3 Big Classic Rock Songs About the Great State of Texas

It’s well known that people in Texas just like things bigger. And that extends to the world of music and especially to the world of classic rock. Here below, we wanted to explore three classic rock songs from big-name rockers about the Lone Star State.

From The King to ZZ Top to perhaps the best known lead guitarist from the region, these songs display the artists’ love affair with the state as well as the inspiration Texas provides big, buzzy rockers. Indeed, these are three big classic rock songs about the great state of Texas.

[RELATED: 3 Movies Every Stevie Ray Vaughan Fan Should See]

“Texas Flood” by Stevie Ray Vaughan from Texas Flood (1983)

A blues standard first recorded in 1958 by Larry Davis, the Dallas-born blues-rock guitar player Stevie Ray Vaughan made it his own when he recorded it in 1983 for his debut LP of the same name. Lyrically, the song is about a storm in Texas and how it caused the telephone lines to go down. But on a metaphorical reading, the storm is internal and the singer is disconnected from the object of his affection. So, the singer says, he’s returning home where there are no more storms. Indeed, Vaughan sings,

Well there’s floodin’ down in Texas
All of the telephone lines are down
Well there’s floodin’ down in Texas
All of the telephone lines are down
And I’ve been tryin’ to call my baby
Lord and I can’t get a single sound

“The Yellow Rose of Texas” by Elvis Presley from Elvis Sings Flaming Star (1968)

While this song dates back to the middle of the 1800s, Elvis Presley recorded his own version a century later. Released on his album Elvis Sings Flaming Star in 1968, Elvis sang the love song for the 1964 film Viva Las Vegas. And on it, he croons about the object of his affection,

Oh, the yellow rose of Texas is the only girl I love
Her eyes are even bluer than Texas skies above
Her heart’s as big as Texas and wherever I may go
I’ll remember her forever because I love her so

There are so many roses that bloom along the way
But my heart’s in Amarillo and that’s where it will stay
With the yellow rose of Texas so I’d better get there fast
‘Cause I know I was her first love and I want to be her last

“La Grange” by ZZ Top from Tres Hombres (1973)

Children, shield your eyes and muffle your ears! This song is about a famous brothel in La Grange, Texas, known as The Chicken Ranch—the same brothel that was the subject of the Dolly Parton-led film The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. The rockers ZZ Top were never a band to shy away from risque subject matter and this may be example No. 1. On the tune, the Houston rockers sing,

Rumor spreading ’round in that Texas town
About that shack outside La Grange
And you know what I’m talking about
Just let me know if you wanna go
To that home out on the range
They gotta lotta nice girls
Have mercy
A-haw haw haw-haw
Heh, a-haw haw-haw

Photo by ITV/Shutterstock