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It was the tail end of ’59. Cowboy culture still rode roughshod over the movies, TV, and a big swath of the radio dial when out of nowhere came a gunslingin’, guitar-totin’ Country & Western cultural anthropologist singing a plaintive ballad of love and death on the Tex-Mex border that took the entire world – not just the Western States of America – by storm. (Yes, this was a huge Country and Pop cross-over hit).
With its “you-are-there” retelling of a bar fight over a girl, “El Paso” by Marty Robbins invites you to viscerally feel a cowboy’s desire for a woman, the immediate shock and disbelief that follow the shooting a romantic rival, the quick escape across the border, and the gruesome frontier justice that inevitably prevails.
A catchy melody. A hint of yodeling. Two senseless deaths. One dying kiss. Has anything changed, since then?
More criminals per year are still executed in Texas than any other state, by far. Do they get a kiss goodbye? No. They do not. But the governor and the lieutenant governor do give each other a high five, and pass out cigars, any time the warden calls to deliver the good news.
Sensing a timely journalistic opportunity, we dispatched one of our senior staff reporters to the scene of the crime. Here, for the first time, is a curated selection of the most revealing interviews with the “regulars” who inhabit this imaginary cantina, transcribed verbatim. Plus, a Bonus Track: the complete lyrics to an obscure regional release, “De Delores,” discovered on the cantina’s jukebox.
It’s all a bit different than you might imagine. And, with a decidedly happier ending, borderline reality doesn’t get any better than this!
.
It was the tail end of ’59. Cowboy culture still rode roughshod over the movies, TV, and a big swath of the radio dial when out of nowhere came a gunslingin’, guitar-totin’ Country & Western cultural anthropologist singing a plaintive ballad of love and death on the Tex-Mex border that took the entire world – not just the Western States of America – by storm. (Yes, this was a huge Country and Pop cross-over hit).
With its “you-are-there” retelling of a bar fight over a girl, “El Paso” by Marty Robbins invites you to viscerally feel a cowboy’s desire for a woman, the immediate shock and disbelief that follow the shooting a romantic rival, the quick escape across the border, and the gruesome frontier justice that inevitably prevails.
A catchy melody. A hint of yodeling. Two senseless deaths. One dying kiss. Has anything changed, since then?
More criminals per year are still executed in Texas than any other state, by far. Do they get a kiss goodbye? No. They do not. But the governor and the lieutenant governor do give each other a high five, and pass out cigars, any time the warden calls to deliver the good news.
Sensing a timely journalistic opportunity, we dispatched one of our senior staff reporters to the scene of the crime. Here, for the first time, is a curated selection of the most revealing interviews with the “regulars” who inhabit this imaginary cantina, transcribed verbatim. Plus, a Bonus Track: the complete lyrics to an obscure regional release, “De Delores,” discovered on the cantina’s jukebox.
It’s all a bit different than you might imagine. And, with a decidedly happier ending, borderline reality doesn’t get any better than this!
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