MARTY ROBBINS
&
THE DEVIL WOMAN COUPE
#777
The first time I saw Marty Robbins going around in a race car,was 1963 and I was helping him...........
I was around 14 or 15 and I was turning the display rack of 45 rpm records in a Bellport, NY supermarket when WHAM!!! I see this very cool purple '33 Ford modified coupe come into view. I hit the brakes and thought to myself "I GOT TO HAVE THIS RECORD...IF ONLY FOR THE PICTURE". Back then any pics of modified stock cars were rare and color ones were even rarer.
There was just one small problem.... My allowance was already spent and I think I was advanced by a week or two already. So when I asked Mom if I could get it, I already knew what her answer would be. "Wait till next week"
Well when next week came around, Marty was long gone....(HE SOLD OUT)and it would be a year or so later before I found the same pic, this time on his 33 1/3 LP album. But somewhere over the years it got lost.
I got to see it again the first time I visited the Himes Museum in 1994. It like everything else in that place, just brought back a whole lot of great memories.
Those who know a little about my musical career, know that I've been playing guitar for a long time. I started in 1956 with a Christmas uke. My Mom showed me the chords she knew. It sufficed as a guitar for me as I learned a whole lot of songs like Honeycomb, Don't Be Cruel, Young Love, etc.
The next Christmas I got a real GUITAR!!
And for as happy as I was with it, I was also a little bit frustrated with trying to incorporate the extra two bass strings. I struggled for a week, but I'll never forget the first song I learned to play on all six strings. It was "Singing The Blues".....
Like many songs of that era, there were several versions out on the radio at the same time. "Young Love" had both Troy Shondell and Sonny James singing about it.(Sonny's was the better version by far) and "Singing The Blues" had Guy Mitchell and Marty Robbins doing it. Our radio station, WINS 1010, played both. Though Alan Freed seemed to spin the better versions most of the time. Guy's had some corny whistling in it and I think a uke. Marty's had real country guitars and I leaned his way.
The only reason I'm telling you all this is, I've recently got an assignment from Stock Car Racing Magazine to write about Marty Robbins' Racing Adventures and believe me they were something else. The story is leading me on all sorts of new adventures, as I interview the people who raced with him.
So far I've had the pleasure of talking with his son Ronny, who also raced and "Bullet Bob" Reuther who was the first Nashville Speedway Track Champion. Marty was his sponsor and when Bob retired, Marty sort of absorbed his racing organization (Preacher Hamilton & Co. Bobby's grandad) and became the driver. Bob started racing in 1948 and holds the all time modified speed record on the Daytona Beach course of 150.249 mph....in a 1937 Plymouth coupe no less...(Hey that's what I drove)...well you know that "Bullet Bob" is a story by himself....and he will be.
It's as much fun as it was, when I started out on Long Ride On A Short Track. Learning all sorts of fascinating "stuff" about the golden age of auto racing. So stay tuned gang... Long Ride just keeps on rolling....all over this land
ROUND AND ROUND UP AND DOWN
COVERING THE SAME OLD GROUND
PASSING THROUGH DEJA VU
YOU'LL STILL FIND ONE THING IS TRUE *
*(The bridge of Long Ride On A Short Track)
SO NOW TAKE A SCROLL BACK IN TIME
AND SEE WHAT I SAW
THE DAY I FIRST SAW MARTY ROBBINS GOING ROUND & ROUND
Photo Courtesy THE HIMES MUSEUM
PAGE TWO
WATCH
MARTY TAKE HER FOR A SPIN