The song itself is a folk-blues standard, which dates back at least to late 19th century minstrel shows. In any case, the Byrds version is for me definitive; it is one of the great regrets of my adult life that the Floor Models never got around to covering it.
I bring it up, however, because it (the song) figured prominently in an episode I saw last week of Shakespeare and Hathaway, the hilarious British detective show currently airing on Ovation on Saturdays. The plot involves a rich guy's spoiled dog who gets kidnapped, and...well, it's too complicated to get into in these precincts, but here are the titular characters doing a slightly less polished version.
I should add that Jo Joyner, the adorable blonde who plays Luella Shakespeare, is my new big-time media crush. Let's just say she can sing that song to me any old time.
2 comments:
Wow 2 weeks ago, we were at lunch with a group of people and one woman said there was a record she had been searching for for years by a local artist (Donald Leace) that had her favorite song from her childhood "Old Blue". Took me just a few minutes to find it on Discogs, ordered the lp, ripped it to cd, and gave it to her last week. I much prefer the Byrds version though.
Steve, recently jumped into Hathaway and Shakespeare on our local PBS station.
Regarding McGuinn, his country interests have always been that jewelers loupe when it came to interpreting Americana.
Rob
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