The Homer & Jethro Project #15

I've got a croissant warming in the oven.

#15

July 1951 - RCA 48-0484 - She Loves to Cry/Knock Kneed Suzy

Our boys and June Carter share another side in what was proving to be quite a busy year of releases for them. In this one June is the star and the boys are there to back her up as she poses as a proto-Goth in love with her own misery.

Do they make gingham in black?

B side is credited to June Carter & her Bashful Rascals which does not seem to include Homer & Jethro but is the band with which she had previously recorded her version of  Phil Harris' hit of 1950 "The Thing".  In this number poor old "Knock Kneed Suzy" is so pitiful and homely that she decides that in order to get married she has no choice but to settle for an equally aesthetically displeasing gentleman by the name of Snaggletooth Sam because it's the 50's and that's the only way either of them is going to get laid.

And so the circle of life continues with the likelihood of even uglier children in the future.

August 1951 - RCA 47-4239 - Sound Off No. 2 (the Duckworth Chant)/I Love You a Thousand Ways No. 2

With the end WWII only a mere six years previous there had apparently passed at least enough time for some aspects of the draft to become memories that one no longer had to take quite so seriously, like boot camp and marching drills. And since most people have really terrible senses of rhythm there are chants to help keep the recruits in step such as the Duckworth Chant.

So in 1951 Vaughn Monroe and his Orchestra does the big band version and scored something akin to a hit with a proud version just bursting with patriotic pride.

Homer and Jethro take a slightly different bent and probably one much closer to their own experience and point of view as one of the schmucks out there sweating their asses off marching up and down in a field.

On the flip side it's their recording of Lefty Frizzell's "I Love You A Thousand Ways". In Homer and Jethro's recording their gal is so homely that it's actually a much sweeter song that they can find it in their hearts to stomach her in any way, let alone 1K's worth.