NASCAR Balladeer ~ The Two Lives Of Marty Robbins
6/06/2014 |
I bid
you welcome gentle readers, to something I had no idea I was going to write,
until we began the Classic Country Closeouts. Now, it just seems like something
that should be written, and so it shall be. After some folks, including my
partner in crime here, Jim Fitzgerald, listened to an offering by Marty Robbins
on these pages, they were moved to begin posting other Marty songs on
FaceBook... a nice place to visit perhaps, but I wouldn't want to live there. Ah,
and lest I forget, a great big ol' Country style "Howdy" to our
assigned reader of all things NASCAR. One regular reader just this week caught
on that perhaps it really isn't quite the "Fan and Media Espionage Center", but agrees that
it fits the bill perfectly. Do enjoy your stay, and I hope you are a Country
Music fan, or it may be a long day.
First
things first, as our Mothers always taught us... there are a lot of teens and
twenty-somethings out there that don't have a clue
who Marty Robbins is or was, and if the name is familiar at all, then they wonder why his name
appears on a racing site and not a Country Music site. To the older folks that
read here, the answer is easy. Marty was both a racer and a singer. He was a
great song writer too, in case you missed that part. The man was quite
literally multi-talented and excelled at most anything he touched.
Born in
1925 in Glendale Arizona, as the male half of fraternal twins, the other half
being sister Mamie, he was part of a 10-child
household headed by a father with a penchant for drink. His parents divorced
when he was only 12 and his Mother moved all of them to Phoenix. His boyhood,
Marty says, was mostly colored by his maternal grandfather, "Texas"
Bob Heckle, as the older man billed himself. Texas Bob was a travelling
salesman and a teller of grand old Western tales.
In
Marty's own words, "He had two
little books of poetry he would sell. I used to sing him church songs and he
would tell me stories. A lot of the songs I've written were brought about
because of stories he told me. Like 'Big Iron' I wrote because he was a Texas
Ranger. At least he told me he was."
The early
influence that drew him toward singing was singing cowboy and Western movie
star, Gene Autry. Marty described sitting in the front row of those movies...
the "neck breaking seats" is what I've always called them, as "close enough so I could have gotten
sand in the eyes from the horses and powder burns from the guns. I wanted to be
the cowboy singer, simply because Autry was my favorite singer. No one else
inspired me."
As soon
as he was old enough to serve, in 1943 Marty did what every
"red-blooded" American boy did in WWII; he enlisted for a three-year
stint in the Navy, where he learned to play guitar and began singing and
songwriting. After his days in the
Pacific Theater were through, he returned home to do odd jobs, join a local
band and in 1947 was hired to sing at a radio station in Mesa, Arizona. As his
fan base grew, he soon moved on to KPHO Radio in Phoenix where he hosted a
one-hour show called, “Chuck Wagon Time." KPHO Radio followed much of the
country in the waning days of the 1940s, venturing into that budding
entertainment medium we know as television, and for fifteen minutes, four times
a week, Marty entertained on “Country Caravan." Little Jimmy Dickens,
already a Nashville success, made an appearance on the show and was so
impressed that it led to Marty being signed by Columbia Records (CBS) in 1951.
In later days, Marty would often joke, "...
the people
who don't like my singing, don't blame me; blame Jimmy Dickens!"
Lest we
pass over what was probably the most important thing in Marty's life, on
September 27, 1948, he married Marizona Baldwin, whom
he had met and courted since she was only 15. Two children [Ronny and Janet]
and 33 years later, they would still be together and still in love at the time
we bade farewell to our racing balladeer.
Marty
joined the Grand Ol' Opry in 1953 and through that decade appeared in a handful
of Western "B-movies", one of which, "Buffalo Gun" also
included Country singers Webb Pierce and Carl Smith. Recorded hits began with
what was actually his third song, "I'll Go On Alone", the catalyst
for a songwriting contract with Acuff-Rose
Publications, and included many familiar songs such as "Singin' the Blues", "White Sport Coat (and a Pink
Carnation)" and of course, his first Grammy winner (And first Grammy ever
awarded to a Country song) and life-long theme song, "El Paso." Just
before that, he had written and recorded the title song from Gary Cooper's
movie, "The Hanging Tree", one of my personal favorites from Marty.
