Joe Tex month day 17: Dang Me/Show Me! The Joe Tex/Roger Miller connection

"If I were a silly grin, I'd like to be worn on Roger Miller's face."

-Joe Tex-

Buddy Killen was the Joe Tex/Roger Miller connection. He was lifelong buddies with Miller, brokered several of his record deals, managed his publishing and sat the crazy laughing ADD genius down to complete his songs.

According to "I Love You Drops" singer Bill Anderson, "Roger would come in with seven or six lines of a song. It'd be something fabulous, and Buddy would just have to almost take him and chain him to the table to make him finish."

Killen was also one of the snappers on the giant Miller hit "King of the Road".

Joe Tex covered three different Roger Miller songs throughout his Dial career, and it wasn't just the fact that  Killen helped make them the successful artists they were that made them simpatico. Both singers managed to say deeply profound things in often ridiculous contexts, and conveyed both happiness and humor in their performing style in a way that is absolutely captivating and infectious. And they were both funny as do-wacka-do.

JT covered "King of the Road" on The New Boss, "Half a Mind" on I've Got to Do a Little Bit Better, and "Engine Engine #9" on Soul Country.

And on Hold What You've Got, he wrote his own Roger Miller homage/parody, "Are We Ready?", the last verse of which goes out to Newt Gingrich.

Joe Tex with Buddy (right) and journalist Charles Lamb (center)

And just because it's too long to wait until Roger Miller Month, here's Roger and Johnny Cash.

I just told myself a dirty joke!

For more information on Roger Miller and Buddy Killen, check out the informative bio on the official Roger Miller website.

Roger Miller - A Man Like Me

Roger Miller - A Man Like Me (2:28)

Here's a stellar Decca honky-tonker that Roger recorded in late 1958, featuring the great Johnny Paycheck on harmony vocals. The rest of the guys on the session were from Nashville's fabled A-team.

Roger Miller - Vocal
Owen Bradley - Leader
Hank Garland - Guitar
Donald Eugene Lytle (Johnny Paycheck) - Guitar, harmony vocals
Jack Evins - Steel guitar
Joe Zinkans - Bass
Buddy Harman - Drums
Tommy Jackson - Fiddle
Floyd Cramer - Piano

This track, the photo above and all the session details were borrowed from Bear Family's excellent A Man Like Me CD that compiles all of Miller's recordings from 1957 - 1960 and features Deke Dickerson's liner notes that provide insight into Miller's many talents.

Ruby Wright - "Dern Ya"

Ruby Wright - "Dern Ya"

    As you may recall, the headmistress of this institution posted Jody Miller's "Queen of the House" a couple of days ago. Ms. Miller is okay, I guess, but she's never been a personal favorite (I prefer Mrs. Miller). And while "female vocalists performing Roger Miller-themed answer records" is not a crowded field, I'm afraid that, to my ears, the best she can hope for is second place.

    I assert that the clear winner in this race would be none other than Ruby Wright, whose destiny would seem to have been predestined, given that she sprang from the loins of Kitty Wells, the singer of perhaps the greatest answer record of all, "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky-Tonk Angels." And of course, her father was none other than Johnnie Wright, of Johnnie and Jack fame (as well as a distinguished solo career). 

     While she had earlier recorded as part of the trio Nita, Rita, & Ruby ("Nita" being Anita Carter and "Rita" being Ruby Winters, sister of Don Winters), and would perform with her parents on stage and on their TV show through the years, Ruby only had one big hit, as featured above. It was written by another scion of Nashville royalty , Justin Tubb (who was an ex-roommate of Roger Miller's!), and was also recorded without chart success by faded '50s pop singer Teresa Brewer.

     While assembling material for my various Miller-related posts for the month, I was going through one of my myriad souvenir booklets of country star photos and discovered a forgotten one with a bunch of autographs on the back page, presumably acquired at an appearance by the Kitty Wells/Johnnie Wright Family Show. They include Ruby, her parents, her brother Bobby Wright, fellow member of their show Bill Phillips, fiddler and Jimmy Martin sideman Vernon Derrick, bass fiddle player Bill Yates (I think this is the right guy) and Chris Warner (this is my least certain I.D., but all of these last three seem to have played with Jimmy Martin , so I imagine he must have been on the bill with them backing him).

