This colorful saying means to spend a wild night out, usually involving drinking. It probably originated on the frontier. In the nineteenth century the section of town where brothels and saloons were located was known as the ‘
red light district.’ A group of lusty drunken cowhands out for a night on the town might saw the whole town as red. The saying is still use around the world to mean the same thing, a bawdy area of town. Many foreign city sections got the same name from visiting GIs during their 'tour of duty'.