His most famous work is Alice's Restaurant, a talking blues song that lasts eighteen minutes and twenty seconds (in its original recorded version; Guthrie has been known to spin the story out to forty-five minutes in concert). The song, a bitingly satirical protest against the Vietnam War draft, is based on a true incident. In the song, Guthrie was called up for a draft examination, and rejected as unfit for military service as a result of a criminal record consisting in its entirety of a single arrest, court appearance, fine and clean-up order for littering. In reality, Guthrie, though a carrier of the genetically inherited disease Huntington's chorea, was classified as fit (1A); however, his draft-lottery number did not come up.
East Texas Red
Arlo Guthrie Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
There used to ride a brakeman and a brakeman double tough
He worked the town of Kilgore and Longview nine miles down
Us trav'lers called him East Texas Red the meanest bull around.
I rode by night and by broad daylight in wind and snow and sun
I always seen little East Texas Red sporting his smooth running gun
The tale got switched down the stems and main and everybody said
It was early in the morning and along towards nine or ten
A couple of boys on the hunt of a job stood in the blizzardy wind
Hungry and cold they knocked on the doors of the working folks around
For a piece of meat and a spud or two to boil a stew around.
Red he come down the cinder dump and he flagged the number two
He kicked their bucket over a bush and he dumped out all their stew
A traveler said, Mister East Texas Red you better get everything fixed
'Cause you're gonna ride your little train just one year from today.
Red he laughed as he clumb the bank and swung aside of a wheeler
The boys caught a tanker to Seminole and west to Amarillo
They struck them a job of oil field work and followed a pipe line down
It took them lots of places till the year had rolled around.
On one cold and wintery day they hooked them a Gulf bound train
They shivered and shook with dough in their clothes to see Kilgore again
Over hills of sand and hard froze roads where the cotton wagons roll
On past the town of Kilgore and on to old Longview.
With their warm suits of clothes and overcoats they walk into a store
They pay the man for some meat and stuff to fix a stew once more
The ties they walk back past the yards till they come to the same old spot
Where East Texas Red just a year ago had dumped their last stew pot.
The smoke of their fire went higher and higher a man come down the line
He ducked his head in the blizzardy wind and waved old number nine
He walked off down the cinder dump till he come to the same old spot
And there was the same three men again around that same little pot.
Red went to his knees and he hollered,
Please don't pull that trigger on me.
I did not get my business fixed but he did not get his say
A gun wheeled out of an overcoat and it played the old one two
And Red was dead when the other two men set down to eat their stew.
Arlo Guthrie’s song “East Texas Red” portrays the tale of a legendary brakeman in Southeast Texas named East Texas Red, renowned for his unmatched toughness and violence. The lyrics illustrate how the singer, East Texas Red, was feared by everyone in the region as he rode the train from Kilgore to Longview. He wielded guns smoothly and was unrelenting in his viciousness. The song recounts a specific incident in which two train-hoppers asked for food from the townspeople to make a hearty stew, but East Texas Red knocked over their stew and spilled it all over the ground just outside the town of Kilgore. A traveler warns Red that he only has one year left on the job, and the last stanza of the song describes how Red was finally brought to justice by the two former hobos that he had wronged a year ago. As the two men sit by their stew, East Texas Red suddenly appears, begging not to be shot. However, the two men are stronger, and they quickly dispatch Red in a hail of bullets, exacting revenge on a man who was a symbol of tyranny in Southeast Texas.
The lyrics of Guthrie’s song are a metaphor for the struggle between good and evil. Red represents everything wrong with the world, while the two men who take him down represent the triumph of justice. The song is a testament to the human spirit’s ability to fight back against oppression and wrongdoing, no matter how powerful the oppressor might appear to be.
Line by Line Meaning
Down in the scrub oak timber of the Southeast Texas Gulf
In the Southeast Texas Gulf area, surrounded by the thick scrub oak trees.
There used to ride a brakeman and a brakeman double tough
There was a brakeman who was extra tough.
He worked the town of Kilgore and Longview nine miles down
He operated between Kilgore and Longview, a distance of nine miles.
