Marty Robbins—Seems Like Yesterday

Recently, Robert K. Oermann, writer and host of APT's new pledge special MARTY ROBBINS – SEEMS LIKE YESTERDAY, shared his thoughts on Marty Robbins' versatile and enduring music career.

How important was Marty Robbins in forming the unique cultural identity of American Music?

I think Marty Robbins' genius was that he synthesized so many different styles of music. He was a master at singing standards, American Songbook, Hawaiian music, Hispanic music, cowboy music, rock 'n' roll and blues. He just had a tremendous grasp of all the uniquely American idioms and that was why he was so incredibly important. He did them all well, he did them all incredibly well.

Marty from the get-go had not only country appeal but pop appeal. "Singing the Blues," "A White Sport Coat (and a Pink Carnation)," "The Story of My Life," "El Paso," "Don't Worry" ­– these were all major pop hits as recently as the late '60s. He was making the pop charts and his appeal crossed over to a wide segment of the population.

What do you think drew his fans to him and what were the keys to his success?

Speaking personally (and I've had Marty Robbins 45s since I was a child), I think it's that word that is so overused today – charisma. He had charisma; he looked like a star and he sang like a star. When you saw him and you were a singer you were like, "My God, what a voice!" He was a master showman and so entertaining, that's why they put him on last on the Grand Ole Opry whenever he performed. They couldn't get him off the stage once he started, so he always closed the show. He famously just took the clock of the wall and put it on the piano and just kept entertaining the folks because they wouldn't let him go and he didn't want to go. He was also an insomniac, and if you ever tuned into WSN radio late at night, there would be nights where he would show up out there at the radio station and sit and just sing song after song after song. Each one would be different than the one before. It was great radio, it was fascinating to hear him.

He was just so charismatic both visually and as a singer and he really knew how to entertain the people. And, in those days it was okay for a country star to just stand there in one position and just sing a song. But Marty didn't do that, he hammed it up, he told jokes, he played the guitar, he played the piano. He would be all over that stage and the people loved it.

How did Marty get started with his career? What was his life like – on and off the stage?

Marty was a hard guy to know. He was a great entertainer, but offstage, he didn't go to parties, he didn't hang out with the music-world people. He was a fascinating character. Marty was born in the desert in Arizona in a very poor upbringing. His father was an abusive alcoholic. His mother took Marty and his twin sister to Glendale when he was 12, after she separated from his dad. As a teen, Marty was a petty criminal. He was kind of a no-good guy and he straightened up when he enlisted in the Navy during WWII and served in the Pacific. And, that was when music came into his life. He got out of the Navy after WWII and began entertaining in Arizona. The Grand Ole Opry star Little Jimmy Dickens came through [Glendale] and saw Marty on his little TV show. Jimmy was on Columbia Records and he alerted the talent scouts and Marty got signed. In the beginning, he sang what are called "weepers." You know, country, sad ballads. They called him "Mr. Teardrop." He hated that name, but, in the early days, that's how he was billed. He finally broke through on the charts in 1952 and from then it was no turning back.

When rock 'n' roll came along, he was one of the very first country stars to latch onto the sound and had Top 10 hits with "That's Alright" and "Maybelline." He's the first country star to cover a Chuck Berry song. When "Singing the Blues" became a big pop hit, he went to New York and took with him the greatest teenage prom song of all time, "White Sport Coat (and a Pink Carnation)" which became a major No. 1 pop and country hit.

That continued on until he turned a corner toward the end of the '50s and he recorded an album called Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs which is one of the most famous cowboy recordings of all time. On that record is a song called "El Paso" and it was very different. You realize at the end of the song that a dead guy is singing it. It was a really oddly constructed song – it was really long, like four minutes long (at a time when you didn't do that) and it still became a major success for him. And he followed it with "Big Iron" and some other cowboy songs.

In 1961, he became the first artist to use fuzz-tone guitar on a record, "Don't Worry," and that became a hallmark of psychedelic rock a few years later with Jefferson Airplane and San Francisco. But Marty's record was the first to use that guitar technique. Then there was "Devil Woman" and "Ruby Ann" – the bad woman songs from the '60s. He returns to these exotic beauties over-and-over again in his music and they also became big hits.

