Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Your Wednesday Moment of Words Fail Me: Special Buddy Knox is Very Depressed Edition

From 1956, mind you. Apparently, Buddy's party doll gave him the brush.



I realize that death songs are an old and honored tradition in what we refer to as the rock-and-roll field, but I didn't suspect until a few weeks ago that they had rockabilly origins quite this explicit.

[h/t Todd Everett]
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12 comments:

  1. Anonymous7/30/2014 10:40 AM

    Hello all...no, please remain seated,


    Interesting record. My first thought was...hey I thought the Elton John song on Honky Chateau was an original! Different songs.

    But,you want a death song? I'll give you a death song...it's called Gloomy Sunday. Here the Mel Torme version:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=379hN4TmGEY

    Lyrically, the narrator contemplates killing himself in order to join his departed lover. Mel is at the hight of his (considerable) powers and Paich's jazz arrangement is top flight. Get a load of Jack Sheldon's trumpet solo.

    The capper? The original title of this tune, apparently, was "Hungarian Suicide Song". I mean, how could you NOT want to give that a listen?

    regards,

    RichD

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  2. buzzbabyjesus7/30/2014 12:34 PM

    Then there's always "Psycho":

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftOCvwrygCI

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  3. steve simels7/30/2014 12:50 PM

    Wow.

    Seriously--wow.

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  4. Noam Sane7/30/2014 2:21 PM

    I blame Morris Levy.

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  5. edward7/30/2014 7:11 PM

    Gloomy Sunday and Psycho...Both covered by Costello. Hmmm

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  6. TJ7/30/2014 10:48 PM

    That's Jack, just an excitable boy

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  7. cthulhu7/31/2014 12:48 AM

    Well, there's Richard Thompson's Psycho Street, which details all kinds of goings on of the mordant kind. Saw him play it live, during an acoustic show, six months before the CD came out. (He also played 1952 VBL, which also had not been released yet.). Certainly one of the more bizarre songs in RT's oeuvre...

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  8. Brooklyn Girl7/31/2014 12:02 PM

    Then there's Leonard Cohen's "Dress Rehearsal Rag" ---

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  9. Anonymous7/31/2014 3:45 PM

    Nick Cave - The Curse of Millhaven

    That Jack Kittel song was a huge hit out here in the Inland Empire circa 1973-1974. Then Dr. Demento got hold of it and the rest is history. I don't like Elvis Costello's cover of it. It's weak.

    It'd be cool for him to do live with Jackshit, though.

    Vickie Rock

    Got a story about Richard Thompson too. It involves my boobs, bootlegging, Bathsheba, faulty microphones and changing clothes in the parking lot. It's a long tale. Let's just say that Richard made me feel more uncomfortable than I've ever felt in my life. And we both kinda enjoyed it. Perhaps he more than me. I hope he writes a song about it one day. Cuz that's all I'm tellin'.

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  10. Alzo8/01/2014 12:27 AM

    I'll put my pop historian hat on and posit that the Rockabilly regard of death comes from the postwar biker and hot rod subcultures we see in 'The Wild One' and 'Rebel Without a Cause.' ...not forgetting Nervous Norvus.

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  11. Anonymous8/01/2014 2:08 PM

    can't be sure but that great guitar solo was almost certainly played by Don "Dirt" Lanier who I found out passed away 7-23-14.

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  12. Anonymous8/02/2014 5:10 AM

    The cold hard facts of life, Dolores.

    http://www.divshare.com/download/25908125-5fa

    http://www.divshare.com/download/25908180-533

    Vickie Rock - gliding down from the moon

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