Today I chanced upon an excellent analysis of Marty Robbins’ El Paso song cycle. I’ve included it above, and you should watch the video — it’s that good.

I’m reminded of a blog post I published 17 years ago about the relationship of “El Paso” to “As Time Goes By” and Albert Einstein.

Round up the usual subatomic particles
(July 9, 2006)

Today at work, I needed to fact-check a reference to lyrics from “As Time Goes By” — best known for its use in the classic motion picture “Casablanca” — and discovered something pretty profound: This song’s introductory verse is actually about Albert Einstein and his Theory of Relativity.

This day and age we’re living in
Gives cause for apprehension
With speed and new invention
And things like fourth dimension.

Yet we get a trifle weary
With Mr. Einstein’s theory.
So we must get down to earth at times
Relax, relieve the tension
And no matter what the progress
Or what may yet be proved
The simple facts of life are such
They cannot be removed.

You must remember this. . .

You just don’t encounter a lot of verse introductions these days. It wasn’t until several years ago that I even heard the “White Christmas” intro about being in Southern California in December and why the singer dreams of a white Christmas.

Thanks to iTunes, I discovered another musical delight recently. I was searching for “El Paso,” the classic Western ballad by Marty Robbins and, yeah, I saw “El Paso City,” too — but also for sale was an incredible song I’d never heard before: “Feleena (From El Paso).”

This amazing song tells the “El Paso” saga from Feleena’s viewpoint and is guaranteed to evoke an almost operatic cascade of emotions from anyone like me who loves the original.

You surely know the tragic ending of the “El Paso” story, so I’ll risk a spoiler by quoting my favorite set of lyrics from “Feleena.”

Feleena knelt near him,
To hold and to hear him
When she felt the warm blood
That flowed from the wound in his side.

He raised to kiss her
and she heard him whisper,
“Never forget me, Feleena.
It’s over, goodbye.”

Quickly she grabbed for
the six-gun that he wore
And screaming in anger
and placing the gun to her breast,

“Bury us both deep
and maybe we’ll find peace,”
Then pulling the trigger,
she fell ’cross the dead cowboy’s chest.

Time — the fourth dimension — is why you might not have heard “Feleena.” The song clocks in at 8 minutes, 19 seconds, so it doesn’t get much airplay.

There’s also an internal time problem with “Feleena.” In the original “El Paso,” the young cowboy apparently spent some time in the badlands of New Mexico, yet in “Faleena,” he tragically returns the next day.

Or maybe, as Einstein might say, it’s all relative.