Gun Song – Marty Robbins – Big Iron

I’m finding all sorts of interesting things in a quest to find a gun-song per week.  Here is Marty Robbins song “Big Iron” (on his hip). Simple tune, clear vocals, good story. It sounds like the background guitar player is having fun trying to slip a little fast-n-fancier stuff into the short spaces left in the vocals. What’s not to like? Sort of an antidote to a Beatles take on guns.

Marty Robbins is sort of in the same genre as “Tennessee” Ernie Ford, singing gospel, country, early rock, etc. Good stuff.

If any of you have suggestions, I’d be happy to consider them. Got another seven queued up, keep us in Friday tunes until the 4th of July.

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20 thoughts on “Gun Song – Marty Robbins – Big Iron

  1. One of my pivotal musical moments was stumbling upon Marty’s “Gunfighter Ballads And Trailsongs” album in a box in a closet when I was a kid.

  2. Robert Pratt of the Pratt on Texas radio show uses a snippet of this song as the bumper music for his ‘Anti-Wimp Update’ segments. Thanks for posting the whole thing. I’ll enjoy the sample more now that I’ve heard the whole story.

  3. A few more for you:

    Aerosmith – Janie’s Got a Gun
    Johnny Cash – Don’t Take Your Guns to Town
    Not mentioned in the title, but guns figure heavily – Johnny Horton – Sink the Bismarck

    • Had one of these already planned, out ways. I’ll get to both eventually. Bismark was already discussed 🙂 and may get used much later.

  4. Suggestions
    Powderfinger – Neil Young
    Lyle Lovett – The Lights of LA County
    The Rooster – Alice In Chains
    If I Had A Rocket Launcher – Bruce Cockburn
    Jungle Work – Warren Zevon
    32-20 Blues – Govt. Mule

    • Interesting suggestions. Three I think I’d heard of, but wasn’t really familiar with, three totally new ones. Thanks. I’ll get’em queued up eventually.

  5. Andrew, you beat me to the punch. Immediately thought of Pratt when I saw this. Met him at a cigar event one time, nice guy in meatspace.

  6. James McMutry’s Choctaw Bingo is a great song, but not really firearm-focused until 3:58 or so.

    • Probably not. It does mention guns, but it’s not about guns, or have guns or gun terms in the title, or primarily about people using guns or who use guns.

    • Not a “gun in the title” sort of song, but the subject matter sure qualifies. It’s in.
      Thanks for the suggestion.

  7. I’m late to this thread, so you probably have these already; but some of these may qualify:
    “Hung My Head” – Sting, Johnny Cash
    “Never Picked Cotton” – Johnny Cash
    “Folsom Prison Blues” – Johnny Cash
    “Hardin wouldn’t run” – Johnny Cash
    “Battle of New Orleans” – Johnny Horton
    “Cleaning this Gun” – Rodney Atkins
    “I shot the Sheriff” – Eric Clapton

    • I’m mostly aiming (pun intended) at songs with “gun” or a direct reference to them in the title, or are very much about guns (not just “incidental contact”, as it were), and I’m trying to get a wide range of things. Some of those qualify, I think. Battle of New Orleans has already been used – good choice 🙂

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