Tag Archives: music

May 20 2013
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“I’ve Been Everywhere” – A Treasure Trove of Funny Names

Fun(?) fact #1: in 115 posts for this here blog (this is Dave, in case you are wondering), I’ve only written about a place name one time. Can anyone remember what it was? How about anyone not named Amb or Arto? :)

For you cheatin’ types (Hank Williams II would not be happy with you), it’s link #3 on our newly updated A-Z page, which Arto added over 100 entries to over the weekend(!!!!!)

Well after a long day of writing lab reports analyzing the rate that water drips off of a frog – not even in the most corybantic state could I make that fact up – I had a delightful old favorite song get stuck in my head, and realized that it presented so much fodder for the Blog of Funny Names that I had to write about it.

One of the first hits for "Winnemucca." I feel this must be some sort of inside joke, except that it's shared with the whole world.

One of the first hits for “Winnemucca.” I feel this must be some sort of inside joke, except that it’s shared with the whole world.

So today I’ll see that one geographically-inspired post and raise myself 92. Here’s “I’ve Been Everywhere,” penned by Hank Snow and famously performed by Johnny Cash. Then stay tuned after the lyrics for some amazing fun facts that include the phrase “humpin’ my bluey“!

I was totin’ my pack along the dusty Winnemucca road
When along came a semi with a high canvas covered load
If you’re goin’ to Winnemucca, Mack, with me you can ride
And so I climbed into the cab and then I settled down inside
He asked me if I’d seen a road with so much dust and sand
And I said, “Listen! I’ve traveled every road in this here land”

[Chorus: I've been everywhere, man
I've been everywhere, man
Crossed the deserts bare, man
I've breathed the mountain air, man
Travel, I've had my share, man
I've been everywhere]

I’ve been to:
Reno, Chicago, Fargo, Minnesota
Buffalo, Toronto, Winslow, Sarasota
Wichita, Tulsa, Ottawa, Oklahoma
Tampa, Panama, Mattawa, La Paloma
Bangor, Baltimore, Salvador, Amarillo
Tocopilla, Barranquilla, And Padilla, I’m a killer

[Chorus]

I’ve been to:
Boston, Charleston, Dayton, Louisiana
Washington, Houston, Kingston, Texarkana
Monterey, Ferriday, Santa Fe, Tallapoosa
Glen Rock, Black Rock, Little Rock, Oskaloosa
Tennessee, Tinnesay, Chicopee, Spirit Lake
Grand Lake, Devil’s Lake, Crater Lake, For Pete’s sake

[Chorus]

I’ve been to:
Louisville, Nashville, Knoxville, Ombabika
Schefferville, Jacksonville, Waterville, Costa Rica
Pittsfield, Springfield, Bakersfield, Shreveport
Hackensack, Cadillac, Fond du Lac, Davenport
Idaho, Jellico, Argentina, Diamantina
Pasadena, Catalina, See what I mean-a

[Chorus]

I’ve been to:
Pittsburgh, Parkersburg, Gravelbourg, Colorado
Ellensburg, Rexburg, Vicksburg, El Dorado
Larimore, Atmore, Haverstraw, Chatanika
Chaska, Nebraska, Alaska, Opelika 
Baraboo, Waterloo, Kalamazoo, Kansas City
Sioux City, Cedar City, Dodge City, What a pity

[Chorus]

Awesome facts about this song:

  • A kangaroo eating Vegemite. Because some stereotypes are too good to ignore!

    A kangaroo eating Vegemite. Because some stereotypes are too good to ignore!

    It was originally written by an Australian named Geoff Mack and made famous by a fella named Lucky Starr. The Australian version may be better than the North American one. Case in point: it starts “Well I was humpin my bluey on the dusty Oodnadatta road“

  • … and then the fella goes to places like Maroochydore, Ulladulla and Wooloomooloo
  • … and the best part is that they’re confused about where the guy meant when he said Coolangatta, because there is more than one Coolangatta in Australia!
  • Whether you’re singing the Australian or North American version, it’s one of the hardest songs to memorize. I know this because I’ve tried… unsuccessfully… several times. I’ve gotten through three verses on two occasions. It’s an awesome party trick…. if you go to parties with weird people like Arto and I :)
  • But Lucky Starr wouldn’t stop at remembering the lyrics one way. He released an album where he sang four different versions of the song: Australia, North America, Great Britain and New Zealand. Fair dinkum!

What’s the funniest name in the North American version? How about the Australian One?

