Saturday, September 2, 2017

Webb Pierce - In The Jailhouse Now

1960s rock and rollers had a well deserved reputation for excess - flashy clothes, flashy cars, and dependence on mood-altering substances.  But they were Johnny Come Latelies, since Webb Pierce established these in the 1940s when he was the #1 charting country artist of the decade.

His suits were famously garish (the one shown in the video here is probably the most conservative in his wardrobe).  He had not one, but two convertibles lined with silver dollars.  He had a $30,000 guitar shaped swimming pool put in his yard in Nashville (this was $30,000 in the 1950s, perhaps a quarter million dollars in today's currency) that was so famous that 3,000 people a week paid cash money to see it.

And he was a honkey tonk country singer in the 1940s - yes, he was familiar with the bottle.  But the hard living and flashy lifestyle didn't do him in.  He ended his years like a lot of people, in his golden years.  And still living n his house.

His version of this Jimmie Rodgers song spent 37 weeks on the charts in 1955, 21 of them at #1.



He's In The Jailhouse Now (probably songwriter: Jimmie Rodgers):
I had a friend named The Ramblin' Bob
He used to steal, gamble, and rob
He thought he was the smartest guy around
Well I found out last Monday
That Bob got locked up Sunday
They've got him in the jailhouse way downtown
He's in the jailhouse now
He's in the jailhouse now
Well I told him once or twice
To stop playin' cards and a-shootin' dice
He's in the jailhouse now
Ah di o-dalee eehee dee-o ti
Ah di o-dalee ee oh dee-o ti
Yodelayee-hee
Yodelayee-hee
Yodelay-eeee
Bob like to play his poker
Pinochle, whist and euchre
But shootin' dice
Was his favorite game
But he got throwed in jail
With nobody to go his bail
The judge done said that he refused the fine
He's in the jailhouse now
He's in the jailhouse now
Well I told him once or twice
To stop playin' cards and a-shootin' dice
He's in the jailhouse now
Ah di o-dalee eehee hee
Ah di o-dalee eehee hee
Yodelayee-hee
Yodelayee-hee
Yodelay-eeee
Well I went out last Tuesday
I met a girl named Susie
I said I was the swellest guy around
Well, we started to spendin' my money
And she started to callin' me honey
We took in every cabaret in town
We're in the jailhouse now
We're in the jailhouse now
I told that judge right to his face
I don't like to see this place
We're in the jailhouse now
Ah di o-dalee eehee o hee
Ah di o-dalee eehee deeo ti
Yodelayee-hee
Yodelayee-hee
Ah Yodelay-eeee

1 comment:

  1. That's a great song.

    It might be blasphemy, though, but my favorite version of that song is the one from Johnny Cash.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbfN8ogTfgw

    ReplyDelete

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