The adventures and semi-coherent ramblings of an overworked, middle-aged, libertarian-leaning, corporate drone who is immensely proud of his girls and his long-suffering wife. With maybe some gun stuff, travel stuff, cooking stuff, genealogy stuff, and other manly pursuits.
"We had a meeting, and we drew straws, and we got you." "You got me? What do you mean you got me?" "If you get killed, we take the rifle and avenge you." "And we see to it that there's always fresh flowers on your grave."
And they did. More:
"That's a mighty big comfort." "I told you he would appreciate that." "Well now, don't you kids be too disappointed if your plans don't work out." "We won't. If you're still alive we'll be just as happy." "Maybe even happier." "Maybe."
Damn, there is so much good stuff in this movie! Maybe more quotes another time.
Well, I'll tell you. Had a nice Christmas. Got a new mini-video camera. Will be seeking out some reactive targets in the near future.
Then went to the ranch for a couple of days of quail hunting with Daughter Number One. Only got one quail, though. They were few and far between, and nearly all were flying at more than 50 yards away. Also fired off my new piece for the first time. Very fun.
Then picked up my new lenses, still getting used to them. Turn my head the wrong way and the world goes a bit swirly.
Then took Daughter Number Two out to the Indian Casino today. She won a few bucks, I won a few bucks, the Sainted Bride lost more than we won. Still, a good time was had by all.
And in what's left of my vacation (the next five days), I plan to do some reloading and a little bit of movie watching. Picked up three DVDs at Borders yesterday. This one, this one, and this one.
I've seen the first, it's spectacular and I wish to own it and see it again.
The second, I've seen part of the remake with Kirk Douglas, Jason Robards, and Darren McGavin. Though, in reality, no fiction can beat the true story.
The third? Never seen it yet, but I've wanted to for a long time.
Anyway, that's what's happening here. How about you?
And The Great and Powerful Iowahawk excoriates a thieving duchebag for stealing the post (Note: as of this morning, said duchebag has posted an attribution to Iowahawk - fear the might of The Great and Powerful Iowahawk!)
And more, The Great and Powerful Iowahawk has used Officer Vic's voice-over and added some great video to go with it (so I have removed my poor attempt). Go there and watch it!
First off, I never knew how old the song "Java Jive" was. Daughter Number Two and friends performed it in high school, and just this evening I learned that it was originally (I think) recorded by the Ink Spots in 1940. I learned this because I was searching in the Mills Brothers, who were (sadly) somewhat eclipsed in the public consciousness by the Ink Spots in 1939 when they were trapped oversees by the outbreak of WWII. Mills Brothers post coming soon, if I remember.
Anyway, DNT (and friends)'s version was very much like this one:
And then, for some "stream of consciousness" reason, my mind wandered to math and the Klein Four. Found lot of good stuff, including their signature tune:
Not only that, I found this:
And this:
And, in the spirit of the Christmas season, this one:
First screen: A couple of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band references (Cadillac Ranch and one I will embed below) plus a bonus Emmylou Harris, which (surprisingly - NOT!) prompted me to search on something else. Oh well, Youtube is too smart for me. So I'll go with the flow.
Here's one of the NGDB's rock 'n' roll tunes, tearin' up the highway like a big ol' dinosaur:
Followed by a lovely (and ALL-STAR) version of this lovely song (can't be certain, but I think one of the folks is Vassar Clements, who played with the NGDB on their original recording of the song):
And here's the Emmylou Harris connection: Before she became well-known on her own, she was backup for Gram Parsons. He had lots of good stuff but my favorite song of his is this one:
Oh, and just for fun, a couple of NGDB favorites.
"American Dream:"
And one of their best, written by THE GREAT AND POWERFUL BANJO GOD EARL SCRUGGS, but only one of many great tracks on one of the greatest albums of all time (have a listen to the samples in that link if you doubt me). "Randy Lynn Rag":
But I clicked on Youtube, and as I described in the earlier post, I got an interesting mix of "recommended". In this case, an Andrews Sisters rendition of "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar".
