ORIGINATION Essential Country & Western (v/a) CD
RECORDED IN 1959
LAST LISTENED TO yesterday
RATING ★★★★★
I was rather unsurprised to find more country in my brain this morning. Quite why it was this song, I do not know. I've heard better and catchier in recent days. Not that it's all that bad. Of course it is yet another tale of a drying gunslinger (there do seem to be a lot of them), although this time with a Mexican twist. It might in fact be the pretty Mexican guitar styling that made this one stand out.
Showing posts with label Marty Robbins. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marty Robbins. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 08, 2011
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
[repetition]
It has only been a few days since Marty Robbins' Big Iron last stole into my head as I woke. It's always a little disappointing when the song is not a new one, although it does save some time.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Marty Robbins - Big Iron
ORIGINATION Essential Country & Western (v/a) CD
LAST LISTENED TO yesterday
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT good
RATING ★★★★★
I first came across and enjoyed Big Iron on Johnny Cash's American IV album of 2003. Having not looked at the sleeve particularly closely, I did not realise it was one of the many covers he made during those recordings. It was therefore a pleasant surprise to come across the original version of it this week, on a damn fine compilation of recently copyright-free country and western music.
Marty Robbins, the writer and performer of that original, seems to have been a colourful individual, with a life that included not only being a country music star, but also the war in the Pacific, hosting his own television show, acting and race car driving. His version of the song feels considerably faster than Cash's and, with plenty of guitar picking, a high-tone upright bass and swathes of vowel-heavy backing vocals, has a lighter air. In some ways that lightness seems to clash with the tale of a killer and his death, yet there is something infectious in the bouncing tempo and the delightful guitar picking that is hard not to like.
LAST LISTENED TO yesterday
CHANCE OF WAKING TO IT good
RATING ★★★★★
I first came across and enjoyed Big Iron on Johnny Cash's American IV album of 2003. Having not looked at the sleeve particularly closely, I did not realise it was one of the many covers he made during those recordings. It was therefore a pleasant surprise to come across the original version of it this week, on a damn fine compilation of recently copyright-free country and western music.
Marty Robbins, the writer and performer of that original, seems to have been a colourful individual, with a life that included not only being a country music star, but also the war in the Pacific, hosting his own television show, acting and race car driving. His version of the song feels considerably faster than Cash's and, with plenty of guitar picking, a high-tone upright bass and swathes of vowel-heavy backing vocals, has a lighter air. In some ways that lightness seems to clash with the tale of a killer and his death, yet there is something infectious in the bouncing tempo and the delightful guitar picking that is hard not to like.
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