You don’t need a beautiful voice to be a good storyteller, but as Marty Robbins proved time and time again, it certainly helps. Across his 50 studio albums and 100 singles, Robbins demonstrated his talents as a singing storyteller. First, his woeful melodies and gorgeous instrumentation pulled listeners in. Then, the narrative kept them there.
Here are some of Marty Robbins’ finest storytelling songs—two of which, unsurprisingly, come from his seminal 1959 album, Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs.
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“A White Sport Coat (And A Pink Carnation)”
Is there anything that stings quite like young heartache? Marty Robbins captured these feelings of desperation and loneliness in his 1957 single “A White Sport Coat (And A Pink Carnation)”. The title evokes images of a high schooler awkwardly donning formal wear and a boutonniere, eager for the promise of young love and a night to remember. By the end of the song, the addition of a “blue, blue moon” reveals that the white sport coat-clad narrator never got that love story he yearned for so strongly. Ah, to be a love-struck teen.
“El Paso”
“El Paso” from Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs reads like a tragic narrative poem on its own. Add Marty Robbins’ emotional vocal delivery into the mix, and the song becomes all the more compelling. From our first introduction to the dark-eyed Felina to the bar fight that ended in murder, forcing the narrator to leave town, Robbins’ storytelling paints a clear picture of the events in Rosa’s cantina that fateful day. When the narrator returns to El Paso, pulled there by his love for Felina, he meets his tragic end in Felina’s arms.
“Big Iron”
Just like in “El Paso”, Marty Robbins expertly sets the scene in “Big Iron”, another hit from Gunfighter Ballads And Trail Songs. This particular storytelling song uses even more characters, with Robbins incorporating townspeople, the Arizona ranger, and, of course, the fatally cocky outlaw “by the name of Texas Red.” The song is as much a folk story as it is a classic country tune, exemplifying Marty Robbins’ ability to combine music and narrative in a way that made it seem like he was the Arizona ranger himself, merely recounting a past anecdote, not an imaginative storyteller.
“She Was Young And She Was Pretty”
Marty Robbins’ “She Was Young And She Was Pretty” uses descriptive language to paint a picture of a fresh-faced, golden-haired woman. By the lyrics alone, the listener can likely guess that the woman doesn’t stay in the narrator’s life. But the narrator doesn’t reveal the true reason why until the end of the song. “Now she’s gone, no one can claim her / in my cell, I’m sad and blue / one bright night, I shot and killed her / she was young and so untrue.” Suddenly, you don’t feel quite as bad for the wistful narrator after all.
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