Many people have performed this song, including me just in December, but I've always liked Joe Ely's dramatic take the best.
Though here's the original.
The song is loooong, works in many arrangements and with many slight changes to the lyrics, and the melodies probably aren't the world's catchiest (also not everyone who sings it really sticks to the original melody note for note), but what makes it great is probably the dramatic plot, and more specifically that it's a classic story with a twist. All memes about how everything is the hero's journey aside, this literally is the hero's journey. Carlos Zaragoza hero leaves his home, takes a magic weapon (specifically, a rooster) and takes on powerful enemies in a distant land so he can return back home and fix the wrongs done to his people. The tension builds and builds, as measured by the number of dollars at stake, and finally explodes.
"Tell my family not to worry..."
Though here's the original.
The song is loooong, works in many arrangements and with many slight changes to the lyrics, and the melodies probably aren't the world's catchiest (also not everyone who sings it really sticks to the original melody note for note), but what makes it great is probably the dramatic plot, and more specifically that it's a classic story with a twist. All memes about how everything is the hero's journey aside, this literally is the hero's journey. Carlos Zaragoza hero leaves his home, takes a magic weapon (specifically, a rooster) and takes on powerful enemies in a distant land so he can return back home and fix the wrongs done to his people. The tension builds and builds, as measured by the number of dollars at stake, and finally explodes.
"Tell my family not to worry..."
