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.)
Rocky Raccoon was originally Rocky Sassoon. It was written with no relation to any animal, until the name change at the very end.
“Poor Old Ugly Gladys Jones - This one took Don Bowman, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson and Bobby Bare to put it all together. Best line - her parents finally moved away from home.”
Just learned that Don Bowman died this week. He was one funny guy! Loved his Tijuana Drum and Bugle Corps album.
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