Tired of singin' Kumbuya Part Deux

[Forty Rod]

No Neil Diamond?

How 'bout Burl ives?

Johnny Cash?

The Statler Brothers, or even the Everly Brothers?

I am SOOOO alone in this big ol' world.  Alas and alack, oh woe is me (Sob!)

[Delmonico]

"Lester Roadhog Morant and the Cadillac Cowboys, Live at the Johnny Mac Brown High School"  Hows that, we wern't spoused toknow that was the Statler Brothers, It didn't apear anywhere on the album cover.   But we all knew it was, cause Charlie Douglas told us on the "Charlie Douglas Road Show" late night Mon-Sat on WWl New Orleans.   

How's that pard, or did you want to be:

Counting flowers on the wall,
That don't bother me at all,
Playing Solatare till dawn,
with a deck of fifty-one.

Smoking Cigarettes and watching Captian Kangaroo,
Now don't tell me, I've nothing to do.

(Most folks think at times I am missing more than one card in my deck.)

[Forty Rod]

Del, I 'spect you're down to one joker and nothing much else. 

Sure makes it a bitch to cheat, don't it? 

[Delmonico]

The one on the right is on the left, and the one in the middle is on the top.

Durn I wish I could remember the rest of the song.

On Friday nights the on guy on the local non-profit station often plays Burl Ives "Diesel Smoke, Dangerous Curves"  how long since ya heard that one.   Course he plays Bill Haley and the Four Western Aces also.   Don't know if he got new guys or the 4 Western Aces became the Comets.

Don't have no Neil Diamond, it all belonged to my Ex and she took it with her.   Do have a copy of the Leonard Nimoy Rock and Roll album.   Got a real early John Denver where he sings about the whores of Amesterdam.  

Ok, maybe I lost the last joker in my deck.  But it is the only John Denver album I own and I bought it before he did Rocky Mountian High.   The only other of his I got is him, and some other unkowns doing Hank Sr's Mansion on the Hill, some other Guy named Michael Martin Murphy, one named Charlie Daniels and some guy with red hair and red beard named Willie Nelson. 

[Russ T Chambers]

Russ T.  Did you ever here Leon Russell's version of "Battle of New Orleans" from his 1973 Album "Hank Wilson's Back Again'  It is great, but the whole album is great.

Can't say I have.  I'll  have to see if I can find it.

[Forty Rod]

And where is C. W. McCall?

[Four-Eyed Buck]

He's out on Convoy duty..........Buck

[Delmonico]

Hea made enough money haulin' bread and chickens he has now bought a steamroller and is gettin' Fresh Aire.

[Curley Cole]

That's pretty cool, "Fresh Aire"....
cc

[Four-Eyed Buck]

Well, it's the best we could do on short notice ........Buck

[Delmonico]

Well most folks don't know Omaha's Chip Davis of Manhiem Steamroller and Fresh Aire fame was also the one who created CW McCall.

[Four-Eyed Buck]

You're right, I did not know that ........Buck

[Uncle Eph]

what do "Angel of the Morning" and "Wild Thing" have in common?

[Delmonico]

I should know, but can't remember right now.

Any way I been hearin' this song lately, twice at work yesterday and on the radio on the way home tonight.  Carl Sprage's 1925 recording of it is considered the first cowboy song recorded.  It is still my favorite version, but every Cowboy singer I think does it.  The words vary some.

Strawberry Roan

I was laying round town just spending my time,
Out of a job and not makin' a dime
When up steps a feller and says, "I suppose
That you're a bronc rider by the look of your clothes?"

He guesses me right. "And a good one I'll claim.
Do you happen to have any bad ones to tame?"
He say's he's got one that's a good one to buck,
And at throwing good writers he's had lots of luck.

He says this old pony has never been rode
And the man that gets on him is bound to be throwed.
I gets all excited and I ask what he pays
To ride this old pony for a couple of days.

He say's "ten dollars." I says "I'm your man;
The bronc never lived that I cannot fan;
The bronc never tried nor never drew breath
That I cannot ride till he starves plumb to death."

He says, "Get your saddle.  I'll give you a chance."
We got in the buggy and went to the ranch.
We waited till morning, right after chuck
I went out to see if that outlaw could buck.

Down in the corral, a-standin' alone,
Was this little old caballo, a strawberry roan.
He had little pin ears that touched at the tip
And a big forty-four brand was on his left hip.

We was spavined all around and he had pidgeon  toes,
Little pig eyes and a big Roman nose.
He was u-necked a old with a long lower jaw-
You could tell at a glance he was a regular outlaw.

I buckled on my spurs, I was feeling plumb fine,
I pulled down my hat and curls up my twine,
I threw the loop on him, right well I knew then,
Before I had rode him I'd sure earn my ten.