Well. The first time I ever heard that song was some thirty years ago, and the performer was Commander Cody and the Lost Planet Airmen. Which made me think of some of my other Commander Cody faves. Unfortunately, I couldn't locate a Youtube vid of "Lost in the Ozone", at least, not the song I was looking for, only a different song by some heavy metal group called Motorhead.
Fortunately, I was able to find a couple of other CCatLPA faves:
Seeds and Stems Again Blues:
And, of course, their signature tune:
I really need to track down the original version of that song. But not tonight.
UPDATE: Okay, tonight. I found it on Youtube. Turns out that Charlie Ryan passed away just this year in February at the age of (about) 92. RIP, man, we love you. Meantime, here is Charlie singing "Hot Rod Lincoln". Compare the lyrics to Commander Cody's remake above.
Click through on the video to read the story about the song itself. Pretty cool.
And empirically so, as a good scientist should do.
Well, I think they are answered. I don't own a Ruger Redhawk, nor a Super Redhawk, but I think I can answer the questions anyway.
Hokay, kids, so here's the problem. It is technically possible to fan a single-action revolver. Now, I'll grant the idea of laying down a lot of firepower, but six don't much do that in my mind. Still, I'll grant the concept. But having just played with my 1851 Navy SA revolver (I don't have an 1873 SA Army, though I'd like to) I don't think it's useful to do so.
As I mentioned, I don't own a Ruger Redhawk (or Super Redhawk) but I think the argument still applies. For one thing, I don't think it's possible to fan, without doing major (and painful) damage to one's hand, a DA revolver. Just the shape of the hammer would rule that out.
Beyond that, I have to assume that the Ruger DAs and the Smith and Wesson DAs are similarly configured (I don't know that this is so, but it's likely). As it happens, I own a S&W DA revolver, in .44 Mag. So I pulled it out and played with it. It seems that, if the trigger is not held back, cocking the hammer will revolve the cylinder to the next cartridge and be ready to shoot.
HOWEVER: After that first shot (which, BTW, is necessarily either DA or "cock, then pull the trigger"), if one holds back the trigger and attempts to "fan" the revolver (which, empirically, hurts like hell on the left hand) the hammer goes back and falls on the previously fired shell casing, it does not revolve the cylinder to the next cartridge. I don't have detailed knowledge of the revolver's mechanism but after firing, if one does not release the trigger, cocking and releasing the hammer does NOT move the cylinder.
Bottom Line: If one tries to "fan" a DA revolver, (1) the first shot is necessarily DA (or at least, "cock then shoot" SA), and (2) "fanning" in the usual sense is impossible, because you will be dropping the hammer on an expended cartridge.
... is to give the Youtube search function a nervous breakdown. I think I'm almost there.
Everytime I go to Youtube, I get a small selection of "Recommended for You" videos offered. And everytime I do so, it looks WAY different from the last one. One time I get a bunch of Big Band vids, next time I get some Bob Rivers Christmas stuff, next time I get some Western themes, next time I get the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and George Carlin.
So far, no recommendations from my Dwight Yoakum search I can see, but speaking of Dwight Yoakum, I just love this song. Enjoy:
Gads, I love that song.
And here's another that will help to freak out Youtube:
Y'all know that my C/W tastes tend toward the older folks like Marty Robbins, Johnny Cash, and Merle Haggard, but these are a couple of more modern gems.
Well, actually two minor observations. Well, two-and-a-half or three (depending on how you score the REALLY stupid one) but only one-and-a-half relate to The Magnificent Seven.
So I'm sitting here sipping some Sierra Nevada and I watched the vid of the The Magnificent Seven trailer again. Way cool, of course. But once again, I was struck by the silly cinematic nonsense. It seems that Robert Vaughn and the Young Dude (whose name I can't remember and don't want to look up, too lazy) are the only ones who can handle a six-gun properly.
