Death in songs
I have a problem with death.
But only in songs
I have always been pretty dismissive of death songs. Songs such as “Tell Laura I Love Her”, Terry” and specifically “Leader of the Pack.”
However, it has recently occurred to me that a couple of my favourite songs are in fact death songs, and worse, unlike the three mentioned above each of my favourite songs have more than one corpse in them, not the solitary one in as in the trio of songs I have castigated in the past.
Although on listening to the crash scene on Leader of the Pack, I am pretty sure it was a major incident and there must have been multiple casualties, but I have no way of proving this.
Anyway, back to my songs.
They are Marty Robbins’ big hit “El Paso”, and Bob Dylan’s “Romance in Durango.”
Let us look at Marty’s song first.
Marty tells us that in the West Texas town of El Paso, he has fallen in love with a Mexican girl. No problem with that, I am sure Mexican Girls are gorgeous.
This particular girl is called Felina, and she whirls in Rosas Cantina. Now I am sure she doesn’t whirl all the time, perhaps she waits on tables in between the whirling.
For the record, Marty also tells us that Felina has black eyes and is evil. Not my type, but it takes all kinds, and it also turns out she is a bit flighty.
Well one night a wild young cowboy comes in, and we are told he is “wild as the West Texas Wind”. (Not a look I am familiar with, perhaps someone from West Texas will explain.)
Any way he starts sharing a drink with Felina, and Marty gets a bit narked and challenges him to gunfight. Next thing we know the handsome young cowboy is dead on the floor.
Marty decides he has to flee.
Now here’s where I get confused.
I have seen many western films where shootouts have occurred, and it always seemed to me that fastest on the draw was the winner, a bit like scissors, rock and paper, although you couldn’t do best of three; obviously.
In the films the loser (the dead person) was taken away and the winner went back to the saloon, where a bloke was always playing the piano.
But it appears this attitude did not hold in Rosa’s Cantina.
Perhaps Rosa did not take kindly to having paying customers shot, what with all the clearing up of the body and mess. I suppose she was not a happy cantina owner.
So, Marty had to high tail it for the Bad Lands in New Mexico.
That’s where we will leave him for the present and concentrate on Bob Dylan.
Bob is also on the run, but he is with his lady love Magdalena. And it seems they are sharing one horse, so their going would be fairly slow compared to Marty Robbins. (It isn’t mentioned in either song, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Marty didn’t pass them on the road.)
It would appear someone called Ramone has been shot, also in a cantina (I see a theme developing here), but Bob is not sure if it was him who fired the gun. Bob is a bit confused.
He tells us that he sold his guitar to the son of a baker, for a few crumbs and a place to hide. He also goes on to tell us that he can get another one, and he will play for Magdalena while they ride.
Two questions here.
If he had the where with all to buy another guitar, why not just pay the baker’s son for the lodgings, and keep the original guitar?
Also, with two people on one horse, is it a good idea for one of them to be playing a guitar?
Any way they do not make it Durango, as they get pinned down one night by their pursuers, and Bob tells Magdalena to aim well.
Now a moment here to give Bob a well-deserved pat on the back, he does not see Magdalena as a mere female, fit for only womanly ways.
He has seen her as a person in her own right and has allowed her to take an equal role in the shooting of people. Well done, Bob.
However, Magdalena’s aim could not have been that good, as Bob last words are “Could be that I am slain.”
The answer to that I think is yes. As we hear no more of him.
Now back to Marty Robbins.
For some reason Marty has decided to return to the West Texas Town of El Paso, as his love for Felina is too strong. Now why couldn’t he go on to Old Mexico, and find himself another Mexican girl, I mean out of sight, out of mind.
But no, he is now on a hill looking down on Rosas cantina, but he is being chased by over seventeen mounted cowboys, so his chances of reaching the back door of Rosa’s cantina are pretty slim.
On his way down he is hit by a couple of bullets, but Felina is waiting for him at the back door of Rosa’s cantina, and he falls into her arms, one kiss and he snuffs It.
(You can’t help wondering if Felina had shown this concern earlier, all this unpleasantness could have been avoided.)
So, there we have it. Two songs, four deaths, possibly more, as we don’t know if Magdalena got lucky with her aim.
So, a question I must ask myself is this.
Why am I anti-death songs that involve teen- age related motorised accidents, but am quite happy if four or more people in my songs are gunned down, two of them in cantinas?
I think our English working men’s greasy spoon cafes were much like Rosa’s cantina, but without the whirling and shooting.
It seems to me if you live around West Texas or New or Old Mexico, and you want to live to an old age. I would avoid cantinas.
Thanks for reading.
More from me.
Who would you rather serenade, your girl friend
The day my wife went to prison.