East Texas Red Chords

Lyrics & chords

[Verse 1]
[C]Dow[D]n i[A]n t[G]he scrub oak
timbers of the [C]southeast
Texas
[G]Gulf
There used to ride a brakeman,
and a [A]brakeman double tough
[D]He wor[G]ked the[A] town of[D]
[G]Kilgore
And
[C]Longview nine miles [G]down
And us [C]travelers called him
[G]East
Texas
Red
The meanest [D]bull [G]around
If you rode by night, by broad daylight
In the [C]wind and the snow and [G]sun
You'd always see
Little
East
Texas
Red
[A]Sportin' his smooth runnin' [D]gun
Well the [G]town got switched down
the stems and the mains
And [C]everybody [G]said
That the [C]meanest man on the [G]shiny irons
Was
Little
[D]East
Texas
Red
[G]It was early in the mornin' and along
[C]George 9 or 10[G]
When a couple of boys on
the hunt of a jowl
Stood [A]in the blizzardy [D]wind
[G]Hungry and cold they knocked on the doors
Of the [C]workin' folks around
[G]For a pie[C]ce of meat or a s[G]pud or two
To boil [D]their stew [G]around
Red come down the cinder dung
And he [C]flagged down number [G]two
He kicked their bucket over a bush
And [A]dumped out all of their [D]stew
One [G]traveler said,
Mr.
East
Texas
Red, you [C]better get your business fixed [G]right,
because
you're [C]going to ride your little [G]black
train just one year [D]from tonight.
[G]Well
Red just laughed as he climbed the bank,
[C]swung on the side of a wheel[G]er, the boy was
took on a tanker to
Seminole
And [A]westward to
[D]Amarillo
They [G]struck them a job of ball field work
And they [C]followed the pipeline [G]down
And it [C]took them lots of [G]places
Till one year [D]had rolled [G]around
On one cold and wintry day,
they [C]hooked them a
Gulf -bound train
[G]They shivered and they shook
with dough in their clothes
To
[A]Old
Kelgore again
[D]Over hil[G]ls of sand and hard -froze roads
where the [C]cotton wagons [G]rode
Out [C]past the town of
[G]Kelgore and on to
[D]O 'Longview
[G]Where their warm suits of clothes
and their overcoats
They'll [C]walk into a [G]store
They'll pay the man for
some meat and stuff
They'll [A]boil their stew once [D]more
They [G]walked the tides back to the yard
And they [C]came to the same old [G]spot
Where
[C]East
Texas
Red just [G]one year ago
Had dumped [D]their last steel [G]pot
The smoke from their fire
went higher and higher
And a [C]man come down the line
[G]He ducked his head in the blizzardy
wind and [A]waved old number [D]nine
He [G]walked off down the cinder dump
and he'd [C]come to the same old spot
[G]And the[C]re was the same two men[G]
again around that [D]same stew pot
[G]Red 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]Red never got his [D]say.
A [G]gun wheeled out of an overcoat
And it [C]laid the old one [G]to
Red [C]lay dead.
While the [G]other two men sat
down [D]to eat their [G]stew

[Outro 1]
[C][G][D][G]