Us trav'lers called him East Texas Red the meanest bull around.
We travelers used to call him East Texas Red because he was the meanest and toughest person around.
I rode by night and by broad daylight in wind and snow and sun
I traveled in every condition and time of the day without rest.
I always seen little East Texas Red sporting his smooth running gun
I always saw East Texas Red with his gun, which was well maintained and worked smoothly.
The tale got switched down the stems and main and everybody said
The story spread everywhere that East Texas Red was the meanest man on the rails.
The meanest man on the shiny rails was little East Texas Red.
Everyone agreed that East Texas Red was the most fearsome man on the rails.
It was early in the morning and along towards nine or ten
It was around nine or ten o'clock on a morning.
A couple of boys on the hunt of a job stood in the blizzardy wind
Two boys who were job hunting stood in the windy and snowy blizzard.
Hungry and cold they knocked on the doors of the working folks around
Feeling hungry and cold, they knocked on the doors of the people who lived and worked nearby.
For a piece of meat and a spud or two to boil a stew around.
They asked for some potatoes and meat to make stew.
Red he come down the cinder dump and he flagged the number two
East Texas Red came down from the cinder dump and flagged train number two.
He kicked their bucket over a bush and he dumped out all their stew
East Texas Red kicked their bucket over a bush and dumped out all the stew they had cooked.
A traveler said, Mister East Texas Red you better get everything fixed
One of the travelers warned East Texas Red that he better fix everything he did wrong.
'Cause you're gonna ride your little train just one year from today.
He warned East Texas Red that he would only be alive for one more year, implying impending danger.
Red he laughed as he clumb the bank and swung aside of a wheeler
East Texas Red laughed as he climbed the bank and moved to the side of a rail car.
The boys caught a tanker to Seminole and west to Amarillo
The boys boarded a tanker and went to Seminole, and then west to Amarillo.
They struck them a job of oil field work and followed a pipe line down
They found jobs in the oil fields and followed a pipeline.
It took them lots of places till the year had rolled around.
They went to many different places until a year had passed since their encounter with East Texas Red.
On one cold and wintery day they hooked them a Gulf bound train
On a cold, winter day, they boarded a train heading towards the Gulf.
They shivered and shook with dough in their clothes to see Kilgore again
They were cold and trembling with excitement to see Kilgore again.
Over hills of sand and hard froze roads where the cotton wagons roll
They crossed hills of sand and frozen roads where cotton wagons were driven.
On past the town of Kilgore and on to old Longview.
They went past Kilgore and arrived in Longview.
With their warm suits of clothes and overcoats they walk into a store
Wearing warm clothes and overcoats, they walked into a store.
They pay the man for some meat and stuff to fix a stew once more
They bought meat and ingredients to make stew again.
The ties they walk back past the yards till they come to the same old spot
They walked along the railroad tracks until they reached the same spot where East Texas Red had spilled their stew.
Where East Texas Red just a year ago had dumped their last stew pot.
This was the same spot where East Texas Red had dumped their last pot of stew a year ago.
The smoke of their fire went higher and higher a man come down the line
The smoke from their fire rose high, and a man came down the line towards them.
He ducked his head in the blizzardy wind and waved old number nine
He ducked his head to protect himself from the wind and used his hand to signal train number nine.
He walked off down the cinder dump till he come to the same old spot
He walked down the cinder dump until he reached the same spot as before.
And there was the same three men again around that same little pot.
The same three men were there again, sitting around the same little pot.
Red went to his knees and he hollered, Please don't pull that trigger on me.
East Texas Red knelt down and begged not to be shot.
I did not get my business fixed but he did not get his say
East Texas Red did not get to fix his wrongful actions, but he also did not get to defend himself.
A gun wheeled out of an overcoat and it played the old one two
A gun came out of an overcoat, and shots were fired.
And Red was dead when the other two men set down to eat their stew.
East Texas Red was killed, and the two other men sat down to eat their stew.
Contributed by Max K. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Bob
on Ring-Around-A-Rosy Rag
What is represented by “ ring-around-a-rosy rag”? Is that a sexy act or a drug?