Posted on 06/04/2013 6:14:10 AM PDT by Zionist Conspirator
There are a lot of strange songs out there. But how many strange country songs are there? (By "country" I include "hillbilly," "western," "western swing," and "bluegrass," but not "folk" simply because there are oodles and oodles of bizarre folk songs). For the most part country is the sane, genre, the level-headed genre, the "plain folks" genre. But I've found a country song that is disturbing and bizarre, and I'm sure some of you have found others as well.
Many years ago on the old Porter Wagoner TV show I saw Porter perform a song he had written but wished he hadn't. He apologized for the strange song then introduced Speck Rhodes for his comedy segment, and Speck teased him unmercifully. It was a hoot.
Anyway, this Porter Wagoner song was The Rubber Room, and Porter (if I remember correctly) said he realized that the song could be disturbing to people who had loved ones who were institutionalized. That was the first and, until recently, the only time I had ever heard the song.
The other day I did a search for this song and found the original record on YouTube.
But apparently in later years he changed his mind about the song because I also found this video of Porter the year he died performing it live. He's almost 80 years old, and it's just him singing accompanied by nothing but two acoustic guitars (his and Marty Stuart's). This time (unlike the record) there are no electronic sound effects to augment the performance. It's so sparse I think it's more emotionally stirring than the original recording.
And oddly enough, I've found that there are several covers of the song by younger artists who weren't even around when I heard Porter sing the song on his TV show. Apparently it's considered shocking and "edgy."
Well . . . this is my candidate for weirdest/most bizarre country song. Does anyone else have one? (Again, folk songs don't count simply because so many of them are bizarre.)
All of them?
Roger Miller
“You Can’t Rollerskate in a Buffalo Herd.”
“But you can be happy if you’ve a mind to!”
“My Wife Thinks You’re Dead” is a great song.
I always thought the happy arrangement and manner in which the Statler Brothers sang “Flowers on the Wall” was a little disturbing.
[double speed tempo]
"Try to make me go to rehab, I say no no no!
I ain’t got the time
And if my daddy thinks I’m fine
Just try to make me go to rehab I won’t go, go, go!"
[banjo riff]
“She Left Me to Play With My Balls”
Ain't goin Down on Brokeback Mountain
Big Rock Candy mountain
I’ve hiked and hiked till my feet are sore
And I’ll be damned if I hike any more
To be buggered sore like a hobo’s whore
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.”
Dos Tacos De Chorizo - Johnny Bush
Don’t think it’s a real song but a great title.
“Get your tongue out of my mouth cause I’m kissing you goodbye.”
I heard a fellow named Mike Snider sing “Puttin’ on the Dog” at Opryland, an amusement park in Nashville several years back. (no longer there)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NVV3CFY9xo8
It’s about a country boy who couldn’t afford a fur coat for his wife, but hit a German Sheppard one night on the highway...
“Yeah, she don’t know that Fido is wrapped around her tight,
She’s a puttin’ on the dog when she goes out at night.”
It may not qualify, since it was meant to be funny.
“You Can’t Rollerskate in a Buffalo Herd.”
I’m voting for this one, but someone also mentioned Porter Wagoner, and he’s the first one I thought of in regard to this question.
Hah, Junior Brown. I love his music.
I’m voting for Robert Earl Keen’s “It’s the Little Things”
YouBoob for it sometime, heeelarious.
They may have from time to time, but they were regulars on the old WLS National Barn Dance out of Chicago. The Opry's comedy duo was Lonzo and Oscar.
Buck Owens on Hee Haw sang “I got the hungry for your love and I’m waiting in your welfare line” has to rank up towards the worst
They oughta send you back to Roosha boy
Or New York City, son
You just wanta doodle a Christian girl
And you killed God’s only son
I’ve hiked and hiked till my feet are sore
And I’ll be damned if I hike any more
To be buggered sore like a hobo’s whore
In the Big Rock Candy Mountains.”
Yes, it's well known that Big Rock Candy Mountain was a song used to lure young boys to follow a hobo in order to wash his clothes and perform other . . . ugh . . . "services" for him.
Unfortunately that's a folk song and they don't count because there are just so dang many weird folk songs. Other wise we would have started with Foggy Foggy Dew.
From their CD “Liquored Up & Lacquered Down,” Southern Culture On The Skids - “King Of The Mountain.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_DOMDc4lFQ
I mentioned him in the thread's first post! And so far, despite all the hilarious songs, The Rubber Room is still the most disturbing that anyone's come up with so far.
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