December 28, 2023

How "Ode to Billy Joe" could become the U.S. national anthem.


BONUS:


With Mama Cass:


"My brother and I have been accused of never finishing a song":

20 comments:

rcocean said...

They actually were good singers. Suprising.

Great clips.

Kevin said...

Mama Cass, so famous then for being all but circus-freak level obese, looks like the average person today. I can't even count the ways this nation has fallen in my lifetime

Original Mike said...

I once went into the credit union and informed them I (and my credit card) would be traveling to Australia. I happened to double check online before I left on the trip. They had me going to Austria.

Wince said...

NH Voter: What caused Mama Cass' death?

Nikki Bird Brain: Well, that's one case where they really should have indicted a ham sandwich.

Clyde said...

Thanks for posting those. I enjoyed watching all of them.

Enigma said...

To also remember the recently departed Shane MacGowan of The Pogues, here's his live version of Waltzing Matilda:

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

(Shane drank himself over the edge or literally to death, so he was an anti-technical folk-punk.)

Skeptical Voter said...

Absolutely great stuff. And aside from Tommy's rolling his eyes about that sheep, clean enough to show to a convent full of nuns. Popular entertainment has gone down hill.

Rosalyn C. said...

Thanks for the terrific compilation. So talented and funny. I didn’t appreciate them as much back then as I do now.

Jake said...

lol. Ode to Billy Joe is fine, but I can’t remember the last time I heard anyone singing it.

Humperdink said...

Tommy Smothers was a piece of work. My kind of humor.

Levi Starks said...

That was quite nice

Oso Negro said...

I remember the version of the song that included "my old man's a negro, what do you think about that?"

NKP said...

Beats Imagine.

ThatsGoingToLeaveA said...

You're trying to make this song into something it isn't... Imagining the Democrat playing guitar and Republican on bass.

Marcus Bressler said...

I sing "Ode to Billy Joe" every third of June. Doesn't matter if the person hearing my out-of-tune voice has never heard of the saga....hated the movie, which opened on the third of June.

MarcusB. THEOLDMAN

JZ said...

They look like lounge lizards with the mustaches. Think Boogie Nights.

michaele said...

Always loved their humor and way of eliciting laughs. Their voices were so gentle and yet some of the jokes were so cutting. Watched some additional youtube videos of their guest appearances on other late night shows. On Letterman, Dickie quoted Jack Parr saying about Tommy and the schtick he had with his brother... "I don't know what you've got but nobody's going to steal it"

Václav Patrik Šulik said...

My parents had the Smothers Brothers album "Think Ethnic" and I listened to it continuously. I never knew the song, "Hava Nagila," but I knew the Venezuelan Rain Dance. And I learned what the word poignant meant from Black Is The Color (Of My True Love's Hair) (gorgeous harmonies). And I still regard the (unfinished) John Henry as the definitive version. Don't overlook The Fox.
Rest in Peace Tommy.

Patrick Henry was right! said...

Tommy Smother, leftist comedian, retired to his Vinyard after making millions under American free enterprise. Limousine Liberal hypocrite to the end.

Gk1 said...

I am sorry Tommy Smothers is gone as I enjoyed his act. I have come to agree with his political outlook on Vietnam as I got older. I did feel bad to hear he completely became unglued with Penn Gillett when said he would never vote for a war monger like Hillary Clinton, even if Trump was the alternative. Trump broke a lot of people, including Tommy.