Okay, in fairness, I didn't actually notice James Coburn and Charles Bronson, nor the other guys whose names escape me at the moment and I don't want to look them up, doing stupid crap in the trailer. But given their characters (and on-screen personas) I can certainly believe they would do this stupid crap.
So what stupid crap, you ask? I'm glad you asked.
Stupid Crap #1: This one is half a point. At 45 seconds into the trailer, Steve McQueen pops up from behind a wall and shoots from the hip. Dude, I know you're good and all that, but there's a reason that guns have sights.
Stupid Crap #2: Fanning. Good Lord, are Hollywood people that ignorant of handguns? Apparently so. NO ONE, and I repeat for the hopelessly revolver-naive, NO ONE can fan a single-action revolver and hope to shoot anywhere near accurately. Steve McQueen does it at 23 seconds in, and You Brynner does it at 27 seconds (and there are probably other examples I didn't scan for). Yeah, I know it looks cool on the big screen, but not to people who know anything about single-action revolvers.
Notice how I mentioned "single-action" twice? This brings us to the biggest dumbass thing I've ever seen on a screen that involved revolvers. And it's why I left open the possibility that it might get more than one "Stupid Crap" point.
Stupid crap #3 (and this one is REALLY Stupid Crap): Back in 1979, there was a TV show that came out called "240-Robert", starring Mark Harmon and John Bennett Perry and Joanne Gleason. Cop/paramedic show about the LA County Sheriff's Department. Mostly good fun, I like cop and paramedic shows that have good writing. This one was average as such shows typically go, but mostly good fun.
But here's what got me: in one episode, maybe the first, Mark Harmon (a Sheriff's Deputy) is at the firing range and not doing well on the targets. In the Grand Tradition of the Sundance Kid, he asks the rangemaster if he can "move" (not the actual words Harmon's character used but close enough for rock and roll). He then dives, rolls, comes up, and fans his service revolver, blitzing the target with all six shots (all six left AFTER missing several shots, BTW).
He was shooting a Ruger Redhawk. 10 Lo-cal MBP points to anyone who can explain in the comments why this scene gets such scorn from me.
Fortunately, I've never yet seen anyone on (or off) screen try to fan a semi-auto.
Interstate 80 is closed because of snowfall in the Sierra Nevada, with the westbound freeway shut to all vehicles at Colfax and eastbound lanes closed at the Nevada-California state line.
Um, Colfax is west of the high part of the Sierras and the state line is east of it. I'm expecting to see a lot of traffic backed up right in the snow.
So the Lovely and Talented Aelfheld (a frequent commenter somewhere, though I can't remember just where, possibly at Blair's) commented on my Youtube vid posted here that it was originally from Iowahawk, and so it is.
I'm more than happy to set the record straight (and to excoriate "Mike" for stealing it without attribution) and will forthwith, and with due diligence and all due speed, forward to the Lovely and Talented Officer Vic for proper attribution.
Seriously, though, I am really surprised I didn't see it at Burge's place. I read his stuff pretty religiously.
Backstory: Thirty-some-umpty-ump years ago, "Mad Magazine" had a bit called "Don't You Hate..." or something along those lines. One of their cartoons was on the order of "Don't You Hate... when the TV bleeps something that wasn't anywhere near as bad as what you imagined was bleeped?"
Well, yeah. That's how it usually happens.
Case in point: Just this evening I happened across a video from 1969, one part of which had originally been bleeped on the public airwaves. Turns out, not only was the bleeped part not all that bad (hell, I've actually heard it on TV, no less, in the intervening years), it was actually what I had suspected it was all these years and nowhere near as bad as I had always hoped.
Rock on, JC.
N.B.: For the record, despite what the Youtube post says, this is NOT the original radio version, I'm pretty sure, unless perhaps it's a version I never heard that was the original radio version before I ever heard the radio version I heard. Or something like that. There is a whole verse missing early in the song ("Well he must have thought it was quite a joke..."). Not that it detracts from the crux of this post. But still...
