Should I say anything at all about this song?  It is a classic Marty Robbins cowboy ballad.  Released in 1959 the lyric and the melody convey a heightened tension between the inevitable confrontation between one representing “law and order” the constraints of civilized life, and another, representing the imposition of idiosyncratic preference with a 44 cal. Colt.

This is a lyrical presentation of the rugged individual, the cowboy meme which many Americans continue to be fond of.   Both Texas Red and “the stranger with the big iron on his hip” live by the-law-of-the-gun.  At the end of the day, when all is said and done, and every argument has been made — the structures of society, the rules, the constraints giving form, within which we live meaningful lives, must be maintained by force.  There is no alternative.

What do you and I desire?  Is it a just society, a persistent approach to fairness, everyone with an equal voice inclusive of sexual orientation, ethnicity, legal status?  Or maybe a society of winners and losers?  I mean a nation featuring a yawning chasm between the few favored with privilege, and the majority who make do with left overs?

Which is the hero in this tale?  Texas Red or the stranger?  That depends upon my pre-conscious orientation.  What “approach” is supported? Feels like a rotating compass needle, oscillating between two poles…  Perhaps a burning complicity with both?

There is work to be done.

Big Iron

By Marty Robbins

To the town of Agua Fria rode a stranger one fine day
Hardly spoke to folks around him didn’t have too much to say
No one dared to ask his business no one dared to make a slip
For the stranger there among them had a big iron on his hip
Big iron on his hip

It was early in the morning when he rode into the town
He came riding from the south side slowly lookin’ all around
He’s an outlaw loose and running came the whisper from each lip
And he’s here to do some business with the big iron on his hip
Big iron on his hip

In this town there lived an outlaw by the name of Texas Red
Many men had tried to take him and that many men were dead
He was vicious and a killer though a youth of twenty four
And the notches on his pistol numbered one and nineteen more
One and nineteen more

Now the stranger started talking made it plain to folks around
Was an Arizona ranger wouldn’t be too long in town
He came here to take an outlaw back alive or maybe dead
And he said it didn’t matter he was after Texas Red
After Texas Red

Wasn’t long before the story was relayed to Texas Red
But the outlaw didn’t worry men that tried before were dead
Twenty men had tried to take him twenty men had made a slip
Twenty one would be the ranger with the big iron on his hip
Big iron on his hip

The morning passed so quickly it was time for them to meet
It was twenty past eleven when they walked out in the street
Folks were watching from the windows every-body held their breath
They knew this handsome ranger was about to meet his death
About to meet his death

There was forty feet between them when they stopped to make their play
And the swiftness of the ranger is still talked about today
Texas Red had not cleared leather fore a bullet fairly ripped
And the ranger’s aim was deadly with the big iron on his hip
Big iron on his hip

It was over in a moment and the folks had gathered round
There before them lay the body of the outlaw on the ground
Oh he might have went on living but he made one fatal slip
When he tried to match the ranger with the big iron on his hip
Big iron on his hip

Big iron Big iron

When he tried to match the ranger with the big iron on his hip

Big iron on his hip

Composed by Marty Robbins

This post was written with my wife’s late uncle Kurt in mind.  Kurt would have understood perfectly the story.  Kurt Mohrman (1928-2017)