The trailer for Dead For A Dollar has dropped — with a nice little nugget of Steve Earle. Watch till the end, and you’ll catch it.
The old outlaw was just a young gun when he wrote one of the all-time great Frontier Partisan anthems:
About the time that Daddy left to fight the big war
I saw my first pistol in the general store
In the general store, when I was thirteen
Thought it was the finest thing I ever had seen
So l asked if I could have one when I grew up
Mama dropped a dozen eggs, she really blew up
She really blew up and I didn’t understand
Mama said the pistol is the devil’s right hand
She really blew up and I didn’t understand
Mama said the pistol is the devil’s right hand
The devil’s right hand, the devil’s right hand
Mama said the pistol is the devil’s right hand
My very first pistol was a cap and ball Colt
Shoot as fast as lightnin’ but it loads a mite slow
Loads a mite slow and i soon found out
It can get you into trouble but it can’t get you out
So then I went and bought myself a Colt 45
Called a peacemaker but I never knew why
Never knew why, I didn’t understand
Cause Mama said the pistol is the devil’s right hand
Never knew why, I didn’t understand
Cause Mama said the pistol is the devil’s right hand
The devil’s right hand, the devil’s right hand
Mama said the pistol is the devil’s right hand
Well I get into a card game in a company town
Caught a miner cheating I shot the dog down
Shot the dog down, watched the dog fall
Never touched his holster, never had a chance to draw
The trial was in the morning and they drug me out of bed
Asked me how I pleaded, not guilty I said
Not guilty I said, you’ve got the wrong man
Nothing touched the trigger but the devil’s right hand
Not guilty I said, you’ve got the wrong man
Nothing touched the trigger but the devil’s right hand
the devil’s right hand, the devil’s right hand
Nothing touched the trigger but the devil’s right hand
My favorite live version:
Well done, Walter Hill. Well done.
Joe says
The cast alone has me sold. If it has a great script, these actors will make this into a masterpiece.
JimC says
Right?
Ugly Hombre says
For the first shot out the Colt SAA according to many old shooters is still the fastest pistol going, five or six shots to get things done you don’t reload the Model P in a close fast gun fight, you have a second pistol a “Old West Reload.”
One Texas police department was still issuing new Colt Single Action Army’s as late as 1937-in .44 Special, considered by many to be the optimal round in the old Colt.
I have a friend who was taught by a old west gunsmith and pard of Elmer Keith’s in the 30’s 40’s- how to fix and handle the thumb buster for real. I’ve been after him to write a long article or a short book on “The Practical Use Of The SAA.” but he’s kind of laconic sort of a hermit and not to interested. The man won many fast draw and practical pistol contests was a gun coach for police departments and Hollywood, mounted LA county cop. but he don’t talk much. He talked to many old timers who used the SAA as their primary defense gun in the forties and fifties.
I bugged him so much on the phone chewing his ear that he started telling me “I can’t talk now Ugly I go to eat a baloney samvitch.” lol. So I stopped bothering him so heavy.
There is no end to the cult of the Colt.
Jerry N says
One of my favorites from Mr. Earle, and Walter Hill is money.