Mostly overviews, there may be more depth another time. One module was on a particular type of manufacturing strategy. I've loved this term since I first heard it.
Had a bit of snow on the way home from work. That's not so unusual, my usual route gets a dusting or two pretty much every year, at least at the higer elevations above the road. Had some above the road on the peaks last night on the way home, much lower tonight.
This one was odd, though. No snow on the road or on my side of the valley except a teeny little bit still clinging in a few spots by the inner shoulder. Across the valley, though, there was a significant smattering across the hills, at least what I could see of them below the cloud cover. But at one particular part, the snow was dusted across the mountainside well below my elevation, at least 200 feet below, I think. It's almost as if it snowed in one spot but not the surrounding hillsides, and only on that side of the valley.
Spent the whole work day in a class, will do same tomorrow. Yeah, it seems like a pretty valuable class, but I'm shagged out. And the Sainted Bride is out tonight on a school function, so I'm sitting here eating soup and wondering what to do for a post. So I thinks to myself... BOB RIVERS!
Pokemon:
Louis Armstrong:
This one I had never actually heard before searching on Youtube:
Lenses, that is. I'm bowing to reality and age, and going with the progressive lenses this year. Being extremely near-sighted, I can take the glasses off to read but why bother? These lenses (in theory) will give me distance distance, computer distance, and up-close-reading distance.
Such is the theory.
Also, I'm going to more stylish, symmetrical frames for my main glasses this time, a change from the aviator-shade-style frames I've worn for the past 25 or 30 years. But I'm keeping the aviator "Ray-Ban" style for my sunglasses. Which is as it should be. And which was the reason MacArthur and Thompson came up before. I mentioned to the (lovely, BTW) eye doctor lady that I need my sunglasses to look like Doug MacArthur/Hunter Thompson. Because I'm just that way.
Well, I didn't have any kind of time to search down or draw appropriate illustrations for this video, so I just used a picture of the Lovely and Talented Officer Vic:
My goal is to try to turn this into a video to upload tonight and upload it to Youtube. Our local RWDB radio station had received a satirical car commercial text by email, and the talented on (Officer Vic) turned it into a great commercial spot, and played it on the radio. They're not going to post it on their website, but OV kindly sent an mp3 along so that I can upload to Youtube. And I'm going to give it a shot this evening.
Meantime, here is the text. Enjoy.
It's in the way you dress. The way you boogie down. The way you sign your unemployment check. You're a man who likes to do things your own way. And on those special odd-numbered Saturdays when driving is permitted, you want it in your car.
It's that special feeling of a zero-emissions wind at your back and a road ahead meandering with possibilities. The kind of feeling you get behind the wheel of the Pelosi GTxi SS/Rt Sport Edition from Congressional Motors.
All new for 2012, the Pelosi GTxi SS/Rt Sport Edition is the mandatory American car so advanced it took $100 billion and an entire Congress to design it. We started with same reliable 7-way hybrid ethanol-biodiesel-electric-clean coal-wind-solar-pedal power plant behind the base model Pelosi, but packed it with extra oomph and the sassy styling pizzazz that tells the world that 1974 Detroit is back again -- with a vengeance.
We've subsidized the features you want and taxed away the rest. With its advanced Al Gore-designed V-3 under the hood pumping out 22.5 thumping, carbon-neutral ponies of Detroit muscle, you'll never be late for the Disco or the Day Labor Shelter.
Engage the pedal drive or strap on the optional jumbo mizzenmast, and the GTxi SS/Rt Sport Edition easily exceeds 2016 mileage standards. Even with increased performance we didn't skimp on safety. With 11-point passenger racing harnesses, 15-way airbags, and mandatory hockey helmet, you'll have the security knowing that you could survive a 45 MPH collision even if the GTxi SS/Rt were capable of that kind of illegal speed.
But the changes don't stop there. Sporty mag-style hubcaps and an all-new aggressive wedge shape designed by CM's Chief Stylist Ted Kennedy slices through the wind like an omnibus spending bill. It even features an airtight undercarriage to keep you and a passenger afloat up to 15 minutes -- even in the choppy waters of a Cape Cod inlet.
