Posted on 06/19/2020 3:27:50 PM PDT by SamAdams76
Out of the static from about 74 years ago comes this classic little ditty from Bob Wills and The Texas Playboys, singing about "Daddy's little fatty" who is "Gnawin' on a biscuit" and "Eatin' corn and taters" and all that other stuff.
After listening a couple or three times, you will not be able to get this song out of your head.
I just read the title and it'll be rattlin' around in my head for a week. Luvs me some Texas swing.
Love them vintage tube amps! :-)
I sing that song to my chubby grandchildren regularly! Love it!
When the world was better
“Love them vintage tube amps! :-)”
I was a Sales/PR rep for a chain of music stores in the early 70’s. After hours, in the back of one of the stores, I used to jam with a tremendous player (Billy Carter) who at one time had played with Bob Wills (Wills had reportedly said that Carter was the best guitar player he ever had). Billy’s Twin had been personally modded by Leo Fender. He played a ‘52 Tele with strings like telephone cables and it was painted with a rattle can of black Sears paint. He could make it sing.
Asleep at the Wheel did a pretty good cover of this, too.
Awesome memory to treasure, Friend!
Yes it is, thanks! Billy was a humble man and a fantastic jazz musician. I still play a somewhat simplified version of “The Shadow of Your Smile” that I copped from him. Might as well steal from the best! :)
Excellent post...An era when all Americans knew who they were and were proud of it...
Still the king
“The Shadow of your smile”
Ah...that brings back an amazing memory of my own. I was in 6th grade glee club that was run by the same nun who gave me piano lessons. The big recital was coming up and Sister offered me a solo. She asked me to pick whatever song I wanted to sing for my solo. I picked “The Shadow of Your Smile” and went into Boston to buy the sheet music. When Sister saw it was from the movie “The Sandpiper” starring Richard Burton and Liz Taylor and depicted two married people having an adulterous relationship, she said I had to do “Somewhere My Love” instead. I really wanted to do “The Shadow of your Smile” because I thought it was a better song. But I savored with secret satisfaction that the song Sister had substituted was from “Dr. Zhivago”, which was technically about the same thing. (I was a somewhat bratty little girl! LOL)
Ahhhhh....the early 60’s.
Haha - great story! Congratulations on finding an element of revenge on the “censor”:). And I agree...”The Shadow of Your Smile” is a MUCH better song than “Somewhere My Love” (for starters, “Somewhere My Love” is severely lacking in minor chords LOL).
I’ve met and listened to Wills play several times back in the 60’s at a little place north of town called the Stampede. He was good friends with a local here named Hoyle Nix and toured together also.
My favorite by Bob Wills.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOi-h3kGo9E
“severely lacking in minor chords”
And...it’s supposed to be a RUSSIAN song, which would have MANY minor chords, both from the Relative Minor, and the True Minor.
I am really into Russian Folk Music, and the shifting back and forth between minor and major is very characteristic of the genre.
There is is little bit of authenticity in the Intro (Where are the beautiful days?) but the it just launches into schmaltz.
I remember my dad singing that song when I was less than five years old. I’m 73 now.
I got lots of Bob Wills records and CDs along with other old western greats.
THAT is REAL C&W music!
Actually the World was in a tough spot back then, but the music was much better!
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