too late for you to still find your happily ever after. Live dangerously and free. Go fall in love right now!

Here not her

@@danahorstman6828 Hear not here.

@@archangelmichael1978 typo

It sure does champ!

You can always go to Des Moines, Iowa since everything there is still like 1996.

@@ZACohea LOL... I lived half my life in Iowa. I will go in with a different perspective

@@ZACohea I think I remember that episode. Been awhile tho. You had a great reference that totally went over my head. Well played sir.

Columbine happened in the 90s.

Definitely...

Spotify will help you find new stuff.

Failure (yes that's the band name) Sunny day really estate Cave in Blinker the star

❤❤❤

Same place as the cowboys.

All over the place, just gotta look/listen 😉

I thought she was madly in love with this guy. At least that was true initially. What went wrong? Was she too demanding, or did the guy turn out to be a lowlife?

@@tenderpawsm473 they both misunderstood how much she would enjoy her life. He goes out gets out of the house leaving her in situations where she never had a day to herself(for the most part). Is her bitterness shining through, maybe shining isn’t the best descriptor of bitterness

I guess being a housewife was harder than she anticipated. 😂

@@tenderpawsm473 not quite what I was going for but, sure…

❤

Boundless talent

Agreed

I like how she has a braid in her hair and then in the next picture she has a bun in her hair. I think I like her with the braids better

She made millions off this song. Mission Accomplished!!

Totally agree. This album was so underrated.

The 90s remind me of running into water sprinklers

I didn’t have a bedtime

The 90s were the best decade,it was soooooo simple back then,I'm literally stuck in that decade lol with reruns of friends etc

Modern technology is too invasive now, we’re too busy on our phones, no longer interact face to face with each other & the technology is now used against us

90s sucked

I totally agree with that and the way she dances and moves her hands around to her singing it's so awesome

She reverses it in more recent times.

That's then this is now

😆

You can even hear it

Check her out with Peter Gabriel's “Secret World Live” tour in 1994, too.

She's one hell of a sexy mamma! 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯💯

Don't put me in jail!

I agree 💯

@Jeff C By people that don't know her.

Still in the 90s - we left :-(.

1996 see yourself. i bought the album.....I was there and 14 @babyenderpizzio67823

80's

I loved this in my teens; fiana apple Criminal, Lisa loeb. Then, I got into Korn, a few years ago I heard some of Meg Myers like Desire that reminds me of korn

better yet, where have all the 80s music gone?

Ladies don't have a falsetto.

No nuttos

Total goosebumps ❤☮

and she rejects what she once sang in lies..... like a women will do.

@@thomasposlusny9687 What did you mean by this?

She sounds like she's being passive aggressive.

it's so odd people highlight the "beer" part... So many songs out there that highlight beautiful words and people love the passive aggressive snap backs here

Every woman has felt that exact tone

​@@Nick_C213it's not odd, people just like lyrics that have impact. Not every single lyric needs to be nice and beautiful

​@@tenderpawsm473you sound like you're sensitive

What a midriff 😅

Both!!! fucking sexy as hell

They say time is a circle. So those times pass and return

Sadly its a lit fuse. Only hope there are loops close enough to your time or not.

@@spidaman0112 is the sun the fuse?

@@zzzcocopepe same spark that ignited the universe. Stars too

😭❤

That has been -- and always will be -- the line that just completely and utterly kills me… I completely and utterly agree with you 💯 that she sings it with such beautiful angst

It happens in just about every marriage. After almost 30 years of marriage, some of us have an awakening. It’s not pretty. Enough.

Mine doesn't even notice the effort I put in after a year

One of many things made fun of on Family Guy. Did that show like anything? ( I mean other than offending everyone😄)

Shes! And she play every instrument

My sister has an MFA degree, but she doesn't sing, just paints and does pottery...

yes she is awesome!

but did she ever find her cowboy?

