And, of course, “finale” is an anagram of “Felina”. 
And now I see that someone mentioned it above me. Ah well.
Named after a girl the Robbins went to high school with. Just learned that on the Ken Burns series.
He himself said he knew his love was in vain. Then when he saw her happily interacting with another dude called her wicked, then shot the dude. Stalker 101.
Ah, that wild young cowboy was just a pretty boy. The narrator could tell he wasn’t good enough for Feleena.
He challenged his rival. The other guy went for his gun first.
Arguably self defense. He was guilty of unjustified possessiveness, but not murder.
Certainly not a stalker, since Felina did care for him, but she was fickle. As described above, she held him as he died.
Marty Robbins used to own a restaurant named Rose’s Cantina in Smyrna, TN
I adapted this song and made a rap version (different lyrics, but had some samples) that would have been perfect for Kid Rock.
Never sent it to him.
Where the hell does certainly come from? his dying delusions are of her coming “from out of nowhere” to find him? bullshit, she was hiding , while his oxygen deprived brain made up a story.
Felina’s kiss was probably a vulture eating his soft tissue, after the posse made sure he was going to die.
Talk about making stuff up. Your interpretation is not supported by the lyrics, which is all we really have to go on.
You can imagine any scenario you like, but that has more to do with your imagination than what is described in the song.
And you completely ignore the lyrics about “wicked”
the lyrics say he was handsome, dashing and daring, and “sharing” a drink.
I’m not saying the guy is blameless, just that the narrator is not the stalker/murderer you imagine (and I use the word advisedly) him to be. Like I said, he is overly possessive, but Felina does care for him, and his rival went for his gun first. And he immediately repents of his rash act.
And what are the odds that if a defendant made a statement in court that he had “stood there in silence, shocked by the foul evil deed I have done” you would think ohh it was love, therefore not cold blooded murder. Bullshit!
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If the rival drew first, it wasn’t murder (and especially not “cold-blooded” murder). I suspect in a legitimate court of law he would be acquitted on the basis of self-defense. At worst, he might be convicted of voluntary manslaughter. In the song, he was illegally murdered by the friends of the man he killed.
There is no evidence that the handsome young rival drew at all. You are the one creating stories now.
The narrator is certainly not a stalker, Feleena (From El Paso) reveals:
And her love for him was so great that, on finding him dying, she took his gun:
So in anger I
Challenged his right for the love of this maiden.
Down went his hand for the gun that he wore.
My challenge was answered in less than a heart-beat;
The handsome young stranger lay dead on the floor.Sounds pretty cut and dried to me. Certainly more so than a vulture pecking on the narrator’s lips.
You’re really invested in this, against all logic. Did Marty Robbins kill your dog or something.
Nitpicking like this just shows you don’t have a case. The lyrics say he went to draw his gun, which would be enough to justify self defense.
There is also no evidence that the narrator challenged his rival to a gun duel. He could have confronted him verbally, and the rival escalated. Whatever the challenge was, the the rival seems to have freely accepted it, and didn’t try to defuse the situation.
No one in the song is really blameless. The narrator is a jealous hot-head. But the rival is a hot-head too, in going for his gun first.
As for Feleena, from Feleena (from El Paso):
So Feleena was happy to manipulate men and play on their emotions to make money. She wasn’t a “nice girl,” especially by the standards of the time. It’s not clear if she was actually a hooker, but she was certainly in it for the money and the excitement.
Although she loved him, she flirted anyway, regardless of the fact that she knew it hurt him. This was a dysfunctional relationship on both sides.
Whether the killing was murder or self defense depends on the nature of this challenge. If the challenge was, say, the singer telling his rival something like, “Get the hell away from my girlfriend,” it would be self-defense. If, on the other hand, he approached his rival with his hand on his gun and said, “Get the hell away from my girlfriend or I’ll shoot you,” it would be murder (and the rival would have been acting in self defense when he went for his gun).
The song doesn’t get into these details. It’s clear that the singer realizes immediately that he’s made a big mistake, and that the townspeople think it was murder.