Available in a rainbow of color choices to match any wardrobe, from Harvest Avocado to French Mustard. Inside, a luxurious all-velour interior designed by Barney Frank features thoughtful appointments like an in-dash condom dispenser. A special high capacity hatchback holds up to 300 aluminum cans, meaning fewer trips to the redemption center. And the standard 3 speaker Fairness ActoPhonic FM low-band sound system means you'll never miss a segment of NPR again.
Best of all, the Pelosi GTxi SS/Rt is made right here in the U.S.A. by fully card-checked unionized workers and Detroit 's famous visionary jet-set managers. Even if you don't own one, you can enjoy the patriotic satisfaction that you're supporting the high wages, good benefits, and generous political donations that are once again making the American car industry the envy of the world..
But why not buy one anyway? With an MSRP starting at only $629,999.99, it's affordable, too. Don't forget to ask about dealer incentives, rebates, tax credits, and wealth redistribution plans for customers from dozens of qualifying special interest groups. Plus easy-pay financing programs from Fannie Mae.
So take the bus to your local CM dealer today and find out why the Pelosi GTxi SS/Rt Sport Edition is the only car endorsed by President Barack Obama. One test drive will convince you that you'd choose it over the import brands. Even if they were still legal.
So after the other stuff I needed to do, I topped off my day with my annual (rather, biennial, I'm kind of bad about this stuff) eye exam. While looking at frames for new glasses, the names Douglas MacArthur and Hunter Thompson came up.
Go figure.
Anyway, separated at birth? You decide:
[UPDATE: Hmm. Still haven't quite figured out this formatting stuff. Click on the picture to see the whole thing]
And for extra, meaningless bonus points, try to figure out exactly why these names came up. Hint: It ain't the smoking apparatuses... apparati... apparata... pipe or holder.
Actually, I'm not engaging in schadenfreude, I felt really bad last night for the people on the local freeways who still had to travel beyond my town. Also for those who didn't but were still stuck in the backup just trying to get this far.
Three big rigs closed two of four lanes east of town on the evening commute route. At Oh-noon-thirty. Finally opened sometime after 7pm. Backed up the freeway for more than twenty miles. More than two hour delays on the freeway. The only upside for them is that probably the rest of their commutes, once they got past the scene of the carnage (kidding, news says no major injuries, just spilled fuel), there was probably clear sailing.
Fortunately for me, I don't take that particular freeway (coming into town from a different direction), and I normally take a back road to escape the freeway that feeds into the clogged one (which was also pretty badly clogged, far worse than even the normal parking lot it becomes in the afternoon). Got to town having escaped that mess, but got into a backup on the surface streets. This clog was so bad that it clogged the surface streets for several miles, at least the main ones that carry commuters.
Fortunately for me again, I could avoid this backup by going straight instead of turning onto the commute road (skirting the edge of town) I routinely take. But then I hit another backup on another big commute street.
Fortunately for me again, I was able to turn left (against the commute backup), then wind through the neighborhoods to get home, being fairly close. In actuality, I suspect this last backup was a separate incident because I could see some emergency lights on the street a few blocks down as I turned, and what I could see of this street as I paralleled it a few blocks away looked like the traffic broke up.
Still, looks like I missed a bullet on the commute last night.
But today karma caught up with me at work. Sucked to high heaven. But at least the commute, even at the late hour I finally got out of work, didn't suck to high heaven. But I suspect karma will still be a bitch with attitude tomorrow. And will suck to high heaven.
And then I remembered (after some searching, that jogged my memory) that the particular song I was looking for by the Incredible Awesome That is Stan Freberg wasn't. It was actually The Incredible Awesome That is Allan Sherman.
I am so ashamed. I blame it on the age. And the alcohol.
Anyway, here are two takes on a Christmas classic. Please do listen to both all the way through, the particulars tend to change a mite with each verse.
