Hi y'all. Fairweather Lewis here to talk about a classic country song. One of the most prized CDs in my small collection is Marty Robbins's legendary l959 album, GUNFIGHTER BALLADS AND TRAIL SONGS. Phenomenal acoustic guitar work by the great Grady Martin, unearthly harmony by the Glaser Brothers, and of course the showpiece song was "El Paso."

When I was much younger and more hormonal than I am now, "El Paso" made me cry. The sheer romanticism of it! The notion that a man would kill for possession of a woman, then return from the owlhoot trail to die in her arms! And yes, I was at the age where ROMEO & JULIET was the greatest love story ever written. It was all of a piece.

My late father was stationed in Germany, having gotten greetings from Uncle Sam, when "El Paso" was released, and it was in Germany that what I call the mystery of the missing verse begins.

Dad was a fanatic lover of classic country. I've heard him hammer away at his old Gibson and sing a million old country songs. When he sang "El Paso" he sang a verse that, on all the recorded versions of the song I ever heard, ISN'T SUNG. It came between the shooting

the handsome young stranger lay dead on the floor

and the getaway:

Out through the back door of Rosa's I ran

My apologies to Marty Robbins if I'm infringing on copyright or, God forbid, quoting the words wrong:

Just for a moment I stood there in silence
Shocked by the foul evil deed I had done
Many thoughts raced through my mind as I stood there
I had but one chance and that was to run.

Back to l959-60 in Germany. Dad--who wasn't above pulling a leg now and then--swore up and down that, when "El Paso" first showed up on jukeboxes, it was so long the jukebox wouldn't play it in its entirety, and they had to wait for guys coming back from furloughs stateside to find out how it ended.

Meanwhile I had gotten the album, first on vinyl and much later on CD, and the verse wasn't there. It finally came to me, many years later, what the mystery was. I don't claim to be the brightest bulb on the Christmas tree; I catch on eventually! THE VERSE WAS CUT TO SHORTEN THE SONG FOR AIR AND JUKEBOX PLAY! It wasn't essential to the narrative, and even without it "El Paso" was one of the longest songs, if not the longest, to grace Wurlitzers until Don McLean's "American Pie" nearly a decade later.

Dad's long since gone to the great honkytonk beyond (frankly I envy him the music). I outgrew both ROMEO & JULIET and tears for "El Paso's" unnamed killer; confronted with a man that jealous, I'd head for the badlands myself--and stay there. My favorite songs from GUNFIGHTER BALLADS these days are "The Master's Call" and "In the Valley." And my friend Willard assures me that a nearby classic country station plays "El Paso" with that verse right in there.

Cool, huh? Until next time, fair thee well.

Hi there. You can call me Fairweather Lewis, after an old old C.W. McCall song from the l970s. My real name wouldn’t mean anything to you anyway. Let’s just say that I’m a middleaged hillbilly whose passions in life are my family and friends, my cat, classic country music, books, sketching , poetry, ghost stories and dogwood season here in the knobs.

I took up blogging to prove that I’m not the total Luddite I’m frequently accused of being, since I actually design my own greeting cards and use Uncle Sam for delivery. I don’t intend to blog about politics unless some of the politicos or pundits really tick me off. Me, I’m politically ornery. I also will not blog about religion in terms of doctrine or sects, because I am not a conventionally religious person. I may at some point blog about religious music, but that’s as far as I go.

I’m still so new at this that I have my friend—call her Willard Clark, after the other character in the C.W. McCall song, --reading over my shoulder to make sure I don’t violate blog etiquette by using bad language or call anybody unnecessary names. I get my news the same way most knobites do, from CNN and MSNBC. I guess I’d have to say Keith Olbermann is my favorite commentator because he’s funny; Wolf Blitzer gets on my nerves because he gives the news like he’s doing play by play of the Apocalypse, and Bill O’Reilly only reminds me why I don’t miss my late father. I confess here to the world and all that I did vote for Tucker Carlson when he got the lap dance on DANCING WITH THE STARS, but not for the reason you’d think; I’m a southerner and we’re suckers for lost causes. Otherwise I love the segments Willie Geist does on TUCKER, but I can’t bear to watch them anymore because Tucker’s on the split screen with him, and Tucker gets on my reserve nerve.

Hopefully when I actually get around to blogging seriously I’ll have more to say about music and etc. At the moment I’m listening a lot to WILLIE’S PLACE, immersing myself in the great old honky-tonk music that is my dad’s greatest legacy to me. In fact, I’ve been mulling over things Dad told me about the first time he ever heard Marty Robbins’s classic "El Paso" and may post some theories about that. Until then let’s just say it’s only my opinion and probably way out there, and FAIR THEE WELL.