El Paso Trivia Quiz

Answer: West Texas

"Out in the West Texas town of El Paso / I fell in love with a Mexican girl." El Paso, with an estimated population of around 675,000, is the westernmost large city in Texas. It is located on the Rio Grande River, across from Juárez, Mexico. Although a major city today, until the arrival of the railroads in 1881, El Paso was a sleepy little border town of only a few hundred people.

Answer: Rosa's cantina

"Nighttime would find me in Rosa's cantina." A cantina is a type of bar or saloon.

Answer: Faleena

"Blacker than night were the eyes of Faleena / Wicked and evil while casting a spell / My love was deep for this Mexican maiden / I was in love but in vain, I could tell." Faleena's name is often misspelled "Felina." Robbins issued a sequel called "Faleena (From El Paso)" in 1966.

Answer: Dashing and daring

"Dashing and daring, a drink he was sharing / With wicked Faleena, the girl that I loved." He is also described as being "wild as the West Texas wind."

Answer: The cowboy is shot and killed

"My challenge was answered in less than a heartbeat / The handsome young stranger lay dead on the floor." There are not many statistics to go on, but recently historians have come to believe that gunfights such as those depicted in the song were relatively rare events in the Old West. W. Eugene Hollon's book, "Frontier Violence: Another Look," found that the homicide rate in Abilene, Dodge City, and other notorious frontier "cow towns" was much lower than many modern U.S. cities.

Answer: New Mexico

"Just as fast as I / Could from the West Texas town of El Paso / Out to the badlands of New Mexico." It is only a few miles from El Paso to the New Mexico border. New Mexico was sparsely settled, and most areas lacked any form of effective law enforcement up until the beginning of the 20th century.

This made it a favorite place of refuge for outlaws from surrounding states and territories.

Answer: His love is stronger than his fear of death

"It's been so long since I've seen the young maiden / My love is stronger than my fear of death." We are not told how long he has been gone, but the lyrics suggest it could not have been too long.

Answer: He is ambushed by a posse

"I see the white puff of smoke from the rifle / I feel the bullet go deep in my chest." Presumably the posse is composed of friends of the young cowboy he had killed earlier.

Answer: True

"From out of nowhere Faleena has found me / Kissing my cheek as she kneels by my side / Cradled by two loving arms that I'll die for / One little kiss and Faleena, goodbye." A very sad ending to a very sad song. But an effective one. Although at four minutes, 38 seconds long the song was much longer than most songs of the time, it reached the number one spot on both on both the country and pop music charts in 1960, and won the Grammy Award for Best Country & Western Recording in 1961.

Answer: Reincarnation

"Could it be that I could be the cowboy in this mystery?" Strange as it seems, Robbins revealed to several people that he believed he had actually lived the events depicted in the song. For example, on his website, musician Mike Dennis wrote: "Many years ago, when I was playing music for a living, I did a show with Marty Robbins and he told me he believed that he was that cowboy/central character in a former life! As in 'reincarnated', and he said his memories of that incident were so clear, so strong, that he was able to write a timeless song like El Paso, giving it such a vivid feel.

He explained to me exactly what it felt like to watch the girl dance and how he got excited over her, then how shocked he was immediately after killing the other guy during their argument." Spooky!