History Music / MartyRobbins

* YoungGun: "Big Iron's" Texas Red is "vicious and a killer though a youth of twenty-four." He has easily gunned down twenty men in duels and the ensuing arrogance leads him to fatally underestimate the mysterious ranger who comes to town.

* EpicRocking: "El Paso" was nearly five minutes in an era when songs very rarely exceeded three minutes. It held the record for the longest #1 song before it was broken by [[Music/TheBeatles "Hey Jude"]].

-->''"Oh, he might have went on trolling, but he made one fatal slip: when he tried to troll the troper with the [[{{Zapped}} Zapper]] on their hip... Zapper on their hip!"''

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Texas Red in "Big Iron" had managed to kill everyone who tried to take him before and the town thinks he's unbeatable. Then the Arizona Ranger with the title weapon came to town, and Texas Red dies to the Ranger's quicker draw.

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Texas Red in "Big Iron" had managed to kill everyone who tried to take him before and the town thinks he's unbeatable. Then the Arizona Ranger with the title weapon came to town, and proves he's much quicker to the draw than the outlaw.

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Texas Red in "Big Iron" had managed to kill everyone who tried to take him before and the town thinks he's unbeatable. Then the Arizona Ranger with the title weapon came to town.

* CainAndAbel: In "Tall, Handsome Stranger", the narrator who is a marshal is forced to shoot his own brother who became an outlaw.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: After Sundown in "The Ballad of Bill Thaxton" explains how he wins all his fights (he only fights at sunset with his back to the West), he "said he wouldn't be with us tomorrow".

* {Foreshadowing}: After Sundown in "The Ballad of Bill Thaxton" explains how he wins all his fights (he only fights at sunset with his back to the West), he "said he wouldn't be with us tomorrow".

* DistinctionWithoutADifference: He accuses communism and socialism of falling under this and says to call it what you like as there's very little difference between the two in "Ain't I Right".

* DirtyCommunists: "Ain't I Right" can basically be called "American Anti-Communist": The Song, slamming communism and those who support it.

-->''"Oh, he might have went on trolling, but he made one fatal slip: when he tried to troll the troper with the [[{{Zapped}} Zapper]] on their hip... Zapper on their hip!"''

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Texas Red in "Big Iron" had managed to kill everyone who tried to take him before and the town thinks he's unbeatable. Then the Texas Ranger with the title weapon came to town.

* BadassDriver: Robbins is an avid UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} fan, and in the late sixties he began to race professionally in NASCAR on a part-time basis. Thanks to his success as a musician, he's able to field his own entry for nearly all of the races he participated. He did considerably well too: Robbins scored 6 top 10 finishes in 35 starts.

* BadassGrandpa: Bill Thaxton in "Sundown/The Texas Ranger", incidentally another ranger with a big iron on his hip.

-->''"Oh, he might have went on trolling, but he made one fatal slip: when he tried to edit the troper with the [[{{Zapped}} Zapper]] on their hip... Zapper on their hip!"''

->''"Very simple song. God is asleep, before Creation [...] and gets the whim to wake, and decides it could be worth going through it all in order to be able to hear some music, and most of all, one of his best creations, Marty Robbins."''\\
--'''[[Music/TheWho Pete Townshend]]''', explaining the song "God Speaks of Marty Robbins"