Sunday, April 8, 2018

The Homer & Jethro Project #19


So here's where shit gets tricky.
I had everything organized and numbered and then had a few more things drop into my awareness that I had to then retroactively fit into the system.

So for my purposes this is #18a but I'm going to add to my own confusion and label it here 19.

And to make it even more confusing it's a post of odditties/rarities




April 1953 - RCA 47-5263 - Jack Turner & his Granger County Gang - Hound Dog/ I Couldn't Keep From Crying

I know what the one or two of  you who are actually interested in this crap I'm posting are wondering.

Who's this Jack Turner and his Granger County Gang and what are they doing in a season's long post marathon about Homer and Jethro?

Well kids, they are Homer and Jethro recording under a pseudonym with a pair of straight songs.

The first is a cover of the Leiber and Stoller song that was a huge hit for Big Mama Thornton in 1952 called "Hound Dog" that you may be more familiar with as a cover by some other dude who had an even bigger hit with it in 1956. El something, I think.

B side is a Marty Robbins song "I Couldn't Keep From Crying" that was a Top 10 Country hit for him in 1953.

And just to make shit even more confusing RCA did actually release more records by a totally different artist named Jack Turner who released one single as "Jack Turner & his Ranger County Gang" a few years later.





And then a few months after I originally set this particular post in the queue I finally managed to score this 45 which pretty much completed my H & J shebang with all the stuff that I am aware of as originally released. It's the second single they put out under the Jack Turner name.

The A-side is a song that as near as I feel like looking up was done by Jim Reeves called "Butterfly Love" I think I can honestly say that I actually kind of prefer the original's tempo more than our heroes version, but there is some nice guitar work.

The flip is a straight take on "Gambler's Guitar" which was penned by Jim Lowe and something akin to a hit for Rusty Draper in 1953. They would go on a little later to do another version as Homer and Jethro where they take some of the piss out of it, but you, gentle downloader will have to wait for the 23rd installment of this shit show to sample some of that mess.







1952(?) - Radio Appearance

I'm kind of guessing on this, but I suspect this is on the Red Foley Show on Saturday morning radio in the early part of the 50's. It's kind of a cool window into the time and a glimpse at how Homer and Jethro sounded live and the jokes they used. (and frequently used again and again.)
It came on a bonus Cd with the other 78rpm transfers somebody made me years ago. Not the best sound, but good enough as a bootleg of 50's radio.

They give us a quick run through of a few of their more recent releases and call it a day like true recording professionals.

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