Lyr Req: That's the Way the Girls Are in Texas

Subject: Lyr Req: That's the Way the Girls Are in Texas
From: Celtaddict
Date: 19 Apr 05 - 06:18 PM

I have heard this sung by the Gillette Brothers and Camp Street Cafe, Crockett, Texas, and would like the song. Does anyone know who wrote it, who has recorded it? Does anyone have lyrics or more information?
It involves how tough Texas girls are, from the point of view of a man who gets overly involved with two of them; it has lines about you'd better not leave me or I will kill you (it sounds a good deal more lighthearted than that description!) and in the last verse, when he tries out #2, she does him in, and it ends

That's the way the girls are in Texas;
That's the way the girls are in Texas.
She was guilty.
I was dead.
You know what that ole judge said?
"That's the way the girls are in Texas!"

The only reference I found on "search" was the last part quoted on the "You Must Leave Now" thread; I did PM the 'Cat who added it there last December.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: That's the Way the Girls Are in Texas
From: Arkie
Date: 19 Apr 05 - 08:35 PM

I first heard this on Flaco Jimenez's Partner's cassette on the Reprise label. Ry Cooder was singing. I later heard the Gillette Brothers version. Both are worth having. The Partner's information lists Cliff Chambers, Jimmy Holiday, & Jimmy Lewis as writers.

Subject: Lyr Add: THE GIRLS FROM TEXAS (from Ry Cooder)
From: Peace
Date: 19 Apr 05 - 09:53 PM

THE GIRLS FROM TEXAS
(James Lewis/Jimmy Holiday/Cliff Chambers)

Well, I met a girl from Texas 'bout a year ago.
Hadn't known her for too long when I had to let her go.
You see, she had a razor, was ten inches or so,
And every night you'd hear her knocking at my door.

She said, "Baby, I'll give you the clothes on my back.
You can have everything that I've got in my shack,
But if you ever try to leave, they'll take you out in a sack
'Cause me and my razor will see to that."

That's the way the girls are from Texas.
That's the way the girls are from Texas.
That's the way the girls are from Texas.

I thought about my situation, decided not to tarry.
For my own self-preservation, I decided we should marry.
When the preacher started reading 'bout till death do us part,
I told him, "Skip it. We had that understanding right from the start."

That's the way the girls are from Texas.
That's the way the girls are from Texas (Houston to San Antone).
That's the way the girls are from Texas. (Got to love 'em right or leave 'em alone.)

Well, we settled down, got me a little old job, '65 Fairlane Ford.
Every Friday night I would stop in and cash my paycheck down at the grocery store.
They had a little girl worked in there, must have been about seventeen.
She was the cutest thing I had ever seen.

It's the same old story and I'm afraid it wasn't too very long
Before we had fallen deeply in love and I knew it was wrong.
I said, "Baby, we got to stop this thing right here
Or my woman is gonna cut my throat from ear to ear. (That's right.)"

In tearful supplication, she looked up in my face.
I could feel her heart was breaking as these sad words she did say:
"You should have told me you was married, baby."
She pulled out a forty-five and let me have it, right smack between the eyes.

That's the way the girls are from Texas.
That's the way the girls are from Texas.
That's the way the girls are from Texas.

She was guilty. I was dead.
Now, what'd you think that the old judge said?
"Ah, that's just the way the girls are down here in Texas.
Case dismissed!"

That's the way the girls are from Texas.
That's the way the girls are from Texas (Houston to San Antone).
That's the way the girls are from Texas. (Got to love 'em right or leave 'em alone, boy.)

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: That's the Way the Girls Are in Texas
From: Peace
Date: 19 Apr 05 - 10:02 PM

NB NB NB

The site I got the lyrics from

Ry Cooder THE GIRLS FROM TEXAS lyrics | lyrics by Ry Cooder

tried to insert a Trojan. The school's antivirus thingy stopped it. Do NOT open the site.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: That's the Way the Girls Are in Texas
From: Celtaddict
Date: 19 Apr 05 - 11:28 PM

Thanks for the song AND the warning!