By this time, the '60s, Marty had one of the largest fan clubs of anybody in the United States. His fans were called "Marty's Army" and "Marty's Army" was dominantly female. For them, he wrote and recorded "My Woman, My Woman, My Wife" in 1970 which became yet another No. 1 hit. What often is emphasized about Marty is that he wrote hits for others as well. He was a very prolific composer. He wrote songs for Skeeter Davis and Jack Greene and other country stars. He wrote "You Gave Me a Mountain" for Frankie Laine and Elvis, one of his biggest songs that became a No. 1 for Laine. Later, Marty sang it in his own shows.

He drifted into the '70s and did fairly well, but had a really big comeback toward the end of the decade, when he finally wrote an answer song to "El Paso" called "El Paso City" that hit No. 1 in 1976. As I said, he always sang pop standards and he did a couple of albums of these. Then he had hits with "Among My Souvenirs" and with three Hawaiin albums in 1976 – he's the only country star I know who did that. As he entered the '80s, he was not doing so well, until he came up with a tune called "Some Memories Just Won't Die" which became a big hit in 1982 and brought him back into the Top 10. Ironically, that was to be the last hit he enjoyed while he was alive. He died suddenly of a heart condition at age 57 in 1982. Right after he died, Clint Eastwood's movie Honkytonk Man came out in which Marty appeared and sang the title track, and that became a posthumous Top 10 hit.

The fans have never forgotten him and he's still a big influence to many musicians. Every time you hear one of those records, if you've never heard Marty in your life and you hear him sing, you'll pay attention. He had a gorgeous voice.

Did you have a chance to meet him?

The first time I ever met Marty was backstage at the Opry. He was coming off stage and I said, "You belong in the Country Music Hall of Fame" and he looked at me and said, "I know it." It was very funny. I did interview him on a couple of occasions. He was not the kind of person who was real confessional or chatty about his private life. He was just a great showman who kept to himself, not a big schmoozer. But, maybe that's what holds him in such mystique to this day – because he is so different than other stars. Other stars need you to love them.

The fans adored him, and he loved the fans. The classic country stars knew how to treat the fans right. He didn't just come and do the show, he talked to them, signed autographs, threw fan parties. Marty's (parties) were always a huge event, because "Marty's Army" was always there with him.

What do you think public television viewers will like about this program?

If you love great singing and if you're into showmanship, you're going to love this footage. It's taken from all eras of Marty's life, from the early '50s right up until the '80s. You'll see Marty as a dashing young cowboy, as a tuxedoed pop singer and as a rockabilly. You'll see him sing Hawaiian, you'll see him sing cowboy. All the various facets and all the big hits will be in the show. Most people will know him because he did cross over to the pop charts so frequently. You'll see just a really multifaceted, talented singer.

It's not going to be chronological; it's going to be by style so you'll see a cowboy performance from the '50s followed by a pop performance from the '80s. You'll see Marty in all of his many incarnations and some of them are pretty hilarious costumes as well! There's a great visual sense in this (program) and you can feel Marty's charisma in this footage. You'll really get a sense of what a masterful entertainer he was.

And you're the host?

Yes, I'm the host. I'll be talking about each clip and what to look for in it, and where it's shot and what's significant about the song.

I am thrilled to be doing it (the show). He's been a hero of mine for my whole life. From as early as I can remember I've had Marty Robbins records. I've always loved him. I sang along with him, I harmonized with them, I wanted to be him. He was just so charismatic, so great.

Have there been other specials about him?

Not recently, there was one he did himself called "A Man of His Music" in the '70s, but to my knowledge there has never been a biography or a documentary about him. So this will be very groundbreaking and the first career overview television special.

Why do you think it's taken so long for someone to do this?

Because he died so young, he didn't endure into the modern media era. Nowadays, we have all of these magazines and all these television shows and this onslaught of celebrity- driven news. Marty died before all of that happened. He was one of those people whose legend lives in their music because there is no news about them. And he did so few interviews and wasn't a big press person so the media has not paid him his due, what he deserves. The fans have; they've never forgotten, the records still sell. But, the media just kind of went on to the next celebrity.

What do you think he would have thought about the celebrity obsession in the current media?

I think he would've held himself above it. Marty is the kind of singer whose voice doesn't get old. If he were alive today, he would still be singing. Some of those country singers can continue their careers well into their seventies, because their voices are so strong. It never deteriorates. He could yodel right up 'till the end. I'd like to think he'd still be out there on the Opry stage and on the road singing. A lot of people who were fans here in town, they all kind of say he's not really dead. They just imagine that he's out there on the road somewhere doing a show right now.

Source of interview: American Public Television