Marty Robbins - the Angry Patriot

I'm a flag waving patriotic
nephew of my Uncle Sam,
a rough ridin', fightin' Yankee man!

from The Song of the Patriot, written by Marty Robbins
click here for complete lyrics!

Contrary to his stage persona of goofing around and having a good time, Marty was a very serious, proud, and sometimes outspoken American. "I'm a dyed in-the-wool believer in God and I'm a dyed-in-the-wool American." "How could a country like the United States of America, with all the technology, the resources, and all that, become a second rate power? You see, it shouldn't be that way because you cannot have peace unless you are strong. You cannot be free unless you are strong."

"All you have to do is compare it to the bully in the school. Now, he's the big dog. Everybody else knuckles down to him. But if there's one guy that's just as tough as he is, but he's a good student, this bully ain't gonna mess with him.

"You can't have respect unless you have strength, you see. And being the greatest country in the world, the rest of the world depends on us for help. That's been proven time and time again...World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam-THAT was not a war. That should not have happened and everybody knows it shouldn't have happened...Vietnam was not a victory.

Marty would sometimes bring his political opinions to the stage. On one occasion, he was talking politics at a show in Warren, Ohio, when an audience member heckled him, "We need more entertainment on the stage!" Marty responded "You don't need more entertainment from the stage, you need a lot less entertainment from Washington D.C." The crowd errupted in applause.

Marty is quoted as saying, "Politics are really beginning to bug me. We are losing the image of the American. We are almost nothing in the eyes of the world. We are a big country that is not capable of really taking care of itself." "There are too many people in politics who cannot get together on an idea.  Everybody is disagreeing with everybody. Everybody has their own solutions to all the problems, but it seems like the people in politics go the way they think is going to be best for them, really, and not what is best for the country."

In regards to his song "The Song of the Patriot" written during the Vietnam era, and recorded by Johnny Cash (with Marty singing harmony), Marty states, "What I want to say is to just get on with it. What I want to say is tell Russia to back off...but we can't unless we're strong enough to back 'em off, you see."

"And now is the time for a song,-but a stronger song than what I wrote. Much stronger. It should be just a butt-kickin' song. I mean, get down to it and tell the world just how you feel. Charlie Daniels has one ("In America"). And it's stronger than mine. Mine is the song of the patriot. Charlie's is more like the song for the fighter."