​@@kittydaddy2023no she just found a bra

Man child…he B…keep da luv…find another…I bet…carry ..0n…

😂❤❤ I love it when people say that they are are the best people w

Y o

I was with a woman I don't think she knew how to wipe her ass

My x had 2 kids she didn't want and slept with whoever paid her bills so lotte freaking da

Right! I was a senior in HS

Wow! I definitely would've pinned this for an 80's song for sure. But I love it. Has a very nostalgic sound.

@babyenderpizzio67823 NO it came out in the 90s because l remember hearing it on the radio when l was a kid going to school!!

Exactly. I wonder where Paula Cole has gone.

It came out in 1996. Still it hits 🎶❤️

Same vibes. I was 13 ❤

Every time i hear this song I am back in 8th grade Woodshop It was on the radio like start of 4th period nearly every day without fail.

I literally woke up with this in my head out of nowhere this morning, after years lol

Really I was the same age I just had a flashback in time omg 😳

Love this song I remember my brother use to love when I would sing it karaoke at home lol.....was 17

Lmao

I know why. She just re-did the song and video. Now Paula looks like the rest of us. She changed the lyrics a bit. Check it out.

AlmightyFhonghoulle haha omg so true,..Just a lost song people remember cuz it was so diffferent.

😂YAAS!

Aliens.

I’m listening to Paula Cole Where Have All The Cowboys Gone? mid May 2024 Mother’s Day 1:01

Oh yeah 👍👍

I used to listing to this song on the radio when I worked at the nursing home in the laundry part I would be rocking out to it

@@PaulaLinden I used to always listen to a driving to work in the car 😃

June 2️⃣0️⃣2️⃣4️⃣

I hope so!

We Gen Z to listen and learn

We are, and passing on to the next generations to enjoy as well.

Millennial here.. and this will ALWAYS be a fave. ❤

I've had snippets of this song running through my head but couldn't remember the name or enough of the lyrics running together to do a search. All I could remember is I thought that Paula Cole sang it. Now at 2:15 a. m. I remember the name of the song. I remember Ms. Cole being known back in the day for really only 2 songs, "I Don't Want to Wait" (the Dawson's Creek song) and this song. Where I like I don't want to wait, radio stations over played it and I preferred this song. I haven't thought of this song in about 25 years, but I'm glad I did. I still like and may have to introduce my 17 y. o. to it. All because I was watching a SMOSH video and they referenced I Don't Want to Wait and that jogged my memory. Sometimes I miss those days when I was young and stupid. If I could go back in time and do it all over, but keep my knowledge & experience 46 years have given me, I would. I find myself feeling nostalgic for those days recently. I'm a proud Gen Xer and wouldn't want to claim any other generation.

She is saying, Darn it, there is no love in this relationship. 3 am being "the hour of the wolf."

What triggered it was the weird way she says "BEER", then it sorta snowballed from there lol.

I probably haven’t heard this song since riding in the car with my mom as a child in the late 90s…shit just randomly got stuck in my head and here I am

I blame Walmart. They get me while my mind is screaming for anything but the shit on the shelves and the idiots in the aisles. Then they play some song I haven't heard since Christ was a corporal. I don't even realize it at the time, but that night I find myself here looking for songs I never thought I liked. Now they play on an infinite loop in my head. I like it.

now you remember

Yes ❤

you will never hear another like this.

Perfect description for it 💕

This is the cry of a women who chased around men in her youth and didn't settle down while assuming she'd be young and beautiful forever. Now that she's older, she can't chase them anymore because she's older and the cowboys rode off into the sunset. You all need to understand female nature. 🤣

@@younglove3362 The character in the song clearly did settle down. I think you missed something there.

ME RN

Are they worth anything these days? I've got about 200, most are mix-tapes made by Me, each with a theme based on the current season of life. Still got a package of blank discs to burn on! Amen!

You go have a beeeeer is more sarcastic than angry, as she seems up set with ,'her' choice for a man.

My daughter does a great impression of this , too funny.

The disapproving facial expression, coupled with the audio, in the segment of video suggests more hostility than sarcasm. Certainly condescension at the least (passive aggressively hostile).