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Oct 22 2012
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Kliph Scurlock

Musicians have funny names. Just look at Lefty Frizzell, Huddie “Leadbelly” Ledbetter, or “Spooner” Oldham. It seems whatever you do, if you play an instrument you’ll eventually wind up with a funny nickname. That certainly seems to have happened to Kliph Scurlock.

Kliph saluting his fans, who are called Kliphodells. (claim unverified).

Clifton Thomas “Kliph” Scurlock came from a musical family. His mother, Linda Louise Rokey inspired young Kliph’s love of music. And, learning just a bit about her makes me think she would’ve inspired anyone within earshot. According to Wikipedia, Linda was in the very first all-female mariachi band. The band was called Mariachi Estrella. This sounds like the kind of claim that is very difficult to substantiate, but it sounds so peculiar that there’s no way I wouldn’t repeat it.

In 6th grade, young Clifton started playing in the school band, and changed the spelling of his name to “Kliph” to distinguish himself from another kid in his grade also called Cliff. Which seems totally reasonable. Somehow, this unlikely spelling stuck and the man still goes by that very name today, making him one of just two people in the world called Kliph, the other one being an administrative assistant to the Prime Minister of New Zealand (although this claim is also difficult to verify).

At 16, Kliph got himself a drum set and started playing in a band, whose first gig, like that of any self-respecting teenage rock band, was in a strip club called the Golden Horseshoe. Trust me, that’s just how it works.

Kliph then played in a variety of bands in Kansas, including well-named groups like Contortion Horse and Panel Donor. His big break came a slightly unusual way, as he got a job as a roadie for the Flaming Lips. He stayed with them on subsequent tours as well, and his skills with the drum set eventually got him a gig as the band’s touring drummer. The band’s regular funny-named drummer, Steven Drozd, wanted to play keyboards and guitar during their live shows so Kliph jumped on that chance and took the open spot. He still plays with the band to this day.

And that’s how a guy named Kliph became rich and famous.

 

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Sep 18 2012
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Dewey Lindon “Spooner” Oldham, Jr.

Following on the trails of funny named legendary musicians like Huddie Ledbetter, Critter Fuqua and Lefty Frizzell, today we bring you Dewey “Spooner” Oldham, Jr. Spooner is perhaps a slightly lesser-known musician compared to those three, as he is best known as a session musician and songwriter rather than a frontman.

Spooner, on a bench, in the woods.

Born in Center Star, Alabama, a place so important it has no Wikipedia page, Spooner went on to be a big player in the development of the so-called Muscle Shoals sound, also called “Deep Soul”, which became hugely popular in the 60′s. Among many other hits, Spooner Oldham played  organ on “When a Man Loves a Woman” and later performed with a selection of the great artists of the time, from Wilson Pickett to Aretha Franklin.

We love origin stories for unusual names here at Funny Names HQ and Spooner’s is as good as they get in all its cruel simplicity. He got the name as a child when trying to reach a frying pan on a tall counter. He instead managed only to flick a spoon into the air, blinding him in his right eye. By the time he hit the music business in the 60′s the name had stuck and Dewey had turned into Spooner for good.

Towards the late 60′s he moved to Memphis and started working at Chips Moman‘s studios (yes – Chips Moman — there’s no end to funny names in music) and formed a legendary songwriting partnership with Dan Penn, penning (apologies) such songs as “A Woman Left Lonely“, recorded by Janis Joplin, and “It Tears Me Up” for the fantastically named Percy Sledge.

Spooner, still on a bench, in concert. Probably not in the woods.

For the past few decades Spooner has regularly played on Neil Young’s touring band and recordings. He’s also organed for legendary musicians like Bob Dylan and Jackson Browne, as well as funny-named colleagues such as Willy DeVille, Delaney Bramlett, and Dickey Betts. As we’ve noted many times before, funny names attract one another’s company.

In 2009 he was deservedly inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the wonderful “sideman” category, and perhaps more impressively is also a member of the Alabama Music Hall of Fame.

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Aug 24 2012
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Funny Names In The News

Funny Names in the News 10 Plus Acronym Fun with FLAMINGOS

Ah, FNITN. One of those great acronyms (or abbreviations, depending on your reading preferences). It’s right up there with ADONIS, the ADaptive Optics Near-Infrared System and FLAMINGOS, the FloridA Multi-object Imaging Near-infrared Grism Observational Spectometer as some of the grestest and silliest acronyms ever invented (though not even nearly infrared). By the way, did you know there’s a fancy scientific photon-counting instrument called 2D-Frutti? I didn’t either. I barely know what a photon is, besides its obvious use in space torpedoes. But I’m very happy about the existence of 2D-Frutti. Shows some scientists at least have a terrible sense of humor.