Ruby with Bill Phillips

And more, backing up her daddy in a number from SECOND FIDDLE TO A STEEL GUITAR

(Available on DVD from Time/Life!)

     Outside of Bobby's string of hits in the '70s, the family ceased to be a force in the recording industry, but remained popular as a stage act until Kitty and Johnny's retirement in 2000.  Sadly, Ruby never lived to inherit the mantle of "Queen of Country Music," dying in September 2009. Her father followed in 2011, leaving Kitty a widow after nearly 74 years of marriage. Their grandson still maintains their recording studio in Madison, TN.

Roger Miller on the Grand Ole Opry, Part Two

Technically, this is the wrong image, but it'll do as a placeholder

Roger Miller - "King Of The Road/Dang Me"

As I said last week:
     Today's selection comes from the record library of WCON in Cornelia, GA, where it was presumably played once, filed away, and forgotten until a few years ago, when I bought it in a stack of 50 or so Opry episodes at the J&J Flea Market in Athens.

      While neither the record nor the track listing sheet are dated, in his introduction on Program No.  231 (two weeks earlier), Bill Monroe had said that Miller would  have a TV show in the Fall, which dates this to somewhere between January and September 1966. On this episode, Roger is introduced by Hank Locklin, the host of the week. I've never found a lot of information about this syndicated version of the Opry, so I welcome any further data from you folks out there in Radioland.     These are the only appearances by Roger on the Opry that I have, but I'll probably be digging into them for some other surprises sooner or later. Don't touch that dial!

Roger Miller & Ray Price

Here's the great Ray Price belting out Invitation To The Blues, featuring some fine harmony vocals from Roger Miller, the song's author. Miller spent a year or so in the Cherokee Cowboys, Price's backing band.

Thanks to Gatorrock787 for the clip. He has the best YouTube channel going. Check it out.

Roger Miller on the Grand Ole Opry, Part One

Roger Miller - "Engine, Engine No.9" and "King of the Road"

     Today's selection comes from the record library of WCON in Cornelia, GA, where it was presumably played once, filed away, and forgotten until a few years ago, when I bought it in a stack of 50 or so Opry episodes at the J&J Flea Market in Athens.
     While neither the record nor the track listing sheet are dated, in his introduction, Bill Monroe says that Roger will have a TV show in the Fall, which dates this to somewhere between January and September 1966. I've never found a lot of information about this syndicated version of the Opry, so I welcome any further data from you folks out there in Radioland.
    Next week, we'll be presenting his segment from a return engagement three weeks later. Stay tuned!

Roger Miller Month: George Jones - Tall Tall Trees

Co-written by Roger Miller & George Jones

March Is Roger Miller Month On Ichiban

Roger Miller is one of my all time heros.  Second only to Rufus Thomas.  Let's get the biggest hit out of the way.

King Of The Road (mp3)

Roger Miller Ichiban

My fave Roger Miller track Husbands And Wives (mp3)

The Ballad Of Roger Miller

Homer & Jethro - The Ballad Of Roger Miller (2:33)

You know you've really made it when Homer & Jethro point their satirical daggers at you.

"Peggy and the Snowman By the Sea"

Roger Miller - "Got 2 Again"

     A clever enough gimmick song that probably went over pretty well live. Don't know if there are alternate verses, or whether he just used confederates in the audience to feed him the answers he was looking for (though the choices offered to the listener aren't really all that broad). 

     While unsuccessfully searching for an actual live recording, however, I found a fascinating discovery by one "MSSTUDIIOW." Listen and have your mind blown, man:

     Pretty trippy, huh?  Also, if you look at the cover of Words and Music By Roger Miller upside down in a mirror while striking yourself on the head repeatedly with a seasoned cast-iron skillet, you'll see the phrase "Paul is Dead, and I don't feel so good, either." Go ahead... try it!  Let me know how that works out for you.

POSTSCRIPT: I still couldn't find a real, live performance "in the wild," but I did find him performing it on The Dino Crocetti Show:

There's no significant deviation from the record here, but it's still worth a look.

Opry Almanac With Roger Miller! (Re-Post)

Opry Almanac on Network Awesome

 Ralph Emery hosted Opry Almanac on WSM-TV in Nashville from 1963 - 1966.  On this particular episode, guests Roger Miller, Charlie Louvin and Thumbs Carlisle had been out partying the night before.  The party is still going on during this early morning appearance on live television.