Nah ​@brettallison5753 ...definitely sounds angry. I feel like I'm in trouble or somethin when she says it.😂

@@mattstephens6137 😅😅

@@Deborah4Antiques I'm laughing because she made the deal.

Stay strong.

You just hit the wall.

@H MOX Thirty-five is devastating for women, especially when they are clueless about the wall.

Even though I'm a man, as a 38 year old I get it.

same here. it came around the time of my parents divorce. used to hear it when she was driving...was on a CD called "Thats what I call music 1997" or something. I remember everything and how life can just change overnight.

@@nailabt yes I remember those cds! Thanks for sharing

Well said...

Sadly, disillusionment often ends up in cynicism, whereas the disappointed person closes his or her heart to true love.

I feel for you. 💖

Lol except these fragile men acting like there's no subtext to the lyrics.

@Threehundredpages Pages Better looking husband? Where did you get that? Methinks you're projecting.

Is it possible she's being earnest deep down though? about just wanting that prairie home life?

She’s missing real men -maybe?

More confused feminazi blathering its a catchy tune tho

Sure tobetimeless classic

@Nucky Thompson english. I just forgot to space words apart

A sure to be classic

Nucky Thompson why you bein a dick lol

Nucky Thompson ohhh... i get it, grammar nazi.. well in that case.... pnq ǝɹǝɥʇ ɓuıllǝds ʇɐɥʇ ʇɔǝɹɹoɔ ǝsɐǝlԀ

Ahmen to that, but its a different world now.

Yes yes YES!! There ARE some ‘real’ people out there!

@@susanabaci2800 got to try and still keep it real.

An idiotic comment born of nostalgic delusion. Good, great, wonderful, weird, those songs are plentiful, old and new... Here.

Said for effect , figuratively, not a literal comment John. And you prob don't understand anyway ....

Recently rediscovered Paula Cole and her incredible voice on Spotify. Tremendous emotion here.

I love her talent!

That voice and soul..perfection

I believe she is more of jazz genre.

Under rated doesn't mean what you think... It's really just undiscovered. Idiot

Me too bro 😢

🎉 when music was still good and living was worthwhile. Today music is freaky an living is just about survival

It's all a distant memory :(

The alternative to getting aged is not entirely attractive either

Same. I remember being so adrift when this came out, and it makes so much more sense when you age.

I love it

Because he love it more than her

Nonsense. Dude sought out difficult laborious work to support his family.

It made open up one right now, cheers my friend 🍻

How do you like your bear, Grizzly or Black?

I got similar story, thankfully im a single mom now ❣️

I hope you’re in a better space now.

Nope. You ignored them.

He didn’t wanna get help ?

The woman hiding from the pressures of the world and expecting a man to care for her. No wonder he took drugs.

Definitely one of the best songs from 1996/97.

You old fools. This song is about oppression and hatred. and don’t tell me it was a different time. I don’t wanna hear that shit

@ske3ffington~~Can't sleep so I'm playing my music~~I remember when this song came out~~I'd forgotten about it and just came across it~~I'm in my 60's and have always loved music~~I came out of the womb singing and dancing~~lol~~I love music so much~~Keeps me sane!!,,lol~~Paula Cole became super popular but only for a short time~~I wonder w/ever happened to her~~I thought she was great~~Hope she's alright~~Take care and have a great day/nite and stay safe~~😁😁😁💖💖💖~~

Crybaby

Let's cry....

In your memories and your heart, where they are safe and permanent, there to lift your spirits when your having bad day :)

@@random4969 😢

@@justinmoore3217 😭

Yep

Your weak attempt at gaining likes is pathetic.

damn so much time...

Thanks for reminding me how old I'm getting🤪🤪

"Sarah Pauline won AZ, and Shasta county smashed the Dominion Voters machine, and Natzi Cabal Davin Nonsense has a 1million dollar 💵 bounty hunter Biden on his head if he don't get his shit together in California USA 😎!" Truth

Wow! Congrats from Oklahoma City in the U.S.A!!!!👍😁🎶🎵🎸

I was 10 when this was released…life went way too fast 🥺🥺🥺

She was mocking subservient women.

