The song stands apart from 99.9 percent of all bar-fight songs for the telling details that leave no doubt about the legitimacy of Paycheck's bar room credentials. Examples:
Paycheck notes about slicing off the bully's ear that the little Mexican fellow "cut that thing off even with the sideburn." That's the kind of detail LOM's English teachers used to tell us to add to our narratives to give them truth and life.
And Paycheck's rambling, confidential aside as the music fades is priceless barroom-brawl dialogue: "I said, barmaid, set us up a round of Colorado Kool-Aid/ And while you're up there, bring this big fellow a box of Band-Aids."
And then Paycheck looks directly at us from his bar stool and lays the lesson on the line:
Now lemme tell you, if you're ever ridin' down in South Texas And decide to stop and drink some Colorado Kool-Aid And maybe talk to some Mexican And you get the urge to get a little tough Better make sure you've got your knife-proof earmuffs.
Words to live by....
"How you doin', big man/ Still got your ear there in your hand..."
For those of us who lived through the oil boom of the '70s and all the crazy bar stuff that went on here during that era, this is so Houston.
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