The Homer & Jethro Project #40

Like a biblical flood we have reached at last the forty post mark

And it's a live one.

Literally so.

January 1960 - lsp-2161 - At the Country Club

So here we are at the dawn of the 1960s and all the tumult that would come and Homer & Jethro kick it off with a live record.

This is one of the first ones of theirs I heard and I think that's one of the reasons I became a fan in the first place. Comedy as a rule tends to have a short shelf life. Topical stuff that's hilarious one year is passe the next and sometimes the things that seemed funny twenty years ago are just cringe inducing watching in later years. (I'm looking at your "M.A.S.H." and "Cheers") This one for the most part still works. A lot of it has to do with timing and delivery. They honed their chops and their schtick over years and years of live work and seem to generally be enjoying themselves.

Perhaps you'll enjoy yourself too.

For this particular record I've taken the liberty to split it up into individual tracks with songs and comic interludes between songs. That way you can just listen to the musical portions without the talking bits if you so choose. It just seemed like the polite thing to do.

Listen and absorb. Soak in it a bit. Let words and phrases from it seep into your normal conversations. It's good for you

The Homer & Jethro Project #39

#39

At long last.
We are at the tipping point, people.
We can finally make the switch to an alternating day format for the posts which when I think about it doesn't really mean squat for me since I'm typing this stuff up like six months ago and whether it is set to post on one or the other day doesn't really change anything, but you know. It is what it is.

You simply have an extra day to digest the previous day's musical selections.

Lucky you.

March 1959 - RCA 47-7493 - Middle-Aged Teenager / Don't Sing Along (On Top of Old Smoky)

A side is something I can relate to whenever I go out and realize I could be the parent of most of the people cluttering up the fucking place taking selfies and pictures of their food as if anybody gives a shit what they ate. I just don't feel old until I move.

B side. Old old folk song. You know it. You have your own alternate lyrics. They may or may not be an improvement on those provided by  H & J.

August 1959 - RCA 47-7585 - Battle of Kookamonga / Waterloo


A side began life as an historical song by Jimmy Driftwood (also responsible for "Monkey and the Baboon" in the previous post) about "The Battle of New Orleans" which was a hit for Johnny Horton. (He'd die in a motor vehicle accident a couple years later.)

As for the single in question here:

A full four years before nebbish shmuck Allan Sherman would strike novelty song gold with the Summer Camp classic "Hello Muddah, Hello Faddah" Homer and Jethro remade the Johnny Horton hit into their own lesser known Summer Camp Classic which they featured in a movie called "Second Fiddle to a Steel Guitar" in 1965 to little or no success.


B side is a take on Stonewall Jackson's song "Waterloo" which predates the much more enjoyable song of the same name by Swedish musical juggernaut ABBA. Perhaps Stonewall needed a nice sparkly lame' jumpsuit to really push it over the top. Something really ballsnug to make a definitive statement.

For their part Homer and Jethro understand the song is about hubris.
They have enough to spare and have met their Waterloo many times before us. Everybody has to meet theirs. You too someday.

Amen.

The Homer & Jethro Project #38

#38

Stand back boys.

It's Long Player time again and this time it's in Living Stereo

January 1959 - LSP-1880 - Life Can Be Miserable

It's 1959 at last and RCA had discovered stereo. Lots of wide stereo pans and instruments in one channel and music in the other. Enjoy the sound of 1959.

So...
To  cut down on my typing, which even I'm sure enough that you're not really reading anyway. (and why would you. It's dribble.) I'm just going to link to the originals without comment where applicable in the list.
 Does that work for you?

Oh Lonesome Me
Life Can Be Miserable
There's an Empty Hanger in my Closet Tonight
The Drafted Volunteer
Don't Monkey Around My Widder
She Went and Gone Away
Love is the Craziest Thing
Have I Told You Lately That I Love You
Oh That's Terrible
I Don't Think My Gal Loves Me Anymore
I'll Go on a Diet Tomorrow
The Monkey and the Baboon

The Homer & Jethro Project #37

I'll be right back.
I think the time is right to crack the seal on that new bottle of Tyrconnell Whisky.
Now's a good time for that.
Not because of the quality of the post that follows. No.
That's every bit as crap as they've ever been.

I just suddenly remembered it was there.
Two fingers and a splash and we're good....

February 1958 - RCA 47-7162 - At the Flop / My Special Angel


There. That's much better.

Oh yeah, this post.