During those years, we also saw the birth of "Gunfighter Ballads and Trail
Songs", originally released as a single album but released since in
several forms... each differing from the original.
Marty
continued to write and sing through the next decade, with songs such as
"Don't Worry", "Devil Woman", "Ruby Ann",
"Ribbon of Darkness" and "I Walk Alone" all making
appearances on the charts. While all that was going on, Marty found a pastime
that became an avocation, and that was stock car
racing.
Marty
admitted to having a love for speed since watching the Bettenhausens
and Jimmy Bryan at Indianapolis while growing up. His new home in Nashville
allowed him to hear the cars racing at the nearby Fairgrounds and he and son
Ronny began to visit local area tracks in the summer of 1959. It wasn't long
before Marty decided watching wasn't enough; he wanted in; he wanted to race.
He purchased his first racecar, a 1934 Ford (The Devil Woman Car) from "Preacher"
Hamilton, father of NASCAR driver Bobby Hamilton, both of whom were local Tennesseans.
Once he'd tried it for himself, he became a regular competitor at the old
Fairgrounds Speedway in Nashville, in the late model division, forerunner of
the Busch/Nationwide Series. Many times he would rush to appear at the Grand
Ol' Opry after running the Saturday night feature race.
As time
permitted, Marty also became a respected NASCAR Grand National racer and
independent car owner. Over 13 years, he competed in 35 races, between 1966 and
1982. His best finishes were a 5th at Michigan, June 16, 1974 and a 9th at
Talladega, August 11, 1974. Over that period, he scored that single top-five
and 6 top-tens. Perhaps not coincidentally, it was in
1974 that Marty wrote and recorded a big hit called "Twentieth Century
Drifter", which depicted the life of a stock car racer. He poured heart
and soul into this one and I feel it explains so much of the man that was Marty
Robbins. Please enjoy:
"He would give you all you
wanted, I can tell you that"
says NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby Allison "He
had a real, raw talent. He had good equipment. And he really respected the guys
who were trying to make a living in racing. He would ask questions and then
actually listen when you answered them."
Along
those same lines came comments from another Hall of Famer, "King"
Richard Petty. "You wonder how good
he could have been had he started earlier [Marty was past 40 when he began
racing in the elite series] and been able
to concentrate on it full time," said Petty, who was not just a friend
to Robbins, but also a fellow Dodge driver, and in those days, it surely didn't
hurt to have Petty in your Dodge corner. "I
know this. No one had a better time at the racetrack than Marty Robbins. He was
so happy to be at the racetrack. He wasn't a singing star when he was with us
in the garage. He was just one of the guys. That's why people always liked him
so much."
Yes,
Marty was "just one of the guys", but he was one of the best of them.
Racing at Charlotte in 1974, in an attempt to avoid hitting a car broadside,
Marty turned into the wall at about 160 mph. This was long before the advent of
the SAFER barriers. In addition to 37 stitches in his face, he suffered a
broken tailbone, several broken ribs and two black eyes. "If Marty hadn’t turned into the wall, it’s highly likely I might
not be here today." Those are the words of Richard Childress, the
driver Marty Robbins didn't hit.
Once
asked if he thought he was a good driver, Marty responded, "I
think I'm a careful driver. Now as far as being a good driver, you better ask
the other drivers about that. But I don't think I get in their way."
For many
of those 35 Grand National starts, Marty's car was prepared by yet another Hall
of Famer, Cotton Owens. The man travelled in fast company; in fact, it was top
of the line fast company, and they didn't just like Marty Robbins; they loved
him, and to this day, every living one of them will tell you so. Marty
continued to race stock cars until just before he died, with his last race
coming at Atlanta International Raceway on November 7, 1982, just one month and
one day before his death.
