El Paso (song)
| "El Paso" | |||||||||
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 El Paso by Marty Robbins |
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| Single by Marty Robbins | |||||||||
| from the album Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs | |||||||||
| B-side | "Running Gun" | ||||||||
| Released | October 26, 1959 | ||||||||
| Format | 7" | ||||||||
| Recorded | April 1959 | ||||||||
| Genre | country, pop | ||||||||
| Length | 4:38 | ||||||||
| Label | Columbia | ||||||||
| Writer(s) | Marty Robbins | ||||||||
| Producer | Don Law | ||||||||
| Marty Robbins singles chronology | |||||||||
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"El Paso" is a country and western ballad written and originally recorded by Marty Robbins, and first released on Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs in September 1959. It was released as a single the following month, and became a major hit on both the country and pop music charts, reaching number one in both at the start of 1960. It won the Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording in 1961, and remains Robbins' best-known song. It is widely considered a genre classic for its gripping narrative, haunting harmonies by vocalists Bobby Sykes and Jim Glaser (of the Glaser Brothers) and the eloquent Spanish guitar accompaniment by Grady Martin that lends the recording a distinctive Tex-Mex feel.
Contents |
[edit] The song
"El Paso" was, at some four minutes and thirty-eight seconds in duration, far longer than most contemporary singles at the time. Robbins' record company was unsure if radio stations would play such a long song, and so released two versions of the song: the full-length version on one side, and an edited version on the other which was nearer to the three-minute mark. The full-length version was overwhelmingly preferred.
- "Out in the west Texas town of El Paso, I fell in love with a Mexican girl..."
The song is a first-person narrative told by a cowboy who is in El Paso, Texas, in the days of the Wild West. He falls in love with Feleena[1], who is dancing at "Rosa's Cantina". When another man makes advances on "wicked Feleena", the narrator guns down the challenger, then flees El Paso for fear of being hanged for murder or killed in revenge by his victim's friends. He hides out in the "badlands of New Mexico".
The narrator switches from the past tense to the present tense for the remainder of the song, describing the yearning that drives him to return to El Paso: "It's been so long since I've seen the young maiden / My love is stronger than my fear of death". Upon entering the town, he is attacked and fatally wounded by a posse. At the end of the song, the cowboy is found by Feleena, and he dies in her arms.
Six years later, Robbins wrote a sequel to "El Paso", telling the story from Feleena's point of view. This song confirmed that the cowboy does indeed die in Feleena's arms.
[edit] Chart performance
| Chart (1959) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard Hot C&W Sides | 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 | 1 |
[edit] Legacy
El Paso has become extremely popular in the American West with many crediting Robbins with capturing the spirit of the West.[citation needed] In the late 1980s "El Paso" became known as the Official Fight song of the University of Texas at El Paso Miners.
[edit] Other versions
"El Paso" was frequently covered by the Grateful Dead in concert. The song entered the band's repertoire in 1969, and remained there until the band's demise in 1995; in total, it was performed 389 times.[2] It was sung by rhythm guitarist Bob Weir, with Jerry Garcia contributing harmony vocals. On the album Ladies and Gentlemen... The Grateful Dead, Bob Weir introduces the song as the Dead's "most requested number." It was also recorded by The Mills Brothers.
The alternative country band Old 97's have also covered this song, with it appearing on their album Hit by a Train: The Best of Old 97's. In addition, it has been covered by Jason and the Scorchers.
A parody version, "El Pizza" by H. B. Barnum, was a radio hit in 1960. It moved the action to Azusa, California, where Rosa's Cantina became a pizza place where Feleena worked as a waitress.
[edit] Sequels
Robbins wrote two songs that are explicit sequels to "El Paso", one in 1966, one in 1976. (He also wrote other songs that told Western stories in a similar vein, but they are not sequels to "El Paso", as they involve none of the same characters.)
[edit] Feleena (From El Paso)
In 1966, Robbins recorded "Feleena (From El Paso)", telling the life story of Feleena, the "Mexican girl" from "El Paso", in a third-person narrative. This track was over eight minutes long. Robbins wrote most of it in Phoenix, Arizona, but went to El Paso seeking inspiration for the conclusion.
Born in a desert shack in New Mexico, Feleena runs away from home at 17, living off her charms for a year in Santa Fe, before moving to the brighter lights of El Paso to become a paid dancer. After another year, the narrator of "El Paso" arrives, the first man she did not have contempt for. He spends six weeks romancing her, before shooting the other man with whom she was flirting through "insane jealousy." Her lover's return to El Paso comes only a day after his flight; immediately after his dying kiss, Feleena shoots herself with his gun. Their ghosts are heard to this day in the wind blowing around El Paso: "It's only the young cowboy showing Feleena the town".
[edit] El Paso City
In 1976 Robbins released another reworking, "El Paso City", in which the narrator is on an airplane over El Paso and remembers a song he had heard "long ago", proceeding to summarize the original "El Paso" story. "I don't recall who sang the song", he sings, but he feels a supernatural connection to the story: "could it be that I could be the cowboy in this mystery", he asks, suggesting a past life. This song was a country number one. The arrangement includes riffs and themes from the previous two El Paso songs. Robbins wrote it while flying over El Paso, in - he reported - the same amount of time it takes to sing, four minutes and fourteen seconds. It was only the second time that ever happened to him; the first time was when he composed the original El Paso as fast as he could write it down.
[edit] In real life
Plotting the hints from Marty Robbins’ “El Paso” trilogy of songs, one can determine approximately where to find Rosa’s Cantina. At a juncture near where Texas, Chihuahua, and New Mexico converge, at the bottom of a hill, with a back door from which the narrator can run, there is an actual neighborhood bar called Rosa’s Cantina. Its address is 3454 Doniphan, El Paso,TX, and its ambience lends itself to the lyrics of the three songs.[3]
[edit] Steve Martin video
For his TV special "Comedy Isn't Pretty," Steve Martin created a music video for the song. He plays the cowboy. The rest of the cast are chimpanzees and an orangutan. Martin's first "horse" is a miniature pony; he later rides an elephant to escape the posse.
[edit] References
- Liner notes by Rich Keinzle, July 1991, to The Essential Marty Robbins: 1951-1982 Columbia Records 468909-2
- Steve Martin video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fqrr-N4ue0c
[edit] Notes
- ^ The spelling Feleena (occasionally "Faleena"), rather than Felina as in Spanish, appears in the title of Faleena (from El Paso) on the tracklist of Robbins' 1966 album The Drifter.
- ^ setlists.net
- ^ Miller, Tom. On the Border: Portraits of America’s Southwestern Frontier, p. 118-124 and Jack Ruby’s Kitchen Sink: Offbeat Travels Through America’s Southwest, pp. 101-109.
[edit] External links
| Preceded by "The Same Old Me" by Ray Price |
Billboard Hot C&W Sides number-one single December 21, 1959 - February 1, 1960 |
Succeeded by "He'll Have to Go" by Jim Reeves |
| Preceded by "Why" by Frankie Avalon |
Billboard Hot 100 number-one single December 29, 1959 – January 11, 1960 (2 weeks) |
Succeeded by "Running Bear" by Johnny Preston |
