Friday, August 15, 2008

Big Iron - Kostaja

The second song in our series 'Finnish Wild West In Song' is "Kostaja" (The Avenger). It was recorded by vocal group Kukonpojat and released as a single in 1960. The name Kukonpojat means something like 'Young Roosters", and it was clearly a better choice of moniker for the group that started as The Chickens. At the time there were quite a few aspiring vocal groups in Finland who got their style from popular US groups like Kingston Trio or Brothers Four. This same song was also recorded by their rival group Neloset in the same year. Some members of Kukonpojat - like Jukka Kuoppamäki and Georg Dolivo - did later succesful career in other groups and as solo artists. The original song "Big Iron" is written and performed by C&W singer Marty Robbins (real name Martin David Robinson). It was first released as an album track on his 'Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs' in September 1959. The song tells a story of a gunfight duel between the shady hero and an outlaw named Texas Red.

Updated on 17.11.2009: added Frederik's version (1971).

Here's the triplet:

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Laita ihmeessä tähän myöskin Frederikin Kostaja.
Pesee Martyn ja Kukonpojat selkeästi.

Reetun versiossa on suorastaan myyttinen tunnelma.
Niitä harvoja tapauksia missä käännös on selkeästi parempi.
Tosin Martyllä nimenomaan Trail song ja Reetulla enemmän iskelmätyyliä.

DM said...

Frederikiä on tulossa ...

Anonymous said...

Joo kyllä Veksin sanoitus on loistava tuossa Reetun versiossa-
ei se Martya pese, vaan noudattelee aika tarkasti sen ideaa, mutta ylivoimainen näihin 60-luvun versioihin verrattuna

Anonymous said...

frederikin versio on paras....