Sunday, December 02, 2012

Laughing with Nashville's golden age parodists

"I remember when I was a lad What a fine baseball team we had. Folks would come from miles around to see us play. We played the Redsox, beat their sox off, we played the Redlegs, beat their legs off, we played the Astros, ... but it rained that day."
I can't remember laughing so much while making TACOS as I did last night.
That's because I was listening to the wonderful and wacky songs of HOMER & JETHRO.
Think of the duo as Weird Al Yankovic precursors from Nashville's golden age.
"Daddy played first base, Mama played second. Brother and sister were the catcher and the pitcher. Shortstop was a good old Boy Named Sue. Three big,  home run hittin' guys out in the outfield shaggin' flies. Brothers Art and Bart and cousin Far-go, too."
Henry "Homer" Haynes and Kenneth "Jethro" Burns satirized popular songs, skewering everybody from Johnny Horton ("The Battle of Kookamonga," instead of "The Battle of New Orleans") to The Beatles (a version of "I Want to Hold Your Hand" with more shin kicking than the original).
The pair were lauded for their efforts -- they won a Grammy and were inducted into the COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME.
Their schtick worked for two reasons: Both were marvelous musicians and Burns -- who penned most of their songs -- was an outstanding humorist.
Their songs had me laughing last night. I've never laughed so hard making tacos.
"Out to the barnyard we would go  learnin' how to hit and run and throw. We had cows and horses all around the place. Once we laughed until we split when my daddy got a hit. He slid into what he thought was second base."

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