Lyrics Gringo Pistolero - Michael Martin Murphey

Gringo Pistolero

When the bandit, Chico Cana, crossed the river, at Boquillas
Stole the young bride of the rancher Juan Otero
Juan caught up his fastest mare, and north to Marathon he rode
To hire himself, a gringo pistolero
Spread the word along the river, tell it through the borderland
That the Hound of Death is howling, after Chico Cana’s band
Juan will seal their fate as surely as the rising of the sun
With the guns, of the gringo pistolero
The round hat of a trooper, cast a shadow ‘crost his eyes
As he listened to the tale of Juan Otero
At the name of Chico Cana, there could be no talk of price
Just the Gringo’s vow of vengeance, «Yo arrero»
Oil the big Colt automatics, and with the daylight, he was gone
With the coming cold, and darkness, he rode into Castollon
And a drunken bandit, caught there read the message
«Talk or Die!»
In the eyes of the Gringo Pistolero
Where the Canyon Colorado, twists its way among the rocks
And the ribbon of the sky is long and narrow
In a jacal of adobe, bruised and tied up on the floor
Wept the young wife of the rancher Juan Otero
Bandit mirrors on the cliff-tops, flash the message now
«He comes»
Ask the number of his followers, the number of their guns
And the aviso flashed to Chico, like the fallin' of a stone
«He comes alone, the Gringo Pistolero.»
Hidden high above the canyon where the falcon rides the wind
Chico’s best hawk-eyed aviso, Juan Romero
Put his mirror in his shirt and gazed with worry toward the rocks
Where he last had seen the Gringo Pistolero
«Put the sights up to 800;
hold a yard left, for the wind
And there’s one, By God, aviso that will NEVER flash again!»
Weeping red tears, from a third eye, that the guilty cannot feel
From the Springfield of the Gringo Pistolero
«Chico Cana, you have stole your last damn U.S. dollar bill!
I have come for you and all your companeros
You can fight and do your damnedest, or just send the lady out!»
Came the challenge of the Gringo Pistolero
Bandit rifles down the canyon, to the left and to the right
Fearful eyes that watched and waited ‘til the falling of the night
Angry cut-throats, that ignored the weeping lady on the floor
And through the back door, came the Gringo Pistolero!
Big Colt autos spitting Thunder-Death at everything that moved!
Flashing lightning in the jacal, long and narrow
Ending hate, and greed and cruelty, with final flying truth
From the sure hand of the Gringo Pistolero!
When one hot and smoking pistol dropped down empty in the dirt
Then another sprang like magic, from inside the gringo’s shirt
And the lead-storm never stopped, ‘til there was no one left unhurt
But the lady and the Gringo Pistolero
Word has spread to Ojinaga, where the Conchos tumbles down
And a man’s death can come swifter than an arrow
That although the law be empty words, still justice can be found
For no border stops the Gringo Pistolero!
And the old wives tell how Juan’s wife came back
Beautiful and fair
And lived happily through children, and the years of silver hair
But, the young girls say Otero did not treat her well, back there
So she left him for the Gringo Pistolero!
When the bandit, Chico Cana, crossed the river, at Boquillas
Stole the young bride of the rancher Juan Otero
Juan caught up his fastest mare, and north to Marathon he rode
To hire himself, a gringo pistolero