An Anthem of Two Worlds: The Lonesome Cowboy’s Call Back to Texas
The ultimate anthem for a Texas heart lost and longing for home.
There are certain songs that don’t just occupy a space on a playlist; they own a piece of geography and a generation’s memory. “London Homesick Blues,” as recorded by the legendary Cosmic Cowboy Jerry Jeff Walker on his seminal 1973 album, Viva Terlingua!, is one such masterpiece. It’s more than a song—it is the sound of the Texas spirit, distilled into a yearning, singalong anthem that simultaneously champions a sense of place and mourns its temporary absence.
Crucial Information for the Record:
The song was written by Gary P. Nunn, who was the keyboardist in Walker’s backing band, The Lost Gonzo Band. Walker’s famous version, which has become the definitive recording, was released in November 1973 as the final track on the revolutionary, live-in-the-dancehall album Viva Terlingua!. Though it was not a traditional chart-buster on the national Billboard Hot 100 or Country Singles chart, its cultural impact was immeasurable, particularly in Texas. It became an instantly recognizable regional classic and, most notably, served as the long-running theme song for the iconic PBS music television series, Austin City Limits, from 1977 to 2004, cementing its status as an unofficial State Song for the progressive country movement.
The true beauty of this song lies in the story behind its creation, a narrative that perfectly captures the “Outlaw Country” ethos of the early 1970s Austin scene. Gary P. Nunn wrote the song while literally feeling the blues—the homesick kind—while on a promotional tour in London in 1973, playing with Michael Martin Murphey. Nunn, an honest-to-goodness Texan, found himself stranded in a drizzly, chilly London flat near Oxford Street. He was flat broke, freezing, and utterly disconnected from the comfortable, warm, and eccentric world he knew back home. The cultural clash was the spark: the staid formality of London versus the freewheelin’ sensibility of Texas.
The lyrics, delivered in Walker’s signature rambling, warm voice (though it’s Nunn who takes the lead vocal on the Viva Terlingua! cut), paint a vivid picture of this disorientation. He contrasts the dry, sharp English wit—”drier than the Texas sand”—with his own boots-and-hat cowboy swagger, which was met with curious, critical “limey eyes.” The simple, universal feeling of being “down on your luck and you ain’t got a buck” is given a uniquely Texan spin: “Even London Bridge has fallen down / And moved to Arizona. Now I know why.”
But it’s the chorus, a spontaneous cry from a deeply rooted soul, that truly takes flight and makes the heart ache with nostalgia: “I wanna go home with the armadillo!” The “Armadillo” here is a dual reference: the beloved, bizarre mascot of Texas, and the famous, raucous music hall in Austin, the Armadillo World Headquarters, the very crucible of the “progressive country” scene that Walker helped to ignite.
For older readers, particularly those of us who came of age in the 70s or early 80s, “London Homesick Blues” is a visceral, potent memory. It recalls a time when music felt real, recorded with raw energy in a place like the old Luckenbach Dancehall, not a sterile studio. It was the soundtrack to late nights, road trips, and the realization that while you might leave Texas, Texas never leaves you. The song is a warm blanket of familiarity, a powerful reminder of youth, freedom, and the beautiful, idiosyncratic, dust-covered soul of the Lone Star State. It is, quite simply, the sound of finding your way back home, no matter how far you’ve roamed.