Country/Western Songs

[deadwoodgultch]

Actually Cowboy songs. With all due respect to numerous songs and singers(Frankie Lane, Marty Robbins, and others), this one released in the year I was born was the billboard #1 that year.

(Ghost) Riders In the Sky
Vaughn Monroe

Peak Billboard position # 1 in 1949
Monroes' version, as well as competing versions by Peggy Lee (# 2), Bing Crosby
(#14), and Burl Ives (# 21) were all charted as just "Riders In the Sky"

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyDNnQbbkSQ

[quincannon]

The guy who wrote that song was an ex-park ranger named Stan Jones, who went on to write many more including Clooney's "This Old House" some of the songs for Ford's Rio Grande, along with Dale Evans, and appeared in that movie as a bit player. I think he also appears in The Searchers as well, and wrote some of the music for that movie, Wagonmaster, and two or three others in the late 1940's through the 50's.

Best version is by The Son's of the Pioneers, and in later years The Son's of Some Damned Valley in California That I Can't Spell. You find a lot of Jones' material in the SOTP songbook.

Next thing you know it will be discovered that Bob Will's reversed the music to Spanish Two Step becoming San Antonio Rose and that Wills and Duncan wrote words to a year or so later and Crosby covered into a big hit for himself. Fats Domino owes his first big hit to Gene Autry, and Rudolph's nose was not all that bright

[yanmacca]

Tom you ain’t heard nothing until you heard this, wow this is seriously bad!
P.S. See if you can spot a young Harrison Ford.

link

[Beth]

What! No one likes the Blues Brothers version of Ghost riders?

Ian that video was an absolute blast from the past. At least half of those actors were found all over Tiger Beat Magazine back when I was the age when I would actually read Tiger Beat.

[yanmacca]

Beth you are welcome, that movie was one last weekend so I recorded it because it said that it was about seven Texans who ride to the east to fight in the civil war, so with that information I knew I had some wine in the fridge so last Saturday I waited for everyone to turn in, then I settled down with a few snacks and a few glasses of wine to enjoy the movie, but I was left wanting and I gave it 2/10, I am waiting for the red badge of courage to be repeated.

Actually I have found the red badge of courage on youtube, it is the full movie and the picture is excellent, so I may acquire it and convert it to DVD format, and there is my Saturday night sorted.

[quincannon]

Which one Ian, the one with Audie Murphy or the one with Richard Thomas.

Actually I think both of them stunk, but I read the book.

The one with Murphy should have had the technical advisor shot. Infantry soldiers are wearing the crossed musket insignia (not the bugle as would be appropriate for the time) and the soldiers themselves looked all too neat, like they just stepped out of a recruiting poster.

The one with Thomas was better in that regard, but in my opinion Thomas does not have the gravitas to pull off that role, and he was much too old for the role when the movie was made.

It is, after all, the allegorical story of a youth (representing a young nation) and his first of combat in a war and the cause behind the war that was far bigger than self. The young soldier is the "every man" and the emotions of the story are the emotions of the "every man"

Crain was a drunk, a narcotics addict, and a libertine of monumental proportions, but in that one book he captured the essence of combat and the emotional toll it takes.

[yanmacca]

Chuck, Audie Murphy.
I am not sure if I have seen the Thomas version, but if its anything like the remake of "all quite on the western front" which also starred Thomas, then I hope he has done a better job with the RBoC.

[BrevetorCoffin]

Richard Thomas was also cast in the lead for a remake of All Quiet on rhe Western Front. Ernest Borgnine was cast as well. As you can imagine, Borgnine shined, Thomas wilted IMHO.

Have to agree with QC. Thomas was a good actor but never had the chops for heavy roles.

Best,

David

[quincannon]

In a way both Thomas and Borgnine never outgrew their first notable roles. Thomas will always be John Boy Walton to most of the American public.

Borgnine had some great roles over the length of his very long career in both film and TV, but all were anticlimactic to Marty.

[yanmacca]

The first time I ever laid eyes on Borgnine was when he was trying to kill Sterling Hayden in the film the last command, he was good in the wild bunch though.

[BrevetorCoffin]

Aug 6, 2016 4:15:29 GMT quincannon said:

In a way both Thomas and Borgnine never outgrew their first notable roles. Thomas will always be John Boy Walton to most of the American public.

Borgnine had some great roles over the length of his very long career in both film and TV, but all were anticlimactic to Marty.

"Mama, I'm an ugly little man."

[dave]

Kitty Well's classic It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels released in 1952 is classic country music gold. She hit the nail on the head then and it has not changed one bit 54 years later.
Regards
Dave

Enjoy www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKleTa94dC8

[quincannon]

Yes, but in an era of response songs, which 1952 was, what song was she responding to, and who made the record?

Feeling the warmth of comradery as I try to barely here myself think during our afternoon monsoon, I will give you a hint. The record was made by one of the top three western swing bands of all time. It was not Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, and they are/were the very best, but another that held the title Best for I think about ten years running. The record was also made in 1952.

[dave]

QC
You are good! Not many folks knew she was singing a response song. Hank Thompson's The Wild Side of Life was one of the top selling songs in that era. I figured only an ole red neck like me would have enjoyed these pearls of the 50's.
Regards
Dave

Enjoy www.youtube.com/watch?v=2e9gZ9fyoZg

PS She mentioned the Wild Side of Life in the second verse of her song.

[quincannon]

I was a citified red neck before you were born.

Wild Side of Life it is, but you forgot The Brazos Valley Boys, the ones that made Thompson, Thompson.

A couple of my favorite by Thompson are Gloria, and Oklahoma Hills, and he had two really great live albums, State Fair of Texas and Cheyenne Frontier Days.

Not quite Bob Wills and the Playboys, but mighty damned close.

The two songs together were music marketing gold in 1952.

Never cared for Hank Williams but I loved Ernest Tubb and Webb Pierce.

********************************************************************

OK, lets see how good you are.

********************************************************************

1) The first line is "I knew a boy named Ramblin Bob"

Name the song and the primary artist.

2) The first line is "T for (where) and T for (where), and T for (who), that woman made a wreck out of me"

Then name the song and the primary artist.

3) A partial line in the song is "I could ( do what?) across Texas"

4) "Music makin mama from (where)" , then by who, and what was the name of his band?

BONUS QUESTION - If you get this one you will be forgiven by the Almighty Himself for every sin you have committed, are presently committing, or plan to commit anytime in the future.

"Here's a man that knows where the Santa Fe goes when she gets under steam. A big loud bell that sounds a fond farewell, can you hear that whistle scream. She bound to go where there ain't no snow a fallin" .............................................

What is the name of the song? Who wrote it? Where and under what conditions was it written? Who recorded it first, and you must use the original name of the group, not the one they were later  known as? And finally what person of later note was in that band, again using the name he went by at the time, not the one he later became known as?

To be perfectly fair with you Dave I must tell you that while ancient, but not that ancient, there was a radio program on WAMU in DC hosted by the late Jerry Gray that was a history of country and western music format for about four hours every Saturday afternoon for many, like at least 15 years, that I either never missed, and when not home my kids recorded for me on 8 track so I could listen later. Gray also did afternoon drive time Bluegrass daily. Listening to that show was like an audio history book. I understand all of his tapes still exist, and was told that the Smithsonian was negotiating their purchase. You would be in Hillbilly Heaven listening to them