This song and Hot Rod Lincoln were part of my childhood on AM radio. Love the guitar they put in both songs. The song was written by Merle Travis and Tex Williams. Tex sang the song, which went to number one for 16 non-consecutive weeks on the Hot Country Songs Charts.
The band formed in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the late 1960s, centered around pianist and singer George Frayne, who went by Commander Cody. Cody was obsessed with jump blues, western swing, honky-tonk, boogie-woogie, and the kind of records that sounded like they’d been played to death in roadside bars. The “Lost Planet Airmen” weren’t a gimmick; they were keeping that music alive.
The song itself dates back to the 1940s, a country lament about addiction long before the word was fashionable, but Cody and the Airmen turbocharged it. That rolling piano and the rhythm section swing instead of stomps. Commander Cody delivers the lyrics as a cautionary but also a sing-along.
When Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen cut their version in the early 1970s, they were reviving the forgotten corners of jump blues, western swing, and boogie-woogie. Commander Cody covered the song, and it peaked at #94 on the Billboard 100 and #97 on the Country Charts in 1973. It is somewhat of a novelty song, but a novelty song done right.
The band’s style mixed country, rock, western swing, rockabilly, and blues together. This song sounded similar to their other hit song Hot Rod Lincoln from the year before. Decades later, it still feels like a late-night radio find, the kind of record that makes you turn it up, grin like an idiot.
Smoke Smoke Smoke (That Cigarette)
Now I’m a fellow with a heart of gold
With the ways of a gentleman I’ve been told
A kind of a fellow that wouldn’t even harm a flea
But if me and a certain character met
That guy that invented the cigarette
I’d murder that son of a gun in the first degree
That ain’t that I don’t smoke myself
And I don’t reckon they’ll injure your health
I’ve smoked ’em all my life and I ain’t dead yet
But nicotine slaves are all the same
At a pheasant party or a poker game
Everything’s gotta stop when they have that cigarette
Smoke smoke smoke that cigarette
Puff puff puff
And if you smoke yourself to death
Tell St Peter at the Golden Gate
That you hate to make him wait
But you just gotta have another cigarette
Now at a game of chance the other night
Ol’ Dame Forson wasn’t doin’ me right
Them kings and queens just kept on comin’ round
Well I got a full and I bet it high
But my plug didn’t work on a certain guy
He just kept a risin’ and a layin’ that money down
He’s raise me and I’d raise him
I sweated blood I had to sink or swim
He finally called and he didn’t raise the bet
I said “aces is full pal how about you?”
He said “I’ll tell you in a minute or two
But I just gotta have another cigarette”
Smoke smoke smoke that cigarette
Puff puff puff
And if you smoke yourself to death
Tell St Peter at the Golden Gate
That you hate to make him wait
But you just gotta have another cigarette
The other night I had a date with
The cutest gal in the fifty states
A high bred uptown social little dame
She said she loved me and it seemed to me
That things were like they ought a be
So hand in hand we strolled down Lover’s Lane
She was oh so far from a chunk of ice
And our smoochin’ party was a goin’ real nice
So help and I think I’d of been there yet
But I give her a hug and a little squeeze
And she said “Willie excuse me please
But I just gotta have another cigarette”
Smoke smoke smoke that cigarette
Puff puff puff
And if you smoke yourself to death
Tell St Peter at the Golden Gate
That you hate to make him wait
But you just gotta have another cigarette
Smoke smoke smoke that cigarette
Puff puff puff
And if you smoke yourself to death
Tell St Peter at the Golden Gate
That you hate to make him wait
But you just gotta have another cigarette
Just gotta have another cigarette
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I think some folks thought of CC and his LPA as a parody after Hot Rod Lincoln (or “Seeds and Stems”, which is simultaneously a brilliant parody and an authentic crying in your beer song) – but when “Hot Licks, Cold Steel, and Trucker’s Favorites” came out, it was pretty clear they took this music (but maybe not themselves) seriously – it was an homage, not a parody.
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Commander Cody is yet another example of a name I’ve repeatedly heard over the years but never explored any further. Vocally, reminds be a bit of a blend of Dr. John and Leon Russell. Even musically, I could have seen any of the two perform this cool song!
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