The band includes:

Jimmie Colvard: Guitar
Thumbs Carlisle: Guitar
Beggie Cruiser (Adair): Piano
Bobby Dyson: Fender Bass
Buddy Rogers & Jerry Allison: Drums 


Jerry Allison from the Crickets also makes a brief appearance on the show.  This may be the only footage in existance of Opry Almanac as most of the master tapes were recorded over or destroyed.  All the live commercials, weather and news are here as well as Thumbs Carlisle being played on stage to the Batman Theme!

.

Roger on Tour

My late friend Kurt Neiburg, former proprietor of Sound Trax Records in Clemson, SC, once told me about seeing Roger Miller live at an outdoor show on Bowman Field there when he he was a teen-ager*. As he described it, Roger was pretty drunk, and played his whole set while sitting precariously balanced on a stool. Thanks to Billboard's Music on Campus special issue (3/19/66; apparently not included in Google Books' Billboard archives) I can now confirm that Kurt attended this show on Monday, March 28, 1966. He would have been 13 at the time (Kurt, not Roger). It seems odd that they would have held an outdoor event like this on a Monday, but that's what he told me, and I'm afraid that follow-up questions aren't an option. I did check to see if I could find any corroborative evidence, but neither the local nor the college paper there are archived online, and I don't feel like traveling 80 miles and back again to check the microfilm for you folks. Sorry.

*Kurt also saw the Electric Prunes at the Anderson (SC) Civic Center, but I have no corroborative evidence to share at this time.

Roger Miller Month: Roy Clark - The Green Green Grass of Home

We posted a couple of different versions of this song by Joe Tex last month, so I thought it only appropriate that we post this Homer and Jethro-esque rewrite of "Green Green Grass of Home", written by Roger & Roy, and performed on the only really good Roy Clark album I know about, Roy Clark Live! on Dot, ca. 1972.

"That's Roger's.  I got it from him. I added a few lines to it but the whole premise of the song was his." Roy Clark

Green Green Grass

Jim Reeves Sings Roger Miller

Co-written with Bill Anderson in the back of Roger's station

 wagon on tour in Texas. Title inspired by the 1951 film 

version of the Philip Wylie novel.

Lloyd Thaxton and Billy Strange Pay Tribute To The Great Man

Lloyd Thaxton (1927-2008) did a variety of things in his long career, but he's best remembered for The Lloyd Thaxton Show, an American Bandstand-style music show that he hosted from 1961-67 in Los Angeles, with the last three years nationally syndicated. Here are some videos for you to check out if you're interested. He also has his name stuck on a number of records that that he had little or nothing to do with, including albums by the Challengers, the Knickerbockers, and Round Robin. The album pictured above is in a similar vein, being mostly instrumentals by Billy Strange... but not entirely! Unlike the other "Thaxton" albums, Lloyd actually turns up on both the album and a single drawn from it.

Lloyd Thaxton - "Tennessee Ska"

Unlike Bandstand, Thaxton's show also included comedy routines and sketches, and that's the side of Lloyd on display here, in a novelty tune that, despite its title, has no traces of anything resembling blue-beat. Lloyd and Roger Miller were pals (read about that in this 2006 posting from Thaxton's still-extant blog), and he pays tribute to his pal here both in tone and through both name-checking and directly quoting him.

Lloyd Thaxton (Presents) Billy Strange And Orchestra - "Chug-A-Lug"

The beloved West coast studio musician kingpin (and cousin of Glenn "Frankenstein" Strange!) gives us an instrumental rendition of Roger's hit.

Swiped from Mr. Thaxton's blog

BONUS! If you want to hear the rest of the album, fellow WFMU family member Kliph Nesteroff has it posted at his blog here.

