Posted on 06/11/2021 4:26:11 PM PDT by SamAdams76
But before I get into that, I'm still a little perturbed from my Dunkin Donuts drive-through experience earlier today. Now I'm the kind that just likes to get my black coffee in the morning and so I expect to just zip on through at the drive-through, get my black coffee and GO!
But no! I pull into the Dunkin drive-through (good coffee!) with about a half dozen or so of Volvos and Subarus in front of me. All of them with "complicated" orders if you know what I mean.
Nobody in front of me just ordering a black coffee like me. No! They got the sandwiches, the munchkins, the fancy lattes and the strange combination of donuts that people like to buy. They should all take their complicated orders inside!
Good thing I was listening to some good songs on the country radio station.
Speaking of which, I went ahead and checked to see if one of my favorite country singers of all time was still alive and he was indeed. At the age of 92, C.W. McCall (real name Bill Fries) is still out there living and breathing in his orignal hometown of Audubon, Iowa and the world is a better place for it, let me tell you. Hopefully he was not waiting too long this morning for his coffee.
Now everybody knows C.W. McCall for his "Convoy" song which hit number one back in early 1976. You know the one. "Breaker one-nine, this here's the Rubber Duck...Well, we shot the line and we went for broke With a thousand screamin' trucks...and eleven long-haired friends of Jesus in a chartreuse micro-bus." Yes, that song.
Well he put out even a better song than that called Crispy Critters that you can hear at the link I just posted a few words ago. Simply said, the man is a genius and one of the greatest country acts of all time. Right up there with Hank Williams and David Allan Coe.
Here are some sample lyrics from "Crispy Critters":
One day about four or five years ago
We was sittin' at the Conoco station
Kickin' tires, and swattin' flies
And discussin' the State of the Union
When right out in front of the Baptist church
Come a big ol' purple school bus
Had astrological signs upon it
And thirty-five hippies and dogs inside
About half of 'em went for the courthouse lawn
And them dogs commenced on the fireplug
Rest of 'em set there starin' at us
And I says, "Roy, go get your Flit gun"
He says, "Which is the hippies? And which is the dogs?"
I says, "Beats the hell outta me, Roy"
What they was, was a bunch a' them Crispy Critters
And their leader was a space cadet
But did you all know that C.W. McCall got his big break in advertising? Yes, C.W. McCall (Bill Fries) was the Don Draper of Omaha, Nebraska. He was the creative director of the firm Bozell & Jacobs and he created a Clio-Award winning ad campaign for "Old Home Bread."
Here is a vintage Old Home Bread Ad from 1973. Sheer genius. This ad campaign sold a lot of loaves of bread.
Now if you are like me and listen to a lot of Mannheim Steamroller music at Christmas time, well this will really blow your mind. McCall (Fries) worked with a man called Chip Davis. Who would go on to to form Mannheim Steamroller and sell tens of millions of beloved Christmas albums.
In fact, Chip Davis was the co-writer of the hit song "Convoy" and I believe he came up with the line about "Was the dark of the moon on the sixth of June in a Kenworth pulling logs...Cab-over Pete with a reefer on and a Jimmy hauling logs..."
Now that's a far cry from his synthesized version of "Deck The Halls" wouldn't you say?
Now Chip Davis produced most all of C.W. McCall's hits (and he had a passel of them).
Anyway, that's all I have to say in this particular post. You would not go wrong on this Friday night pulling down some C.W. McCall albums off of iTunes (or however you stream) and giving them a listen.
Yep, I remember “Convoy”. I recall how CB radio was popular around that time, and the song sort of tied in with CB radio, in that truckers were big users of CB.
I prefer Jackson Berkey, who formed Mannheim Steamroller with Chip Davis, to Chip Davis. It seemed that Davis was the business genuis of Mannheim while Berkey was the musical genuis.
Jackson Berkey is still writing and recording and is an amazing pianist.
Loved their musics since FreshAire I!
One of the greatest stanzas of any song. Ever. LMAO.
Now we've been every place between here and South Sioux,
And we've seen us a truck-stop waitress or two.
But this gal's built like a burlap bag full of bobcats,
She's got it to-gether.
If anyone wants a laugh you can check out CW’s follow up to Convoy. It’s called Around the World with the Rubber Duck. The song picks up on the Jersey Shite where “Convoy” left off. Hint...even though the Convoy is backed up “clean clear to the shore”...they go EAST, folks.
Sorry...meant Jersey SHORE not shite
The last of the era of the ‘Independent’ truckers. Notice how that industry got wrecked by the government? I’m confident the Unions didn’t help either (join or we’ll bust your head). Used to be anyone with the means could go out; purchase a rig; get whatever load and drive as long as they needed or wanted to, to deliver.
L8r
I heard Convoy on satellite radio yesterday.
That Denis Leary’s rant was awesome. Now I have to go check out other clips by him.
I wrote down some more great lyrics (below).
It is SO refreshing watching the flirtation between CW and Mavis, her charming suggestive smile, and the ballad lyrics. Nothing like men and women being men and women to melt your heart. Obviously nothing remotely like that could be made today, much to our detriment.
Says it's cold outside, betcha yer truck won't start
Ya know what they say, cold truck, warm heart
Well, she threw me a look that'd melt the crust off a half loaf of Old Home BUttertop
Well it snowed six feet up at telephone coast [can't quite make this out]
But Mavis and me stayed warm as toast
At the Old Home Fill 'Er Up & Keep On Truckin' Cafe
Yeah, Old Home is good bread
He had a big hit with “Roses for Mama” also. A sad one.
Easy mistake to make ;-)
Right with you. Black as crude is how I like mine. Cant stand all the double this and extra extra that crap.
He did have a lot of others but this was the best one.
We gotta mighty steamroller,
Squashing through the night!
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