So Elvis wasn't the only Rock and Roller that Homer and Jethro attempted to emulate as the world's oldest teenagers. There was this single too.

A side is their take on doo-wop chicken shaker "At the Hop" as recorded by Danny & the Juniors which was a top hit the #1 slot in January of 1958 and so full of youthful hormones that you might want to wash your hands thoroughly after listening to it and keep the black light off.

For Homer & Jethro things don't work out so well. Perhaps they need some of those testosterone enhancing pills that get shilled on late night tv. (Probably better than goat ball implants, but still...)

B side. More drear in the form of "My Special Angel". This time originally committed to wax by Bobby Helms who probably lived a solid middle class lifestyle on the proceeds. I commend him for that, but damn it's god awful white bread crap that probably lead to more than a few heavy petting sessions and unfortunate trips to out of state doctors.

Homer and Jethro have no respect for it.
Additional commentary from Chester Atkins behind the board for emphasis.

August 1958 - RCA 47-7347 - I Guess Things Happen That Way / Lullaby of Bird Dog

They did so well with the previous single that they didn't release another single for another six months. And this is what it was.

A side "I Guess Things Happen That Way" was a hit for the future Mr. June Carter, Johnny Cash. I wonder what happened to that guy?

The song was written by Jack Clements who took over production & engineering duties at Sun Records after founder Sam Phillips made his first million and decided not to work so hard.

B side started life as a song that has become a jazz standard. "Lullaby of Birdland" written by George Shearing for his Quintet in 1952. (Birdland being a popular NYC Jazz Club.) George David Weiss provided lyrics which then gave the song a second life and a hit for Ella Fitzgerald despite the vocal group behind her. She swings like rhino testes though. Great song.

Homer and Jethro have a more canine take that is another of my particular favorites.

The Homer & Jethro Project #36

I'm still not feeling up to snuff, but shit needs to happen.
Other projects and things are getting set aside while I work on this.

How sad is that?

#36

June 1957 - RCA 47-6954 - Ramblin' Rose / Gone

A side is a song called "Ramblin' Rose" that is not the one by that spicy as a nursing home potato salad singer Perry Como in 1948. It's also not the one that Nat King Cole sang in 1962.  Neither is it the one that the MC5 kicked out the jams on in in 1969. (There's also a Grateful Dead song with that name that may or may not be one of the other ones mentioned. It's the Dead. I won't listen to the Dead. I don't want to get angry tonight.)

So as far as you or anyone else knows it's an original for our boys.

B side "Gone" was a dreary ballad hit for Ferlin Husky who has a lot of other stuff to recommend him, but certainly not that tune. An abysmal turd of a song.

H & J cut it down into palatable bite size chunks while mocking it. A noble effort for a song that was already a mockery of itself by existing.

Did I mention, I don't like the Ferlin Husky original?

September 1957 - RCA-47030 - My Dog Likes Your Dog / Kentucky



 "My Dog Loves Your Dog" is from the 1934 edition of George White's Scandals and was introduced on screen in the movie version by Alice Faye and Jimmy  Durante (who like Abe Vigoda looked ancient even as a young person). This isn't really that song.

It looks like another enterprising couple of songwriters were perhaps *cough* inspired *cough* by that 1934 song to write this little number 23 years later when one or more copyright holders might have died and or forgotten their investment.

Their totally original and not the least bit plagarized song was a jumping rhythm and blues song recorded by the Cupids as "My Dog Likes Your Dog".

In the updated song the dog really likes to spend time with the other dog, but just isn't ready to commit to a full time relationship right now. You know, they like, just got out of something heavy which didn't end well and, you know,  they're not really ready yet for a monogamous deal. There's stuff they need to work out first. You understand. Maybe just, like,  just a dog park with benefits kind of deal. See where it goes from there. You know?



B side "Kentucky" was originally written and sung by Karl & Harty in 1941. There doesn't seem to be a version I can link to so I'll link you to them fawning over the Atomic Annihilation of Japan to end WWII.

In 1958 the Everly Brothers recorded their really sweet version of "Kentucky" on the lp "Songs Our Daddy Taught Us". (Presumably the Elder Everly didn't know enough songs about Nuclear Destruction for a full album so they went with this one.)

Homer & Jethro do a fairly straight rendition interspersed with by a backup singer interjecting some musical asides using a familiar tune that I'm currently blanking on. My own tottering steps to senility starting to kick in..