At this
point gentle readers, please allow me to share with you a televised tribute
done just after Marty's death in 1982 by P.M. Magazine. It gives those who
never met him a very quick look into the man that was Marty Robbins and perhaps
a better idea of why he was so loved.
Sadly,
it would seem that the man who loved speed and loved travelling in fast
company, may have himself travelled too much and at too great a speed for his
unwilling heart. In 1969, Marty experienced his first heart attack, while
touring in Ohio. Always the trooper... and the troubadour... Marty went through
with the performance in Cleveland before returning to Nashville in a great deal
of pain. Xrays showed that three major arteries to
his heart were blocked and the doctors gave him only a year to live without a
then very new procedure called bypass surgery. Marty opted to live and thus
became the first person in history to undergo a triple bypass.
Sometime
shortly thereafter, Marty penned a song for the woman that had held his hand
and helped him live when hope seemed distant, his wife Marizona.
Though I've heard that it was originally intended to be sung by Frankie Laine, Marizona requested that Marty
keep and sing himself, "My Woman, My Woman, My
Wife." He did and the song became his second Grammy Award winner.
Throughout
the 1970s, Marty kept up the pace, and a more than brisk pace it was. Country
Music was not at that time a genre content to let the fans come to the theater;
the talent traveled to the fans, a fact that sadly contributed to so many of
the early stars meeting their demise in auto or plane crashes. He wrote songs;
he recorded songs and he sang his songs, in all parts of this great land. He
also appeared in several Hollywood films during those years, including Clint
Eastwood's "Honky Tonk Man", which debuted
shortly after Marty's death. And oh yes, as mentioned above, he continued to
race as well. Marty maintained that racing relaxed him. He was just that kind
of guy...
March of
1974 saw Marty become the last performer to play at the old Ryman Auditorium,
the original location of the Grand Ol' Opry. A week later, he would be the
first to play at the new Grand Ol' Opry House. The following year, he was
inducted into the Nashville Songwriters International Hall of Fame. There were
still more hit recordings to come and more races to be run. Early in 1981,
Marty suffered a second heart attack, but kept going at his usual double-time
pace after recovery. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in
October of 1982. In November he raced at Atlanta. In December, his third major
heart attack did not respond to surgery, which this time was a quadruple
bypass, and one month and one day after the race, Marty Robbins passed away,
December 8, 1982.
“I'm not a real good musician,
but I can write [a song] pretty well. I experiment once in a while to see what
I can do. I find out the best I can do is stay with ballads.”
—Marty
Robbins
"I miss you, Marty. I miss the jokes and the
smiles and laughter that always gave me a lift every time I was around you. No
matter how tired, or what I might be burdened with, you made it all a lot
lighter."
...Johnny
Cash
"I feel certain that Marty Robbins was truly
one of God's gifted. The whole world is saddened at his passing but the whole
universe will be rejoicing at the arrival of such a beautiful man."
...Merle
Haggard
"...he had a charm about him that I couldn't
help but fall in love with. And he never turned it off. It didn't matter where
he was. If he was on stage, he just turned it on a little bit more. He was
always ready to shake hands with anybody or give an autograph. He was just so
warm to everybody. And I admired that about him - for someone of his stature to
be able to do that and love every minute of it."
...Ricky
Skaggs
"Marty Robbins, you sang your way to fame,
and you raced right into everybody's hearts." Not my words, gentle
readers, but a line from the song you're about to hear. I hope that my words
and the song's lyrics together do justice to the man that did indeed live two
lives in one.
Be well
gentle readers, and remember to keep smiling. It looks so good on you.
PS: It
wouldn't be right to do a story of Marty Robbins and not include
"his" song, so if any of you have the heart for one more, here is
Marty at the Grand Ol' Opry, doing "El Paso."
~ PattyKay