On to the news, or more importantly, the funny names contained within said news! I have good news for everyone right off the bat (obligatory 26th baseball reference for our blog this week). The chairman of the Republican National Committee is called Reince Priebus. I don’t know anything else about him, but that is a damn good name. (By the way, RNC? That’s no acronym. How about ReNalTee? Much better.)

Infrared Flamingos? I’m pretty sure this is what those scientists in Florida have been working on.

My Esteemed Colleague© Dave’s greatest hero in life, country legend Loretta Lynn says “she’s as country as cornbread“. And so is Dave. But I digress. She recently published an interview on her official website where she talks about a Broadway show being made of her life, including of course her marriage to Oliver Vanetta “Doolittle” Lynn. The play will star breezily named Zooey Deschanel, of superfluous vowel fame, who follows up on Sissy Spacek‘s performance in the film Coal Miner’s Daughter. She’s also collaborating with Merle Haggard on a record, making it a whole lot of funny names for one article. Way to go, Loretta. You win this week.

Wally Butts was also the subject of this intriguing-looking work, also featuring a dude named Bear Bryant.

In today’s most current news, excerpts from past editions of the Mobile, Alabama based Press-Register tell me that the athletic director of the University of Georgia used to be a fellow named Wally Butts. In 1962. Not sure why they’re sharing that with us in August 2012, but hey, why the heck not. Gotta fill that space somehow. I know all about filler, and so do you, having read the past three or four sentences, so I think we both recognize pointless rambling when we see it.

Meanwhile in Memphis, the headline “Eddie Lee Tribble arrested for Devario Smith‘s Murder” should tell you all the key parts of this article written by the venerable Lindsey Tugman. Yes, Tugman. Somehow the person writing the article managed to have the funniest name in that company.

That’ll just about wrap it up for this week. Sign back in next time to learn more about the funniest names in the news today!

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Aug 09 2012
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Huddie Ledbetter, aka Lead Belly

Huddie Ledbetter, pictured with particularly fine headgear.

Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly, was one of the key figures of American folk music of the 20th century. Huddie (pronounced “Hugh-Dee“, of course) was born sometime in January of 1888 in Loiusiana. His family soon moved to Texas, which is probably what you do if you’re sick of Louisiana. By 1908 he had married a 15-year old lady by the name of Aletha “Lethe” Henderson and was playing the accordion, his first instrument. The first song he ever wrote was “The Titanic”, about how African-American world champion boxer Jack Johnson was denied entry to that “unsinkable” ship, although apparently the story isn’t entirely true. Johnson never tried to get on the Titanic, but he was denied entry to another ship because of his race.

From then on, it was all music for Mr. Belly. Well music, murdering, prison time, getting stabbed in the neck, being discovered as a great musician, recording songs with Blind Lemon Jefferson, being imprisoned again, pardoned by the governor, imprisoned, pardoned again, slacking off in a chain gang, re-marrying someone named Martha Promise, and the small matter of becoming one of the most popular folk musicians of the century.

Sorry, did I jump over some interesting tidbits there? Yes. Yes, I did. A full biography of Mr. Belly would probably take at least 360 pages to describe, which goes over our self-imposed 500 world limit by a significant margin, and here I am wasting precious characters talking about wasting those characters. You just can’t trust me with a keyboard. So yes, for a real biography, follow that link and buy the book. I’ll just go back to the part where he was stabbed in the neck in prison and crack a joke or two if you don’t mind.

The coolest anyone has ever looked with an accordion.

Apparently, Huddie Ledbetter was a bit of a badass. This got him into trouble at times, such as when he killed someone in a fight over a woman and got sent to jail, or the other time he tried to kill someone and was sent to prison again. Most badassly, in jail he was at one point shanked in the neck with a big old knife. Instead of proceeding to cry “why!” and dying in horrible pain like normal people, Huddie exclaimed “what in the world?!” (or a less family friendly alternative), grabbed the knife, and shanked the shanker right back. He was left with a nasty scar that he subsequently covered up with a trademark bandana.

Today, Mr. Belly is best known for playing a 12-string guitar and recording oodles of famous folk songs, including recording the first known version of the song “Goodnight Irene“. He was discovered while still in prison because of his remarkable singing voice and skill on the guitar along with his enormous knowledge of folk and blues songs. He was subsequently covered by every imaginable musician in the world, including Abba, Pete Seeger, Van Morrison and Ernest Tubb. Yes, you can be sure there will a subsequent Ernest Tubb post on this here website. And yes, that is the first and last time those four have been mentioned in the same sentence.

Now, go on and get yourself some Lead Belly records and go back in time with some of that amazing music. It’s worth it.

 

 

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