The Incredible Awesome That is Bob Rivers:
And The Incredible Awesome That is Allan Sherman:
For you youngsters not familiar with The Incredible Awesome That is Allan Sherman, please do search on him. He is teh funny.
And for no particular reason, here is a Bill Engval Christmas video ("No sir, that's ZZ Top doing a Farm Aid concert"):
The best thing about the Bobster, of course, is how he does very specific parodies of particular versions of songs. Whether it's a particular version of a traditional Christmas song by a particular artist, or a non-Christmas song parodied with Christmas-style lyrics, he never disappoints. One of my goals in life is to purchase one new Bob Rivers Christmas CD each year. I have fulfilled this goal for the past two years.
And so, without further ado, here is some more Bob Rivers goodness:
And here is another:
And another favorite (with a modern, reasonable admonition):
And I can respond properly to the Dear Ricki with a few of my favorite Bob Rivers songs. What a genius this guy is. I can't find the intros for the first two, and don't feel like searching for the lyrics (I posted them before at 'Pints) but they are stand-alone on their own.
The Chipmunks:
The poor little Angel:
And of course we can't forget Bob's plugged-in tribute to The Savior:
So after a hard day of spreadsheets and meetings, I was sipping on a stein of God's Own Brew and surfing the webster. Came across Ricki's post with a video of "Walkin' 'Round in Women's Underwear" and I was inspired, so I started a-Youtubin' for more Bob Rivers. The man is a genius. But he will have to wait.
See, I didn't get far yet. In my splashpage of "Recommended for You" vids was an Andrews Sisters selection, one I hadn't heard before. Tres cool, especially since it's largely related to Harlem, for which you will have to wade through the rambling nonsense below because it's just that good and you need to work for your reward by reading this post. Because working for rewards is good for you. And because I said so.
Anyway, it reminded me of something I wanted to blog about a while back but didn't. When I embedded the video of the Lovely and Glorious Dorothy Dandridge with the Glenn Miller Band, I meant (and forgot) to mention how unusual it was back in the '30s and '40s for white and black acts to appear together. Glenn Miller must have been a hell of a guy to do that in the era of Jim Crow. Anyway, I meant to say that but forgot.
Even better, this particular Andrews Sisters video has Abbott and Costello in it, which also reminded me of something I meant to blog yesterday (when it popped into my head for some reason I can't remember). This was a bit from some Abbott and Costello movie whose title I forget. They were on a south Pacific island, and the (admittedly sexist, but still funny) exchange went something like this:
Abbott: These native girls are really pretty, I may just marry one of them.
Costello: Not me, I'm going to marry a homely girl.
Abbott: Why do you want to marry a homely girl?
Costello: A pretty girl can run away.
Abbott: A homely girl can run away.
Costello: So what?
Yeah, terribly sexist joke, but you gals can turn it around and swap sexes if you want.
Okay, kids, you've suffered enough. Here are the Andrews Sisters:
UPDAYE: Ha! Wolfwalker reminds me of an old R'n'R song in the same vein as that Abbott and Costello bit. Surprised I didn't think of it when I wrote the original post:
I never took that advice, of course. Married a pretty, beautiful lady. Which is why I do a lot of cooking and food blogging...
No particular reason to ask, except for thinking of the story after reading Ricki's post. Well, there's also the fact that I've a genteel sufficiency* of God's Own Brew.
So the story is that some gummint (I think it was) biologist came to Red Bluff or environs to give a talk on managing deer herds. This was back in the 1950s, possibly the 1940s, I was never certain of the timeframe. The scientist/expert/whatever made some comment that "deer don't eat grass".
Grandpa stood up and said something along the lines of, "Well, I've seen deer out on the plain a long way from trees. Out in the middle of the grass. The deer were there, the grass was there, and the deer had their heads down, and if they weren't eating grass, what were they doing?"
Heh. Grandpa. God Love Him.