I got the blind on him with a terrible fight,
Cinched on the saddle and girded it tight;
Then I steps up on him and pulled down the blind
And sat there in the saddle to see him unwind.

He bowed his old neck and I'll say he unwound,
He seemed to quit living down there on the ground;
He went up to the east and came down to the west
With me in the saddle a doin' my best.

He sure was frog walkin', I heaved a big sigh,
He only lacked wings for to be on the fly;
He turned his old belly right up to the sun,
for he was a sun fishin' son of a gun.

He was the worst bronco I've seen on the range,
He could turn on a nickel and leave you some change.
While he was buckin' he squalled like a shoat,
I tell you that outlaw, he sure got my goat.

I tell all the people that pony could step
And I was still on him a-buildin' a rep;
He came down on all fours and turned up his side,
I don't see how he kept from losin' his hide.

I lost my stirrup, I lost my hat,
I was a pullin' at leather as blind as a bat;
With a phenomenal jump he made a high dive
And set me a-winding up there through the sky.

I turned forty flips and came down to the earth
And sit there a-cussin' the day of his birth.
I know there's some ponies that I cannot ride,
Some of them living, they haven't all died.

But I bet all my money there's no man alive
That can ride Old Strawberry when he makes his high dive.

[Four-Eyed Buck]

Del, i was looking at my reply above and just had a mental sound bite of Johnny Carson saying the same thing ..........Buck

[Uncle Eph]

Del, now you went and crossed the line!!

Strawberry Roan was my ex's favorite cowboy song.  I come back in the house from doing my chores and enjoying the morning and the first thing that happens is you remind me of her, thanks alot.

have you figured out what "Angel of the Morning" and "Wild Thing" have in common?

[Russ T Chambers]

Here's one for Forty

America
Neil Diamond

Far, we've been traveling far
without a home
Not without a stars
Free, only want to be free
we huddle close, hang on to a dream
On the boats and on the planes
they're coming to America
never looking back again
they're coming to America

Home, don't it seem so far away
we're traveling light today
in the eye of the storm
in the eye of the storm
Home, it's a new and shinning place
make our bed and we'll say our grace
freedom's light burning warm
freedom's light burning warm

Everywhere around the world
they're coming to America
everytime that flags unfurled
they're coming to America
got a dream to take them there
they're coming to America
got a dream they come to share
they're coming to America
they're coming to America
they're coming to America
they're coming to America
they're coming to America
Today, Today, Today, Today, Today
My country 'tis of thee, today
sweet land of Liberty, today
of thee I sing, today
of thee I sing, today
Today, Today, Today, Today.

[Forty Rod]

Great song.

I even like the sentiment IF they're coming here legally.

(OH, crap.  I went an' got polly-tickle again.  I gotta stop doing that.)

HEY!!! What a great alias for some lady:  Polly Tickle. 

[Russ T Chambers]

Someone asked for Johnny Cash?  Forty 

Ragged Old Flag

I walked through a county courthouse square,
On a park bench an old man was sitting there.
I said, "Your old courthouse is kinda run down."
He said, "Naw, it'll do for our little town."
I said, "Your old flagpole has leaned a little bit,
And that's a Ragged Old Flag you got hanging on it."

He said, "Have a seat," and I sat down.
"Is this the first time you've been to our little town?"
I said, "I think it is." He said, "I don't like to brag,
But we're kinda proud of that Ragged Old Flag.

"You see, we got a little hole in that flag there when
     Washington took it across the Delaware.
And it got powder-burned the night Francis Scott Key
Sat watching it writing Say Can You See.
And it got a bad rip in New Orleans
With Packingham and Jackson tuggin' at its seems.

"And it almost fell at the Alamo
Beside the Texas flag, but she waved on though.
She got cut with a sword at Chancellorsville
And she got cut again at Shiloh Hill.
There was Robert E. Lee, Beauregard, and Bragg,
And the south wind blew hard on that Ragged Old Flag.

"On Flanders Field in World War I
She got a big hole from a Bertha gun.
She turned blood red in World War II.
She hung limp and low by the time it was through.
She was in Korea and Vietnam.
She was sent where she was by her Uncle Sam.

"She waved from our ships upon the briny foam,
And now they've about quit waving her back here at home.
In her own good land here she's been abused --
She's been burned, dishonored, denied, and refused.

"And the government for which she stands
Is scandalized throughout the land.
And she's getting threadbare and wearing thin,
But she's in good shape for the shape she's in.
'Cause she's been through the fire before
And I believe she can take a whole lot more.

"So we raise her up every morning, take her
     down every night.
We don't let her touch the ground and we fold
     her up right.
On second thought, I do like to brag,
'Cause I'm mighty proud of the Ragged Old Flag."

[Forty Rod]

Sure makes a body feel proud don't she?

Thanks Russ, and a special thanks to Johnny, wherever he's watchin'  from.