It's called getting older and wasting her youthful beauty to settle down. And if she settled down, she didn't settle down long or with just one. As she got older she can't do what she did when she was young. Listen to the lyrics, (especially the chorus) and the message is clear as day.

The disappointment that an adult woman can't face reality with even the thinly veiled pretense of maturity.

Well, she is a progressive and a staunch Feminist. Life isn't fair, especially for those who demand an equality of outcomes. 🤔

TRUE, she is a manhater.

@@oceanhedonist265 Spot on! The “equity” that we hear about isn’t equality of opportunity but is equality of outcome which translates to the end of meritocracy. It’s a sure fire way for business to fail.

The British author Terry Eagleton wrote that ironies are more easily understood within the British culture.

@@RicardoMartinez-jy5lo Very true. The Brits are good at irony.

@@danielbrooks3566 Some interpretations overlook the irony and sarcasm...unfortunately ;) Paula Cole has always been a feminist at heart..and I love that about her.

Aww rest in peace to your lovely horse🥹🙏🏾❤️

❤😢😂

I didn't know horses lived thirty years . . .

It’s truly amazing how music and scents can really marry the memory. The first time I heard this song as a kid. I was very much asleep but woke up to the sound of this song. I could never remember the name of the song (even tho I made sure to watch for the credits so I could remember) but the melody, “where have all the cowboy’s gone?” And “BEEEERRR” STUCK! So when something like google came along I could find it again🙌🏾

I was going to mention that she was a back up singer for Peter Gabriel. But I am very jealous of you now LOL you know Peter Gabriel and you were introduced to Paula Cole?😮😮Peter Gabriel will always be one of my all-time favorites!

Exactly how I got here also Mark. I’m so grateful to be introduced to such gifted human beings. 🙏

It's still 1996 though!!. isn't it!! 😬

Yes. They're both women.

Facts. 1996 was an unforgettable year for me.

@Scott Summers those were the best years..90s were fun

A year or two before that I saw her four times on the Secret World tour. Amazing. The Secret World Live video is highly recommended, if you haven't memorized it already.

93-95 for me but all 90's are the best.

Charles - you’re a good man, sir. Respect👊🏼

She was mocking Cowboys, not celebrating them.

So glad. I failed twice. Had an awful childhood, so got No modeling. Oh well.

You took the words right out of my mouth. Every time. Chills. Every. Time. A true artist, poet, social commentator, femininist, and documentarian of American life.

@@matthewroberts9107 HAIM performed an amazing cover of this song on their 2019 headline set at Pitchfork music festival. I never would have heard of this song otherwise!

Sexey🎉

"I grew up in a small town, the song, let's see the Swamp Hollywood CA Italy movie get away with it, or censorship, the USS Missouri, amendment rights Born with, Magadonians" 3rd party USA 😎 devolution dude 🦉🦅 AMERICA "

​@@CharlesNewkirk-sb5qs"CIA globalist instinctively contracted Hollywood CA to go on strike, after the movie"sound of freedom " hmmm 🤔💭, Yoda say 🌱🌿

HAIM performed an amazing cover of it on their 2019 headline set at Pitchfork music festival. I never would have heard of this song otherwise!

weird

Her high notes are great, but the whisper-notes make me crazy! 3:32

We grew old in body only. Not in spirit, nor in mind.

We sure did get old,you said it all right there I was 26 back in 1997!!!!

Well, maybe not "feel young"; music just helps us remember that we once were.

Estás en lo cierto

Why didn’t some of us grow past the age of 16?

Every woman out there has felt this before. Trust me.🤠

@@davisholman8149 yes

I used to laugh as a kid at the way she pronounced beer lol but now that I'm an adult that part makes a lot more since.

@@SeanMic517 Granted, I was in college when this came out, but I understood that pronunciation perfectly. I had a father that drank...

As you remembered what a Banging Body Paula had.

I can still remember taking a bath in high school to get ready for school in the morning , and this was playing on the radio in our bathroom. And I was like, What is this amazing song?!?! It’s weird how I can still remember the very first time I heard it. It was so different than anything else on the radio at that time.

so you didn't even notice her?

