Tom Russell Tonight We Ride Lyrics

Panco Villa crossed the border in the year of ought sixteen

The people of Columbus still hear him riding through their dreams

He killed seventeen civilians you could hear the women scream

Blackjack Pershing on a dancing horse was waiting in the wings

Tonight we ride, tonight we ride

We'll skin ole Pancho Villa, make chaps out of his hide

Shoot his horse, Siete Leguas, and his twenty-seven brides

Tonight we ride, tonight we ride

We rode for three long years till Blackjack Pershing called it quits

When Jackie wasn't lookin' I stole his fine spade bit

It was tied upon his stallion, so I rode away on it

To the wild Chihuahuan desert, so dry you couldn't spit

Tonight we ride, you bastards dare

We'll kill the wild Apache for the bounty on his hair

Then we'll ride into Durango, climb up the whorehouse stairs Tonight we ride, Tonight we ride

[solo]

When I'm too damn old to sit a horse, I'll steal the warden's car

Break my ass out of this prison, leave my teeth there in a jar

You don't need no teeth for kissin' gals or smokin' cheap cigars

I'll sleep with one eye open, 'neath God's celestial stars

Tonight we rock, Tonight we roll

We'll rob the Juarez liquor store for the Reposado Gold

And if we drink ourselves to death, ain't that the cowboy way to go?

Tonight we ride, tonight we ride

Tonight we fly, we're headin' west

Toward the mountains and the ocean where the eagle makes his nest

If our bones bleach on the desert, we'll consider we are blessed

Tonight we ride, Tonight we ride

[solo]

...Tonight we ride, tonight we ride.