East Texas Red by Tim Barry Lyrics
Down in the scrub oak timber
Of that Southeast Texas gulf
There used to ride an old brakeman
A brakeman double tough
He worked the town of Kilgore
And Longview 9 miles down
Us travelers called him East Texas Red
The meanest bull around
If you rode by night or by broad daylight
In the wind, in the snow, or sun
You'd always see little East Texas Red
Sporting that smooth running gun
The tail got switched down the stems in main
And everybody said
The meanest bull on then shiney rails is littlе East Texas Red
It was early in thе morning
Around near 9 or 10
When a couple of boys on the hunt of a job
Stood out in the blizzardy wind
Hungry and cold they knocked on the doors
Of the working folks around
For a piece of meat or a spud or two
To boil the stew around
Well Red come down off the cinder dump
And he waves off number two
He kicked their stew pot into the bush
And he dumped out all their stew
One traveler said Mr East Texas Red
You better get your business right
Cause you gonna ride your westbound train
Just one year from tonight
Well Red he just laughed and climbed up the bank
Swung on the side of a wheeler
The boys caught a boxcar to Seminole
And on West out to Amarillo
They struck them a job of oilfield work
And they followed the pipeline down
It took them many places
Until one year rolled around
It was on one cold and wintery day
They got them a gulf bound train
They shivered and they shook with their money in their clothes
To go see Kilgore again
Over hills of sand and hard froze roads
Where cotton wagons roll
On past the town of Kilgore
And in to ol Longview
In their warm suits of clothes and their jackets
They walked into a store
They paid the man for some meat and stuff
To boil a stew once more
They walked the ties back last the yard
Til they got to the same spot
Where East Texas Red just one year before
Had dumped out their stew pot
The smoke from their fire went higher and higher
And this man come down the line
He ducked his head into the blizzardy wind
And he waved off number 9
Come down off of the cinder dump
And down to the same spot
And there were the same two men again
Around the same stew pot
Red went to his knees and he hollered please
Don’t pull that trigger on me
I did not get my business right
But the man did not hear his plea
A gun came out of an overcoat
He got hit with the one and two
And Red lay dead when the other two men
Sat down to eat their stew
Of that Southeast Texas gulf
There used to ride an old brakeman
A brakeman double tough
He worked the town of Kilgore
And Longview 9 miles down
Us travelers called him East Texas Red
The meanest bull around
If you rode by night or by broad daylight
In the wind, in the snow, or sun
You'd always see little East Texas Red
Sporting that smooth running gun
The tail got switched down the stems in main
And everybody said
The meanest bull on then shiney rails is littlе East Texas Red
It was early in thе morning
Around near 9 or 10
When a couple of boys on the hunt of a job
Stood out in the blizzardy wind
Hungry and cold they knocked on the doors
Of the working folks around
For a piece of meat or a spud or two
To boil the stew around
Well Red come down off the cinder dump
And he waves off number two
He kicked their stew pot into the bush
And he dumped out all their stew
One traveler said Mr East Texas Red
You better get your business right
Cause you gonna ride your westbound train
Just one year from tonight
Well Red he just laughed and climbed up the bank
Swung on the side of a wheeler
The boys caught a boxcar to Seminole
And on West out to Amarillo
They struck them a job of oilfield work
And they followed the pipeline down
It took them many places
Until one year rolled around
It was on one cold and wintery day
They got them a gulf bound train
They shivered and they shook with their money in their clothes
To go see Kilgore again
Over hills of sand and hard froze roads
Where cotton wagons roll
On past the town of Kilgore
And in to ol Longview
In their warm suits of clothes and their jackets
They walked into a store
They paid the man for some meat and stuff
To boil a stew once more
They walked the ties back last the yard
Til they got to the same spot
Where East Texas Red just one year before
Had dumped out their stew pot
The smoke from their fire went higher and higher
And this man come down the line
He ducked his head into the blizzardy wind
And he waved off number 9
Come down off of the cinder dump
And down to the same spot
And there were the same two men again
Around the same stew pot
Red went to his knees and he hollered please
Don’t pull that trigger on me
I did not get my business right
But the man did not hear his plea
A gun came out of an overcoat
He got hit with the one and two
And Red lay dead when the other two men
Sat down to eat their stew