Chords for Tom Russell

This is called El Gallo Del Cielo.
Rooster on the oven! _
_ _ _ _ Senores, [A] con cuidado, no comprendan nada porque [F] nos dicieron bien.
We don't have to play you any stinking chicken song,
but we will, _
because we love you. _ _ _ _
_ _ [Bb] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [C] _ _ _ _ ¡Hola!
_ [Gm] _ _ [C] _ _ _ _ _
[F] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ Carlos Zaragoza left his home en Casas Grande
[Gm] when the moon was full. _ _ _ _
No money in his pocket,
just a locket of his sister [F] framed in gold.
_ [F] _ _ _ _
He rolled into El Sueco,
stole a rooster called El Gallo Del [Gm] Cielo.
_ _ _ [Gm] _ _
Then he [C] crossed the Rio Grande
with [Bb] that fighter [C] nestled deep beneath his arm.
[F] _ _ _ _ _
El Gallo Del Cielo
was a fighter born in heaven,
[D] so the legend say.
_ _ [Gm] _ _
[C] His wings, they had been broken,
he had one eye rolling crazy in his head.
[F] _ _ _ _
And he fought a hundred fights,
but the legend say that one night [Gm] near El Sueco, _ _ _ _
[C] they fought Cielo seven [C] times,
and seven times he left brave [F] roosters dead.
_ _ [Bb] What am I doing, sir?
I am thinking of you now in [C] San Antonio. _ _
_ _ _ [Gm] I have twenty-seven dollars
and the good luck of your picture [C] framed in gold. _
[Bb] Tonight I'll put it all
on the fighting spurs of Gallo [C] Del Cielo. _ _ _ _ _
[Gm] And in a [C] return to buy the [Bb] land
that Villa stole from father [F] long ago, _ _ _ _ _ _
outside of San Diego,
in the onion fields of Paco [Gm] Monteverde. _ _ _ _ _
[C] The pride of San Diego,
he lay sleeping on his fancy bed [F] of [F] silk.
_ _ _ But they laughed when Zaragoza
pulled that one-eyed Del Cielo
[Gm] from beneath his cold Jenga.
_ And [C] they laughed when Zaragoza
walked [Bb] away with a [F] thousand dollar bill.
_ _ _ [Bb] What am I doing, sir?
I am thinking of you now in [C] Santa Barbara. _ _
_ _ I [G] have fifteen hundred [C] dollars
[Gm] and the good luck of your picture [C] framed in gold. _
[Bb] Tonight I'll put it all
on the fighting spurs of Gallo [C] Del Cielo. _ _ _ _ _
[Gm] And in a [C] return to buy the [Bb] land
that Villa stole from father [F] long ago. _ _ _ _ _ _
Now the moon has gone to hiding,
lantern lights spill [Gm] shadows on the fighting sand. _ _ _
[C] Where a wicked black named Zorro
faces Gallo Del [F] Cielo in the night. _ _ _ _ _
But Carlos Zaragoza fears the tiny crack
that runs [Gm] across his rooster's beak. _ _ _
[C] And he fears he has lost
the fifty thousand dollars riding [F] on the vine.
_ _ [Bb] What am I doing, sir?
I am thinking of you now in [C] Santa Clara. _
_ _ _ _ [Gm] Yes, the money's on [C] the table.
I'm holding to your good luck [C] framed in gold.
[Em] [Bb] And everything we dreamed of
is riding on the spurs of Del [C] Cielo.
_ _ _ I [Gm] pray that I'll return to buy the [Bb] land
that Villa stole from father [F] long ago. _ _ _ _ _
Then the signal it was given,
roosters rose together [Gm] far above the sand.
_ _ _ [Gm] _ _
[C] El Gallo Del Cielo sunk a gaffe
into Zorro's [F] shiny breath. _ _ _ _
They were separated quickly,
but they rose and fought each other [Gm] 37 times. _ _ _
_ And the legend will [C] say that everyone agreed
[C] Del [F] Cielo fought the [F] best. _ _
_ _ Then the screams of Zaragoza
filled the night outside the town of [D] Santa Clara.
[Gm] _ _ _
_ _ As [C] the beak of Del Cielo,
it had broken like a shell within his hand.
[F] _ _
_ _ _ And they say that Zaragoza screamed a curse
upon the bones of [G] Pancho [Gm] Villar. _
_ _ _ [C] When Zorro rose up one last [Bb] time
and drove [C] Del Cielo [F] through the sand. _ _
[Bb] What am I doing, sir?
I am thinking of you now [C] in San Francisco.
_ _ _ _ There [G] is no money in my pocket.
I no longer have your good luck [C] framed in gold.
[Bb] I buried it last evening with the bones
of my beloved [C] Del Cielo. _ _
_ _ _ [G] And I'll not return to buy the [Bb] land
that Villa [C] stole from father [F] long ago. _
[Bb] Do the rivers still run muddy
outside of my beloved [C] Casa Grande? _ _ _ _ _
[Gm] Does the scar upon [C] my brother's [D] face
turn red when he hears the mention of my name?
[Bb] Do the people of El Sueco
curse the depth of Gallo Del Cielo? _ _
_ _ _ [G] Well, tell my family [C] not to worry,
I will not [C] return to cause [F] them shame. _ _
[Bb] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Gm] _ _ [C] _ _ [Bb] _ _ _ [F] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [D] _ _ _ [F] _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ [C] _ _ For somebody like me, I could have gone to Nashville
_ 25 years ago and written for other people,
and I've had a few cuts by other people
and semi-hits [Dm] with Nancy Griffith like Outbound Plane.
Didn't appeal to me, I was really more interested
in what I wanted to write, and like I say,
the first song I wrote, one of the first songs I wrote
was about cockfighting just because the story interested me.
I wasn't that into [B] cockfighting.
I was into the metaphor and the human story. _
One thing Tom rediscovers his songs every time he sings them,
he's fully present [Bb] in his music.
[Em] And you know, it's one thing to be a [F] songwriter,
and _ [F]
it's another thing to kind of [G] deliver your own,
[C] your _ [B] muse each time you perform it.
And I [D] love him as a [F] performance artist.
I [C] think Tom is just, he's [E] really
_ _ _ one of the most prolific _ artists that I know.
[C] Somebody said, here, you gotta listen to this guy Tom Russell,
and I was like, oh yeah, Katie Moffitt told me about Tom [B] Russell.
I put it on, and the first song was Blue Wing,
and by the end of the song, my life had changed,
and I decided to go back home to California
and find _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ my soul again.
And Blue Wing's just one of those songs.
_ _ It changed my life, I'm sure it changed Tom's when he wrote it.
_ I wish I had written it.