Gloomy Tunes: Marty Robbins, "Big Iron"

It’s been busy here at the Obitmagazine niche, so today’s Gloomy Tunes is going to be short. But we pulled today’s selection from one of the bestselling country albums of all-time: Marty Robbins’ “Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs.” And since it’s gun week here, we’re going with “Big Iron,” about a lawman who comes into town to take his quarry, dead or alive.

It’s a great tune, and the Spanish guitar picking above the spare rhythm section gives the whole song a south of the border feel that strikes us as an influence on Dylan’s stunning “Desolation Row.”

Steven Mirkin

Steven Mirkin’s diverse career has taken him from politics to pop culture to high art, offering him a front row seat to some of the most fascinating events and personalities of our time: writing speeches, fundraising appeals and campaign materials for Ed Koch, John Heinz and independent presidential candidate John B. Anderson; chronicling the punk/new wave scenes in New York and London; interviewing musicians such as Elton John, John Lydon and Buck Owens; profiling modern masters Julian Schnabel, Paul Schrader and Jonathan Safran Foer; and writing for TV shows including 21, The Chamber, Let's Make A Deal, and Rock Star: INXS.