Marty Robbins' "El Paso" line-by-line

Tommy Tomlinson analyzes another country music classic, the story of a cowboy, a beautiful woman, and a murder in a west Texas town: "Rhythm and sentence length are key to making this song work. The full sentences imply an epic story; the galloping rhythm (11 syllables followed by 10, sung in ¾ time) makes it feel much shorter. Robbins’ record label, worried that the song was too long for the radio, released an edited version. Fans demanded the long version instead."

November 3, 2013

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