Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins

[10] Cowboy in a Continental Suit

[10] Cowboy in a Continental Suit In December 1961, when Marty had been at Columbia for ten years, Don Law negotiated a contract change from a two-year to a ten-year term. “I made so muchmoneybackin1959,’60,’61,and’62,andIdidn’tevenhaveaCPA,”Marty told an interviewer in 1981. “By the time I got one, it was already too late. I’d spent a whole lot of my money and a whole lot of Uncle Sam’s. I had an income tax problem for eight or nine years.” To put the era in perspective, a 1964 Ford Mustang sold for $2,368.1 Financial insecurities always haunted Marty. “I’ve never had the feeling I had it made,” he said a year before his death. “I’ve always had this fear it could allbetakenaway.”ThehighestInternalRevenueService(IRS)taxbracketinthe 88 early 1960s was 91 percent tax on net incomes above $400,000. That included Marty. The penniless boy had become a rich man, and he failed to allow for tax consequences. He made $500,000 in 1960 and spent it without thinking about setting aside tax money. Marty’s Music and Marizona Music were casualties of his oversight.2 He would have to sell the two successful publishing companies tocoverhisIRSdebt.Indoingso,helostfuturepublishingroyaltiesfrommost of the songs he and his band members wrote between 1958 and 1964, including “El Paso” and “Don’t Worry,” the other songs on his Gunfighter albums, and his next three number one songs. First of those was “Devil Woman,” which Marty wrote the same day as “Big Iron.” He didn’t remember any inspiration for “Devil Woman,” other than thinking“BigIron”wassuchagreatsonghe’dtrytowriteanotheronethesame day.Hehitonafalsettohelikedandthendevelopedthesongaroundit.“Idon’t knowthereasonforthatsong,exceptthatIwantedtodoafalsetto,”herecalled. “I was messing around at the piano. It’s a funny song to come up with at the piano, because I don’t play the piano well enough to write that type of song. It usually takes a guitar. But I wrote that one at the piano.”3 To find a B side for “Devil Woman,” he asked Don Winters for suggestions. Winters started singing his own compositions and Marty liked “April Fool’s Day.” Winters cheerfully states his song “sold as much as the other one.”4 Martysatinachairwhilerecording“DevilWoman,”whichrequiredWinters and Joe Babcock to kneel. The one microphone hung low enough for all three tosingintoit,withWinterstotherightofMartyandBabcocktotheleft.Marty joked, “Boys, that’s just how I want you—down on your knees.”5 Another song recorded during that April 10, 1962, session was Lee Emerson’s “Ruby Ann” (writtenunderhislegalnameofLeeEmersonBellamy).Thetwosinglesbecame back-to-back number one Billboard hits. “Devil Woman” held the top spot for October and November, and then “Ruby Ann” grabbed it for one week. Both songs were included on Devil Woman, his third album for 1962. Two previous albums were Marty After Midnight and Portrait of Marty. Consisting of a variety of songs Marty liked, mostly pop standards, they were recorded to produce sales rather than singles. From 1962 through 1964 Marty recorded seven albums, which together showcased his wide-ranging tastes and talents. He repeated his Hawaiian and western themes in 1963 with Hawaii’s Calling Me and Return of the Gunfighter. 1964 brought Island Woman, an album of West Indian music, and a country album, R.F.D. 89 [ CH 10 ] Cowboy in a Continental Suit “On the bus you couldn’t mention a song he couldn’t do a part of,” Okie Jones says. “If it had been played on the air, he heard it and he could sing it.” Marty so loved music that he seemed to absorb everything he heard. “I was amazed myself that he did know so many different types of songs,” Marizona stated after his death. “I was watching some of his shows this past week, and I couldn’t believe he would have memorized so many different songs.”6 ThewealthofMarty’spublishingcompaniesexpandedwhenJeannePruett, wife of Jack Pruett and later a singing star herself, joined the enterprise. Marty, withtypicalchauvinismoftheday,referredtoheras“thegreatest girlsongwriter inthebusiness.”LouieDunnnicknamedherMaude.JeannePruettappreciated that Marty used the work of his own writers before seeking outside material. “I think getting cuts by somebody as famous and important as Marty,” she says, “was the thing that kept me working hard at my craft. All the years I’ve been in this business I owe to that one man.”7 A girl Marty worried about was his toddler daughter, Janet. One of Marizona ’s friends remembers going out to dinner after...