Marty Robbins - Ghost Riders In The Sky

Regular readers will remember seeing this song from not so very long ago, when I showcased the version from The Outlaws. In that post, I wrote:

One of the great things about Country Music is that if you don't like a song, someone else is likely to cover it, and do it a really different way.

To Old To Work, Too Young To Retire posted his favorite cover, by Marty Robbins. It's a great rendition, and very different from The Outlaw's Southern Rock style.

Marty Robbins grew up poor in Depression-era Phoenix. His first escape was the Navy, where he drove landing craft in the Pacific Theater. While stationed in Hawaii, he picked up a guitar and taught himself to play. After that, he never looked back as his progression took him from Honkey Tonks to a show on KTYL AM to a show on KPHO TV to a recording contract with Columbia. In his thirty year career, he had 17 #1 songs, and 82 in the Top 40. He won a Grammy for his 1959 song, El Paso, which not only was #1 on the Country charts, but crossed over to the Hot 100 as well.

Along the way, he was a successful NASCAR driver, with 35 races and 6 top 10 finishes. He also had a role in Clint Eastwood's 1982 film Honkeytonk Man.

Robbins' version is more traditional than the one by the Outlaws. Compare and contrast. It's the differences that keep things interesting.



Ghost Riders In The Sky (Songwriter: Stan Jones)

An old cowboy went riding out one dark and windy day
Upon a ridge he rested as he went along his way
When all at once a mighty herd of red eyed cows he saw
A-plowing through the ragged sky and up the cloudy draw

Their brands were still on fire and their hooves were made of steel
Their horns were black and shiny and their hot breath he could feel
A bolt of fear went through him as they thundered through the sky
For he saw the Riders coming hard and he heard their mournful cry

Yippie yi Ohhhhh
Yippie yi yaaaaay
Ghost Riders in the sky

Their faces gaunt, their eyes were blurred, their shirts all soaked with sweat
He's riding hard to catch that herd, but he ain't caught 'em yet
'Cause they've got to ride forever on that range up in the sky
On horses snorting fire
As they ride on hear their cry

As the riders loped on by him he heard one call his name
If you want to save your soul from Hell a-riding on our range
Then cowboy change your ways today or with us you will ride
Trying to catch the Devil's herd, across these endless skies

Yippie yi Ohhhhh
Yippie yi Yaaaaay

Ghost Riders in the sky
Ghost Riders in the sky
Ghost Riders in the sky

And thanks to TOTWTYTR for the idea. If you're not reading him, you're missing out.