Dead Songs in Depth

    
Mexicali Blues
w: Barlow m: Weir
AGDL: http://arts.ucsc.edu/gdead/agdl/mex.html
LASF: http://www.whitegum.com/songfile/MEXICALI.HTM
  

    
Mexicali Blues 
Lyrics: John Barlow
Music: Bob Weir

Copyright Ice Nine Publishing; used by permission.

Laid back in an old saloon, with a peso in my hand
Watching flies and children on the street
And I catch a glimpse of black-eyed girls who giggle when I smile
There's a little boy that wants to shine my feet
And it's three days ride from Bakersfield
And I don't know why I came
I guess I came to keep from payin' dues
So instead I've got a bottle and a girl who's just fourteen
And a damned good case of the Mexicali blues

Chorus
Is there anything a man don't stand to lose
When the devil wants to take it all away
Cherish well your thoughts, keep a tight grip on your booze
'Cause thinking and drinking are all I have today

She said her name was Billie Jean and she was fresh in town
I didn't know her stage-line ran from hell
She had raven hair, a ruffled dress, a necklace made of gold
And all the french perfume you'd care to smell
She took me up in to her room and whispered in my ear
Go on my friend, do anything you choose
Now I'm payin' for those happy hours I spent there in her arms
With a lifetime's worth of the Mexicali blues

[chorus]

And then a man rode in to town, some thought he was the law
Billie Jean was waiting when he came
She told me he would take her if I didn't use my gun
And I'd have no one but myself to blame
I went down to those dusty streets, blood was on my mind
I guess that stranger hadn't heard the news
'Cause I shot first and killed him, Lord he didn't even draw
And he made me trade the gallows for the Mexicali blues

Is there anything a man don't stand to lose
When he lets a woman hold him in her hands
You just might find yourself out there on horseback in the dark
Just riding and running across those desert sands
  

    

10/24/71:
Before the song:
Lesh: This here's a song about a hard case.

After the song:
Lesh: That song also is about a guy who gets away with it...
Weir: ...we decided.
  

    
I cringe at the morning after  cowboy misogyny of this song,
although being of that era myself I feel their honesty — and it is a
really great Western stomp musically. The lyrics I take as some kind
of apology for male insensitivity from the culture of the 50s and
60s. I love it and I hate it, if you know what I mean  (apologies to
Catellus).
  

    
The first time my ship ever pulled into Subic Bay Philippines back
in the 80’s I heard a band made up of some local Filipinos and some
ex hippy Navy sailors playing this acoustically at a bar.  They
substituted Mexicali and Bakersfield with Olongapo and Baguio (two
navy towns) and it all seemed to make sense with the mixed crowd at
the bar.  They loved it.
  

    
Hah!  Great little story.
  

    
Great story, Tim!

I have changed "14" to "19" in my own (rare) performances nof this song.
  

    
That’s a good solution to that one, David
  

    

Still pretty creepy!
  

    
David, I finally clicked to your age 19 (I use 18) solution, and
that helps. But, to be honest with myself, I visited Rosarita,
Juarez and Tijuana (border towns) back in the 70s as an oversexed
teenage drunkard, and I don't remember asking any putitas for their
id. I cringe now and pedobear comes to mind,but then Bobby's not
singing about the twenty-teens. But yeah, it's still kinda sad and
creepy, like donkey shows. 
  

    
Exactly. What I say to justify my fondness for the tune is that it's
redeemed by its brutal honesty. I see it now both as a mea culpa of
a 60's male adolescent decent into alcohol and testosterone fueled
misadventure, and as a catalyst to the liberation consciousnesses to
follow. 
  

    

He changed "made me trade the gallows" to "spend my lifgetime runnin'" - was
that an improvement on the morality front, or a laterl move?
  

    
While we're at it it's interesting to juxtapose the morality of
Garcia-Hunter's Loose Lucy with Mexicali. In contrast to the dark
and brooding cowboy morality musings of Mexicali, Lucy simply
declares: "Thank you for a real good time". 

In a caution to Weir's "girl who's just fourteen", Garcia advises:
"Don't shake the tree when the fruit ain't ripe".
  

    
!!!