THE HIT HAMMER: Marty Robbins' "El Paso"

Marty Robbins' "El Paso"

Marty Robbins - "El Paso"

Hit Number 1: January 4, 1960

Stay at Number 1: 2 Weeks

Some songs just make you "think". What I mean by that is that there are songs that you can't help but follow word for word, because you are drawn in immediately, and you're following it like you're reading a book. That's Marty Robbins' "El Paso" a Tex-Mex feely, tragic song about love that leads to death.

Robbins grew up with 9 siblings, and overall had a very tough family situation. His father kept taking several odd jobs to support the large family, but ultimately got divorced from Robbins' mother because of a heavy drinking problem. Besides that, Robbins has said that he recalled some good times by hearing stories about the American West by his maternal grandfather, which could have been some sort of an inspiration for Robbins to make his kind of music in the future. When he was only 17, he left his troubled home life and joined the U.S. Navy, and was stationed in the Solomon Islands, where he passed the time by learning to play the guitar and writing songs.

When he returned from the Navy, he got married, and then began to play at venues in Phoenix. He also began to host his own radio show and his own TV show. On his TV Show, Robbins had Little Jimmy Dickens on the show, a country singer known for his novelty songs, and he helped Robbins get a record deal with Columbia Records. A few years after that, "El Paso" was born.

One of the more interesting things about "El Paso" is that it really stands out in its time. Just because we've crossed into the new decade doesn't mean song styles have changed. Yet. Most songs were still by teen idols, or sappy corny songs by sappy corny singers. Maybe even a combination of both in some cases. "El Paso" is a very cool song by a veteran in the music business, that tells a neat story about a guy who falls in love with a girl, but not for his own good. He gets into a gun fight with a guy who also has a thing for this girl, and he wins the gun fight, but now he's wanted by the El Paso police. He ditches town for New Mexico, and he successfully gets away on horseback. However, he misses the girl so much, that he just has to see her. So he returns to El Paso on horseback, not caring if he gets killed himself. Well of course, he is spotted by the police, and they essentially chase him around town. He can't stop to rest, and is getting weaker, and gets so weak that he ends up getting shot in the heart. As he is dying, the girl (of course) comes "out of nowhere" and they get one last kiss before the narrator says "goodbye", and dies. And that's how the song ends.

The song flows nicely, and it's not in too big of a hurry to get this story told. It takes its time, and goes into pretty good detail about what is going on throughout the song, and manages to do it all in only 4 minutes and 38 seconds. I also love the Tex-Mex feel of the song, and it almost makes you feel like you are there. Just like any good song telling a story should. In the future, we will have songs that seemingly kill off people for no reason, and they try too hard to make it some amazing love story, like "Romeo and Juliet" or some crap like that. "El Paso" does NOT do that. It's a great story and a great song.

GRADE: 9/10