*Genteel sufficiency** - Another family story I may tell some time. Remind me, though, to keep kicking myself (as I have done for so many years) at not having captured all these family stories on tape of Mom and Dad and Auntie and Grandpa and Uncle Jack telling them. I don't retell them well.
**Just learned that the phrase may have originally been from Rudyard Kipling's Kim, after reading HH - shades of serendipilipity!
Tracy neighborhood shocked by kidnapping, torture allegations
TRACY — The teenage boy stumbled into the sprawling fitness club wearing only boxer shorts and a heavy chain padlocked to his ankle. Covered in dried blood, bruises, burns, feces and urine, he begged the club's assistant manager to hide him, then curled into a fetal position under the front counter and kept saying, over and over, "They're going to come find me."
And weirder still.
Third suspect in Tracy torture case arrested in Berkeley
Meanwhile, the 17-year-old boy, who is still a ward of the state, has been turned over to the Sacramento County Child Protective Services Department. He's been discharged from Sutter Tracy Community Hospital and is expected to be transferred to another medical facility, possibly in Sacramento County, officials said.
Jeebus. Just look at these freaky-looking creeps and at the failure inherent in the system:
Caren Ramirez, 43, pleaded no contest in Sacramento last year to abusing her nephew, but authorities say the teenager somehow wound up living with her again - this time, in a Tracy home owned by Michael Luther Schumacher, 34, and his wife, Kelly Layne Lau, 30. The couple were arrested Tuesday on suspicion of kidnapping, torture and other felonies.
So, following on the Marty Robbins Trivia Post (which, by the way is still open; operators are standing by), I just thought of another lost verse. It's one that Marty didn't sing, but Hank Williams and the Sons of the Pioneers did, and I never heard it until I picked up my Hank Williams CD some many months back.
Come to think of it, that was when I learned that the Hankster sang this song too. And later I learned that the Sons of the Pioneers did too. And both of them before Marty.
Anyhoo, here is the single question from this "lost verse":
Dan's feet are sore he's yearning for just one thing more. What?
Yeah, man, I do understand how the old, tragic cowboy ballads can be a downer. So here is one that's not a downer, it's even uplifting. And even better, I can find an embedded video to follow the lyrics by! Lyrics after the video:
Well he walks out in the arena all dressed up to the brim Said he just came down from a place called Highland Rim Well he said he came to ride the horse, the one they called the Brute But he didn't look like a cowboy in his continental suit
We snickered at the way he dressed but he never said a word He walks on by the rest of us as if he hadn't heard A thousand bucks went to the man who could ride this wild cayuse A meaner horse was never born than the one they called the Brute
The horse that he was lookin' for was in chute number eight He walked up very slowly put his hand upon the gate We knew he was a throughbred when he pulled a sack of Dukes From the inside pocket of his continental suit
Well he rolled himself a quirly and he lit it standin' there Blew himself a smoke ring and he watched it disappear We thought he must be crazy when he opened up the gate Standin' just inside was fifteen hundred pounds of hate
The buckskin tried to run him down but the stranger was too quick He stepped aside and threw his arms around the horse's neck And he pulled himself upon the back of the horse they called the Brute Sat like he was born there in his continental suit
The Brute's hind end was in the air his front end on the ground Kickin' and a squealin' tryin' to shake the stranger down But the stranger didn't give an inch he came to ride the Brute And he came to ride the buckskin in a continental suit
Well I turned around to look at Jim and he was watchin' me He said I don't believe the crazy things I think I see But I think I see the outlaw the one they call the Brute Ridden by a cowboy in a continental suit
The Brute came to a standstill ashamed that he'd been rode By a city cowboy in some continental clothes The stranger took his money and we don't know where he went We don't where he came from and we haven't seen him since
The moral of this story never judge by what they wear Underneath some ragged clothes could be a millionaire Everybody listen don't be fooled by this galoot This sure enough bronc buster in a continental suit
Why "Fifth String"?
Well, I pretty much plug along on the same note like a good little drone, but I'm everywhere the action is and if I weren't there, things would fall apart.