Boss '65

 

With Mark Ehmcke

1. Eve of Destruction - Barry McGuire

2. Bring It On Home To Me - The Animals

3. I'm a Man - The Yardbirds

4. King of the Road - Roger Miller

5. Queen of the House - Jody Miller

6. Voodoo Woman - Bobby Goldsboro

7. I Can Never Go Home Anymore - The Shangri-Las

8. Wooly Bully - Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs

9. Steppin' Out - Paul Revere and the Raiders

10. Cara-Lin - The Strangeloves

11. The Name Game - Shirley Ellis

12. The Revolution Kind - Sonny Bono

13. What the New Breed Say - The Barbarians

14. Flowers on the Wall - The Statler Brothers

15. The Birds and the Bees - Jewel Akens

16. Bread & Butter - The Newbeats

17. Everybody Loves a Clown - Gary Lewis and the Playboys

18. It Ain't Me Babe - The Turtles

19. Less of Me - Glen Campbell

20. Look Through Any Window - The Hollies

21. You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling - The Righteous Brothers

22. 1-2-3 - Len Barry

23. The In Crowd - Ramsey Lewis Trio

24. Boot-Leg - Booker T and the MG's

25. I Hear a Symphony - Diana Ross and the Supremes

Forgotten 45s

 

With David Bruce

Rascals - You Better Run

Freddy Cannon - Odie Cologne

Bee Gees - My World

Jan & Dean - I Found A Girl

Virtues - Guitar Boogie Shuffle

Tokens - I Hear Trumpets Blow

American Breed - Bend Me, Shape Me

Jr. Walker & The All Stars - Cleo's Mood

Jerry Butler - I Dig You Baby

Willard Movie spot

Everly Brothers    - Muskrat

Soupy Sales - The Mouse

Drifters - Rat Race

Nutty Squirrels - Uh Oh Pt. 2

Vanilla Fudge Coke spot

Sandy Posey - I Take It Back

Johnny Rivers - Help Me Rhonda

Ike & Tina Turner - Tina's Dilemma

Turtles - Can I Get To Know You Better

Johnny Tillotson - Heartaches By The Number

Paul Revere Alias Pink Puzz spot

Robert John - If You Don't Want My Love

Bubble Puppy - If I Had A Reason

Freddie & The Dreamers - You Were Made For Me

Len Barry - Somewhere

Ronnie Dove - One More Mountain To Climb

Flares - Foot Stompin'

Bob Seger & The Last Heard - Heavy Music Pt. 1

Hollies - Pay You Back With Interest

Wayne Fontana - Come On Home

Todd Rundgren - We Gotta Get You A Woman

Chiffons - Nobody Knows What's Going On (In My Mind But Me)

Brook Benton Miller Beer spot

Dionne Warwick - I'm Your Puppet

Sandie Shaw - Puppet On A String

Cathy Carroll - Poor Little Puppet

Tom Jones - Puppet Man

NBC Roger Miller Show spot

Four Tops - Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young - Teach Your Children

Marketts - Batman Theme

Cream - Badge

Pin-Ups - Lookin' For Boys

A1 Slacks spot

Chuck Berry - Bye Bye Johnny

Monkees - Words

Caravan With Thumbs

Thumbs Carllile - Caravan (2:03)

If you're going to listen to only one country jazz version of Caravan today, I nominate the Thumbs Carllile version, recorded for the LP Roger Miller Presents Thumbs Carlille. Yes, his name was misspelled on the LP, as it often was throughout his life. At the time of the album's release, he was playing guitar in Miller's band.

And I hope you didn't miss the Thumbs video clip posted here the other day.

Country A Go-Go

 

With Debbie D

Tennessee Ernie Ford - Sixteen Tons ‘65

Link Wray & The Raymen - Batman

George Kent - Hello, I’m A Jukebox

Jerry Lee Lewis - Another Place Another Time

The Farmer Boys - I’m Just Too Lazy

Charlie Louvin - Cash On The Barrelhead

Jim & Jesse - Greenwich Village Folk Song Salesman

Billy Strange - 16 Tons

Charlene Arthur - Burn That Candle

Hank Snow - Any Old Time

Robert Mitchum - The Ballad of Thunder Road

Country Rockers - Driving Nails in My Coffin

Arkey Blue - Too Many Pills

Porter Wagoner - Rubber Room

Chuck Berry - Surfin’ Steel

Willie Nelson - Hello Walls

Beverly Buff - No Part Time Love

Harlan Howard - Call Me Mister In-Between

Roger Miller - Engine Engine #9

Jody Miller - Queen Of The House

Country All-Stars - Marie

Sir Doug - I Keep Wishing For You

Dan Penn - Nobody’s Fool

O.C. Smith - Wichita Lineman

The Hee-Haw Gospel Quartet- Unclouded Day

Jim & Jesse - Farewell Blues