I don't. Maybe its sarcasm. "LHave a beer" When he would leave Id do his dishes. He cast some spell on me and I want a time machine to take me back to our times. 🤠

I think she wanted to drink the beer because she's an alcoholic.

Yes it's the old "I want a guy who's handsome, tough, macho, mechanical, super confident,.....but also gentle, sensitive, patient, good with kids and not afraid to cry" ..............She had me worried. I was afraid she had impossible expectations.

I ❤ the stupidity of it

If he were a true man, he would read into this and realize she's had enough of him. She's saying, "Fine do whatever the *#^#* you want, don't always expect me to be here when you get back" . He best stay home and help her out.

Brilliant artist!

Dude, literally have the same feels. I have lived most of my life in the same small town full of friendly and simple (not the urban mean definition) people and now I'm a city and it's just night and day 😭 no one even looks people in the eye or smile at children.

And all those bloody wars flooding us

agreed..

You hear the lines, "You made friends at the bar, you join 'em at the bar almost every single day of the week" and "I will wash the dishes while you go have a beer", and the extreme resentment in her voice with the word "beer", and you think the "times changed" and THAT is what went wrong with the (autobiographical) story in this song? Or the line "I am wearing my new dress tonight, but you don't even notice me." Seriously, what the hell are you hearing? You think this is a "those were the good old days" song? I don't think your home town "changed during the pandemic", I think your mind opened up a tiny bit while living in a larger city and having to actually interact with a diverse population, and your tiny, country home town stayed ignorant and self-suppressed. Paula Cole has made it very clear in numerous interviews since this came out in 1996 that she's singing about the resentment she has for a husband that doesn't help around the house and isn't present in the relationship, and that the image of American "cowboys" and "Marlboro men" is a myth, and the "classic wife role" is nothing but suppression of a whole gender. "Someone from a farming community where values have an older, more respectful tone" - sure, as long as those values mean "straight (acting) white people". 🙄

@@Mike-ie5xu THIS ! What a brilliant analysis!!!

"Yankee doodle went to town riding on a pony 🐎🐴, stuck a feather in his 🎩 and called it infiltrated from with in, these artists sing Dixie, sweet heart Jesus Christ plan, AMEN AMERICA MAGA"

I'm singing very loudly with her atm xoxx

Sounds like Tori Amos - who also laments men being men.

You won't say that after you've been married...

"Clever girl...."

True, and the way that she kind of gives up in getting him to like help her out. After each verse, she takes on more responsibility and lets him do what he wants.

Akihito007 if you actually have a partner you give a shit about, you wouldn’t need to get a beer with butt buddies every single night. instead, you’d actually hang out with your wife and spend time with your children. claiming “but i work!!!” is just making excuses, literally everyone works and half of us still enjoy being with our families

june bug This!

Not as bad as it is for those of us that hear a song from 1974 and say to ourselves. I was in Junior High, where have all the years gone?

The math just doesn't make sense

Wasn't this song made back in the 90's.

@@meggiewillis9705 Yes it was released in 1996 from her album "This Fire". This was also nominated for Song of The Year and Record of The Year at the 1998 Grammy Awards. Cole was also nominated for Best New Artist that year along with Erykah Badu, Hanson, Fiona Apple and P. Diddy. She ultimately wins the latter award. 👍👍

The 9/11 time hole. We lost an entire decade.

subtly

@@RezellRezell Oof… I even typed that on my phone. No idea how it or myself didn’t catch that. Thanks.

@@chrisnealis4270 no problem. I just got amazed how you had the whole history of the recording of this song. My way of saying thank you. That's why I read comments even when I think I'm nutty for doing so because I learn from people.

@@RezellRezell That’s what happens when the son of a master degree holding music teacher who once worked for multi-Grammy winning singer grows up and becomes a Nashville trained recording engineer. We love these little details. 😉

@@chrisnealis4270 Oh, my goodness. You are a legend. Nice meeting you on YT... 🇵🇭🇵🇭🇵🇭😇😇😇