Down in the scubble country
to the southeast Texas Gulf,
there used to ride a brakeman,
He worked the town of Kilgore
And the travelers all said that Little East Texas Red,
he was the meanest bull around
in the wintry wind or the sun
just a sportin' his smooth runnin' gun
And the tail got switched down
And everybody said that the
meanest bull on them shiny irons
was that little East Texas red
It was on a cold and a windy morn,
it was along towards nine or ten
A couple of boys on the hunt of a job,
they stood in that blizzardy wind
Hungry and cold they knocked on the doors
of the working people around
For a piece of meat and a
just to boil a stew around
Well East Texas Red come down
and he swung off that old number two
He kicked their bucket over
and he dumped out all of their stew
you better get your business straight
and he swung on the side of a wheeler
They caught them a job of
and they followed a pipeline down
It took them lots of places
before that year had rolled around
Then on a cold and a windy morn
they caught them a gulf -bound train
They shivered and shook with a dough
to the scrubble flats again
With their warm suits of clothes
They paid that man for some
just to boil the stew once more
The ties they tracked down
and they came to that same old spot
had dumped their last stew pot
Well the smoke of their fire
and Red come down the line
He walked on down through
and he came to the same old spot
And there was the same two men again
around that same stew pot
Red went to his knees and he hollered,
Please don't pull your trigger on me.
I did not get my business straight,
But he did not get his say.
And it played that 0 -1 -2.
And Red was dead when the other
Sat down to eat their stew. you
