I grew up in the late 50s and 60s listening to the country
music of that era. I stuck with country music through the 70s. I made it into
the 80s but, by the late 80s, country music as I knew and loved was headed in a
direction that, with a few exceptions, I wasn’t interested going. So I didn’t.
(Get off my lawn.)
The old west gunfighter and trail ballads, drinking songs,
and revenge songs had an influence on me that was, and still is, every bit as
strong as the impact Louis L’Amour’s books left with me. My lifelong interest,
perhaps fascination bordering on obsession, with everything old west—truth,
legends, and myths alike—have roots in those old cowboy and country songs.
I’m inviting you to read along with me this year as I post
one or two nostalgic-for-me country ballads on the first Wednesday of each
month. I will share a snippet of trivia about each song along with a YouTube
video.
Each month, I will include a link back to the previous
month’s article as reference to those songs. The common thread that runs among
the songs I’ve chosen for this musical memory lane excursion is tragic
lost love.
San Angelo was written and recorded by Marty and released in
September 1960. San Angelo’s story of the outlaw riding into town to be
reunited with his lover, Secora, because she’s sent him a message to meet him
there. Unbeknownst to him, Rangers have somehow intercepted her message, and
they are laying in wait for his arrival with intent to kill him.
When Secora sees the outlaw, she breaks free of her
Ranger-captivity and runs onto the street to warn her man to get out of town
before the Rangers kill him. But it’s too late. A Ranger shoots her, and she
dies in her man’s arms. Grief, rage, and vengeance consume the outlaw, and he
makes his last stand—
The ranger that killed
her is standing there waiting for me I rise to meet him, my
one thought it beat him He deserves death and
I swear that this ranger will die I beat his draw and I
shot him six times
This song has a theme similar to that in Seven Spanish Angels. The couples in
both songs make their final fight against the authorities, and they die
together with confidence in their hearts and minds that they will be reunited in
the hereafter.
Until next time, Kaye Spencer Writing through history one romance upon a time www.kayespencer.com
