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Help! Would you like to help me to slove some problems? I'm a girl like listening to English song. But,there are some lyrics that I can't translate. For example: <desperado>: You been out ridin'fences for so long now. These things that are pleasin'you. What's the "ridin'fences"and the"pleasin'"mean???

Answers · 5

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I need to correct part of Alex's answer. "Riding fences" is an old term to describe what a "cowboy" or "ranch hand" does when they ride a horse - or these days a vehicle - around the edges of a ranch or farm where the fences are. This is done to check for holes or for stranded animals. Here, it is describing a lonely, boring task that has kept "you" away for so long. "Things that are pleasing you" are things that make you happy.
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This may work better: http://www.italki.com/entry/531201
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ridin'fences refers to a person who won't take sides or who equivocates on an issue so as not to offend those on either side. pleasin' is short for pleasing which means giving pleasure, agreeable or gratifying.
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http://www.italki.com/notebook/added/531201
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A cowboy rides his horse along the fences of a ranch to see if any of the wires or posts are broken down. If so, they must be repaired. (Are you listening to "Desperado" by the Eagles?) The lyric is not very logical as to meaning. It means basically that the "cowboy" has been working in a solitary way for too long. "pleasin'" refer to those things that the cowboy finds pleasureable. This could be anything. Vices generally are pleasureable to the "cowboy". It could be drug use, or alcohol, or being independent of attachments such as wife and family. So the lyrics call for the "cowboy" to "come to your senses" and become responsible.

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