This is another song that I had not previously been familiar with. I didn't listen to much country music in those days - at least aside from the mildly country rock combinations of the Eagles. In listening to this, it is reminiscent of some of the cowboy ballads that I remember from the Westerns I used to watch on TV as a child. But it clearly is a bit more complex than the straightforward good/bad duality of Gunsmoke, The Rifleman or The High Chaparral.
In reading the description, it becomes clear that this is a purposefully ambiguous tale. Did the events really take place as described or are they the somewhat distorted recollections of an old man telling of years ago? The human mind often has an incredible ability to re-shape memories to make us look more heroic than we really are or were. Is that what has happened here? No one really knows for sure, and Townes Van Zandt clearly wants to leave it that way.
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