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Description
I have always loved tragic Celtic ballads, and wanted to try updating that feel to the Old West. I was hoping for some Marty Robbins, but he never showed up! Open to suggestions, if anyone wants to add some instrumention or tinker with it, be my guest... a work in progress.
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Lyrics
He was a brake man on the Sante Fe
To slow her down could take a mile
Try as he might, he couldn't stop that day
From the time he saw her smile
A pound of flour from the corner store
Four yards of muslin for a dress
He wasn't sure what he was looking for
He wasn't sure if she'd say "yes".
I gotta keep her safe from harm
Gonna cut him down myself
I'll take her from his cold, dead arms
At the Saddleback Motel
Been on a cold streak since '49
I'll strike again, I swear I will
She's had her eyes on that Eastbound line
But the gold's here in the hills
All she wanted was to settle down
Head back to Georgia to her kin
Turn our backs on this forsaken town
Until the day that she met him.
I gotta keep her safe from harm
Gonna cut him down myself
I'll take her from his cold, dead arms
At the Saddleback Motel
I saw the light on through the driving rain
My heart was pounding in my chest
A glass of whiskey just to dull the pain
Pulled my pistol from my vest
I climbed the staircase to the second floor
Never gave him a chance to draw
A flash of bullets as I came through that door
The last thing he ever saw.
I had to keep her safe from harm
I had to cut him down myself
But I couldn't pry her from his cold, dead arms
At the Saddleback Motel.
To slow her down could take a mile
Try as he might, he couldn't stop that day
From the time he saw her smile
A pound of flour from the corner store
Four yards of muslin for a dress
He wasn't sure what he was looking for
He wasn't sure if she'd say "yes".
I gotta keep her safe from harm
Gonna cut him down myself
I'll take her from his cold, dead arms
At the Saddleback Motel
Been on a cold streak since '49
I'll strike again, I swear I will
She's had her eyes on that Eastbound line
But the gold's here in the hills
All she wanted was to settle down
Head back to Georgia to her kin
Turn our backs on this forsaken town
Until the day that she met him.
I gotta keep her safe from harm
Gonna cut him down myself
I'll take her from his cold, dead arms
At the Saddleback Motel
I saw the light on through the driving rain
My heart was pounding in my chest
A glass of whiskey just to dull the pain
Pulled my pistol from my vest
I climbed the staircase to the second floor
Never gave him a chance to draw
A flash of bullets as I came through that door
The last thing he ever saw.
I had to keep her safe from harm
I had to cut him down myself
But I couldn't pry her from his cold, dead arms
At the Saddleback Motel.
charliechen
I admire what you are doing here, emulating a celtic song and setting it in the old West. You sing this well and create a very palpable, hauting mood. I didn't quite understand the whole story from your lyrics. Didn't get why the narrator had to stop the man and kill him.
Musically, it's quite listenable as it is. I also hear a fiddle. (It would be another homage to the Celtic origins of your piece.) And some steel guitar work might lend it even more authenticity.
Well done.
(I was quite flabbergasted by the 3.5 rating that was up before I got here. Go figure.)