A Couple Of Originals That Don't Sound Quite Like The Hit Records You're Used To....

[The Magistrate]

[safeinOhio]

1. Thanks that 44

was a trigger for my night.

[The Magistrate]

3. Happy You Liked It, Sir

In fact, it is an unexpected pleasure to have given you some cheer during this rough patch.

[panader0]

2. Most excellent! The originals always seem better.

Although I saw Ray Benson with Asleep at the Wheel in Benson, Az, and his version
of "Hot Rod Lincoln" is very good.
Gotta rec this.

[The Magistrate]

4. They Are Good Bunch, Sir

I first heard this from Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen. It's a great song just about any way it's presented.

[The Magistrate]

5. What Strikes Me As Neat About These, My Friends

Is the small but real differences between them, and the more familiar covers.

The opening of the original Hot Rod Lincoln refers to a 'fatal night' when 'Fords and Mercuries came out to play', which was written down later to 'story of the hot rod race where the Fords and Lincolns were setting the pace'. No fatality occurs in either version of the song, though perhaps he refers to the fate of the motor held long in overdrive....

Aside from the accordion accompaniment in the original Cocaine Blues, which does give it a quite different feel, where Mr. Cash closes with admonition against whiskey and cocaine both, the original advises listeners to 'drink all you want to' before instruction to refrain from cocaine only....