East Texas Red Chords

Lyrics & chords

[Verse 1]
[G]Down in the scrub oak timber
Of [C]southeast Texas [G]gulf
There used to ride a brakeman
And a [A]brakeman double [D]tough
He [G]worked the [D]town [G]of Kilgore
[C]And Longview nine miles [G]down
[C]Us travelers called him [G]East Texas Red
The meanest [D]bully [G]around

[Verse 2]
If you [G]rode by night or by broad daylight
In the [C]rain or snow [G]or sun
You'd always see little
East Texas Red
[A]Sportin' his smooth runnin' [D]gun
Well the [G]tale got switched down
the stems and the mains
And [C]everybody [G]said
That the [C]toughest dick on that [G]shiny iron
Was little [D]East Texas [G]Red

[Verse 3]
It was [G]early in the mornin'
[C]Along towards nine [G]or ten
When a couple of boys
on the hunt of a job
[A]Stood in the blizzardy [D]wind
[G]Hungry and cold they knocked
on the doors
Of the [C]workin' folks [G]around
For a [C]piece of meat or a [G]spud or two
To boil their [D]stew [G]around

[Verse 4]
[G]Red come [D]down [G]the cinder dump
And he [C]waved old number [G]two
He kicked their bucket over a bush
And he [A]dumped out all of their [D]stew
One [G]traveler [D]said, [G]"Mr. East Texas Red
You [C]better get your business
fixed [G]right
'Cause [C]you're gonna ride
your [G]little black train
Just one [D]year from to[G]night."

[Verse 5]
[G]Red just laughed as he climbed the bank
And swun[C]g on the side of [G]a wheel
The boys caught a tanker to Seminole
And a [A]westward to Amaril[D]lo
[G]They struck them a [D]job [G]of oilfield work
And they [C]followed the pipeline [G]down
And it [C]took them lots of [G]places
'Til that year [D]had rolled [G]around

[Verse 6]
It was [G]on one cold and wintry day
They [C]hitched them a Gulf- bound [G]train
They beat their way 'cross
the froze gumbo
To the [A]scrub oak flats [D]again
[G]Over sandy hills and hard
froze roads
Where the [C]cottony wagons [G]rolled
[C]On past the town of [G]Kilgore
And on to[D]wards [G]old Longview

[Verse 7]
With their [G]warm suits of clothes
and their overcoats
They [C]walked into a [G]store
They paid the man for some meat and stuff
To [A]boil their stew once [D]more
[G]The ties they tracked back
to the yards
'Til they [C]came to the same old [G]spot
Where [C]East Texas Red just [G]one year ago
Had dumped their [D]last stew [G]pot

[Verse 8]
[G]The smoke of their fire went
higher and higher
And a [C]man come down [G]the line
His head ducked low in
the blizzardy wind
And he [A]waved old number [D]nine
[G]Red come down the cinder dump
'Til they [C]come to the same old [G]spot
[C]There was the same two [G]men [D]again[G]
Around [C]that [D]same stew [G]pot

[Verse 9]
Red [G]went to his knees
and he hollered
"Please don't [C]pull that trigger on [G]me
I never did get my business fixed"
[A]But Red never got his [D]say
A [G]gun wheeled [D]out [G]of an overcoat
And it [C]laid the old one [G]too
And [C]Red lay dead as [G]the other two men
Sat down [D]to eat their [G]stew