MUSIC OR DIE #19: Marty Robbins, "Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs" (1959)

Looks like Nicolas Cage got lost on the set of "Three Amigos"

Part 19 of my 1000+ part series.

(For info on that, clickety-click-click)

In which I listen to an album that puts the 'Western' in 'Country and Western.' Yippee-ki-yay.

TL;DR:

More after The Cut >>>



1.) Big Iron - This is the opening to the greatest spaghetti western film ever scored by Bob Dylan. I'm so into this. It's about a showdown between a ranger and "Texas Red," who's killed "one and nineteen more" men, using his...Big Iron. Yes, please. 

2.) Cool Water - A song about a man and his Dan - his mule named Dan, that is. They're stumbling through a burning hot desert and trying to look for water and not, you know, die. Disclaimer: I didn't actually know Dan was a mule; legit thought it was a Cast Away/Wilson moment. 

Thanks a lot, Dan Wilson.

3.) Billy the Kid - That Billy the Kid, he's got a notch on his pistol for twenty-one men, didn't ya hear? This reminds me a ton of old Mexican hits. I'm into it.

4.) A Hundred and Sixty Acres - This sounds like if Bing Crosby did country and western. It's super short at only about 1:41, but it's sweet to make up for it - a dedication to the wide open place he calls home.

5.) They're Hanging Me Tonight - Soooo you know how we were just talking about happy sunshine and fields and whatever literally just the previous song? J/k how about straight-up double homicide now.

Zoinks!

TL;DR - "If I can't have you, NO ONE WILL."

6.) The Strawberry Roan - The song contains one of the greatest descriptive phrases ever sung: "He sure is a sun-fishin' son-of-a-gun." I don't know what that means, but I don't even care. This song is about a horse tamer? trainer? whisperer? brony? who meets his match in...The Strawberry Roan. 

Just look at this terrifying beast

7.) El Paso - WAIT I ACTUALLY KNOW A SONG ON THIS ALBUM! But wow, I didn't remember that there was so much death. What an absolute journey of a song - literally, too, as the singer leaves and eventually returning to El Paso after killing a guy for committing the unpardonable offense of eyeing his lady, the "wicked Felina." 

Spoiler: It ain't pretty. The storyline, that is. The song's great.

8.) In the Valley - Aww, look what you up and did - you've let and made this cowboy cry. Go back right now and fix what you did! Otherwise he'll keep weeping like the willow until you return, which I'm assuming will make him lose cowboy cred. Or whatever they call that.

Internet, why

9.) The Master's Call - Ooooh what a promising start to the song - really evocative of radio cowboy dramas or something of that ilk. Turns out it's a Jesus song. Yep, the Master is indeed Jesus. There's even a burning bush scene where Jesus' face appears in it. You can't make this stuff up. At least I couldn't, but man, I wish I could.

10.) Running Gun - Is literally every other song on this album about a guy who has "notches in his gun" and loves a woman and then ends up dead? Maybe! I'm not angry about it, but I find this song a lesser version of the previous incarnations of the theme. I will say the outro is top notch (ouch puns) though: "Running GUUUUUUN!"

11.) The Little Green Valley - Before, he wanted her back in the valley. Now he's praying to be back in the valley. The real estate market there must be booming. 

12.) Utah Carol - What a fantastically cheerful closer - a charming little ditty about the deaths of the singer's best friend and a child. OK, I guess the child made it, but the guy got full on Lion King-ed: "As the cattle rushed and killed him he dropped the leading steer." RIP Utah.

Too soon? Yeah...probably still too soon.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

After the intense struggle long voyage that was the Ella Fitzgerald / Gershwin album (clickety-click-click), this was a really fun and importantly, short ride! I'm reminded of another album I've listened to in this project (Tragic Songs of Life) - there's similarities in the harmonies, the tragic themes, and so on. But whereas that album was full of country twang and Appalachia, Marty Robbins is cut vocally from much the same cloth as your classic 50s crooners, and the music hearkens back to old images of New Mexico or Arizona. He's like Elvis meets Bobby Darin, in a desert....I'd watch that movie. I hadn't realized how beloved Marty Robbins was before this, and I'm not surprised.

Personal standout tracks:
"Big Iron," "Billy the Kid," "They're Hanging Me Tonight," "El Paso"