Badfinger (Max)

Hank Williams – Jambalaya (On the Bayou)

Hank Williams only lived to be 29 years old. It’s hard to believe because he wrote so many classic songs during his short recording career. “The Hillbilly Shakespeare” was one of his nicknames.

He had not been in a studio for 6 months but this song brought him back. He recorded it on June 13, 1952, in Nashville. There was speculation that Hank Williams co-wrote the song with a gentleman named Moon Mullican. Williams had the sole credit but it has been said that Williams’s publishing agent Fred Rose stepped in and wanted William’s publishing company to get the credit and the money. It has been said that Rose possibly paid Mullican so he wouldn’t have to split the publishing with Moon’s label King Records. Williams got the inspiration for the song while listening to Cajuns talk on a bus trip.

The melody is based on the Cajun song “Grand Texas.” The song peaked #1 on the Country Charts for fourteen, non-consecutive weeks. The song also peaked at #20 on the US Billboard Most Played By Jukeboxes. Hank Williams was born with spina bifida occulta, a disorder of the spinal column and he killed the pain with narcotics and alcohol. If you look at pictures of Williams he looks much older than in his twenties, especially in the last year of his 29 on earth.

Before his death, he had been known to take morphine and drink heavily. On New Year’s Day 1953, he took his seat in the back of his 1952 powder blue Cadillac. As his driver, college student Charles Carr, headed toward a New Years show in Canton, Ohio, Williams’ health took a turn for the worse. Finally, after not hearing from the singer for two solid hours, the driver pulled the car over in Oak Hill, West Virginia, at 5:30 in the morning. Williams was pronounced dead a short while later.

Hank Williams was a genius when it came to songwriting. He influenced so many genres of music from Johnny Cash, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, and many more. He left a huge mark on the world in such a short time.

Williams was among the first class of artists inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1961, and in 2010, the Pulitzer Board awarded him a special citation for songwriting.

Charles Carr, the teenager who was driving Williams to his concert:

“Hank’s song ‘Jambalaya’ was just out on the radio and he asked me what I thought of it, I told him I didn’t care for it, that it didn’t make a bit of sense to me. Hank laughed and said, ‘You son of a bitch, you just understand the French like I do.

“We were just a couple of young guys on a car trip having fun.”

My favorite version of this song was by John Fogerty.

Jambalaya (On the Bayou)

Goodbye Joe me gotta go me oh my oh
Me gotta go pole the pirogue down the bayou
My Yvonne the sweetest one me oh my oh
Son of a gun we’ll have big fun on the bayou

Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and filé gumbo
Cause tonight I’m gonna see my ma cher amio
Pick guitar fill fruit jar and be gay-o
Son of a gun we’ll have big fun on the bayou

Thibodaux Fontaineaux the place is buzzin’
Kinfolk come to see Yvonne by the dozen
Dress in style and go hog wild me oh my oh
Son of a gun we’ll have big fun on the bayou
Settle down far from town get me a pirogue
And I’ll catch all the fish in the bayou

Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and filé gumbo
Cause tonight I’m gonna see my ma cher amio
Pick guitar fill fruit jar and be gay-o
Son of a gun we’ll have big fun on the bayou

Later on, swap my mon, get me a pirogue
And I’ll catch all the fish on the bayou
Swap my mon, to buy Yvonne what she need-oh
Son of a gun we’ll have big fun on the bayou

Jambalaya and a crawfish pie and filé gumbo
Cause tonight I’m gonna see my ma cher amio
Pick guitar fill fruit jar and be gay-o
Son of a gun we’ll have big fun on the bayou

No Nonsense Know How…. NNKH Youtube Channel

No this is not the name of a new or old band. It’s a youtube channel that I’ve been hooked on. As I’ve said before, my first car was a 1966 Mustang and when I was 16 it was the key to my universe. I was a traveling man always keeping the roads hot. If something went wrong with my car…I could always fix it with the help of my brother-in-law who knew about cars. He would not just fix something…he would show me how to do it and I would get it done with his help. I’m so thankful he didn’t try to take over…he taught and I retained most of it.

As far as cars go…once we got into the mid-90s…that all stopped as cars became complicated. My current position is Director of IT…but that doesn’t help jack s*** with modern cars. All the computer boards, chips, and sensors…they are so small under the hood you have to be a contortionist to change your oil now. Ok…let me get to the point of this youtube channel.

This guy named Chris will go to junk yards or where ever and find a car that hasn’t run in 20 years or so and spend some time on it…and make it run. That is amazing to me. Added to the entertainment value is his girlfriend Jen, her dog Gus, and a squirrel they saved named Leo. He usually picks older cars and I’ve been watching his channel for at least a month and a half now. I have an old 1984 Chevy Durango S-10-type truck that we used for trash mostly. It’s been sitting for 4-5 years and with the tips, I got from him…I got it at least started again.

In one episode he, Jen, and Gus fly to Las Vegas and buys a 1974 Grand Torino Elite sight unseen…it hasn’t ran in 15 years…he gets it running and they drive all the way back home to Pennsylvania in the car…fixing things as he goes.

Now…it inspired me to be on the lookout for my dream car…a junk one that I would like to fix up…a 1968-1972 Opel GT. I do have a mechanic friend so yes I do have some help. I would not do that on just youtube videos but Chris is an artist on cars. He doesn’t spend big money either…he doesn’t always throw money at problems. He also doesn’t buy supercars…he buys cars that ordinary people would buy at good prices. He is highly entertaining and very down to earth including Jen.

He also does this to boats, motorcycles, heavy equipment, and about anything with wheels. His videos are usually 45 minutes to an hour long. The trip to Las Vegas is a two-parter and it’s around an hour each. One Bulldozer that he gets running hadn’t been running since 1985!

The channel is Nononsenseknowhow

The Las Vegas Videos

The Plymouth Fury Video

The Caterpillar Bulldozer Video

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Little Richard – Ready Teddy

Ready, set, go man go, I got a girl that I love so.

What else do we need to have a great rock and roll song? Not exactly Shakespeare but Shakespeare couldn’t write Gonna kick off my shoes, roll up my faded jeans, Grab my rock ‘n’ roll baby, pour on the steam. The song was written by John Marascalco and Robert Blackwell with probable help from Little Richard. Most Little Richard songs are like a shot of adrenaline…this one is no different.

This was originally a B-side to Rip It Up. Little Richard claimed to have helped write this song but he said he didn’t have the business sense at that time to demand credit. He said: “They brought me the words and I made up the melody, and at the time I didn’t have sense enough to claim so much money, because I really made them hits. I didn’t get the money, but I still have the freedom.”

The song peaked at #44 on the Billboard 100 and #8 on the R&B charts.

The song is about a girl who wants sex… a ready teddy. Like most of Little Richard’s songs, this contains a lot of innuendoes but most people were too busy listening to the music to notice or didn’t get the reference. If sex had a voice…it would be Little Richard.

This song was covered by a lot of artists including Buddy Holly, The Tornados, Elvis Presley, Tony Sheridan, and others. Elvis did this song on one of his Ed Sullivan appearances.

My dad told me about Little Richard before I ever heard him. He said he had the biggest voice he ever heard. He talked about a song called Long Tall Sally. I first heard it…it blew me away. Such a raw emotional power in that voice. He would take us to the edge of the cliff and then at the last minute pull us back.

His voice was one of a kind…