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Marty Robbins learned to play the guitar in the Solomon Islands, so that was at least one good thing that came out of World War II. A gunslinging song that paints a movie before your eyes as the words pour fourth. "He might have went on living, but he made a fatal slip, when he tried to match the ranger with the big iron on his hip." Can't you just see the movie."Billy the Kid" is another great cowboy song. This record came out in 1959. He said that Marty Robbins wrote it for Mitch Miller, but Mitch thought it was too long, as did everybody else apparently, so he did it himself. I was thirteen and in the eight grade at Bancroft Junior High School in Lakewood, California and I'll never forget the day my dad brought it home. Back in the States he played clubs and bars, hosted his own radio show and eventually signed with Columbia Records. "Texas Red had not cleared leather for a bullet fell he ripped and the ranger's aim was deadly with the big iron on his hip." What a line, what a song.
I played it silly, till there were so many clicks and pops in it I had to get another.Not a bad song on this record. It opens with "Big Iron". "At the age of twelve years he did kill his first man." "Running Gun" is another great story song, this time the hero doesn't win and the lesson learned here is that "a woman's love is wasted when she loves a running gun".But by far the best song on the record is "El Paso." I heard Bob Dylan talking about this song back when he played it one his Theme Time Radio Hour on XM Radio. Can you imagine anybody else singing this.This record is Number One on my list of the Best Thirteen Records of 1959.
the cd was good as new no scrathes just good clean sound.Gunfighter Ballads & Trail Songs
As a jazz and rock guy, this recording was not a suspect for my favorites collection. Besides the mesmerizing and realistic lyrics of Robbins, there's the spanish influenced guitar of Grady Martin that turns this poetry into music. But I ran across a few songs on satellite radio and bought the CD. Now it's one of the ten recordings I take on the road or camping any time. After hearing it a hundred times, I'm still hearing things I missed. I don't know when a remastered version will come out, but I'll buy it when it does.
Although I bought this for just the long version of "El Paso" the entire recoding brought back memories of my long, gone youth. The delivery was super, as are most are with Amazon.
THIS IS CLASSIC MUSIC FOR ALL THOSE WHO LOVE COUNTRY AND THOSE WHO DO NOT. THROUGHLY ENJOY.
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