vid: roger miller is better than just about anyone
Big River -- Roger Miller's adaptation of Huckleberry Finn -- is largely looked down upon by the musicals world, probably because it comes from the world of real country music and not that Best Little Whorehouse world, but it's actually as good as anything I've heard from the "legit" musicals world in a very long time.
My love for Roger Miller goes back to my childhood. Always loved him. "Chug A Lug" was my gateway song. He was to Nashville as Johnny Mercer was to Hollywood: the restless intellect and most articulate human heart on the block. Along with Bob Dylan, the greatest songwriter of the 1960s.
Labels: roger miller
posted by skip heller @ 7:36 PM
4 Comments:
Well I was a Roger Junkie for years. I finally took the cure and could pass him by until lately when a strange force has taken me on a wild ride in search of covers of his songs. Now I am digging the river out of the abandoned box of VHS's! Thanks Skip!
glad to be the agent of your relapse, red.
I've been a Roger Miller fan since the first time I heard "Chug A Lug," the first song of his to get any airplay on the Top 40 stations here in Los Angeles. A year or so ago I found a video of Roger guesting on the Andy Williams show, with both Roger and Williams on camera. Miller does "Do Whacka Do," where he sings (as straight faced as Roger sang anything) to the character in the song that he has just expressed good reason for jealousy, that he wished he had all the things the other guy did and the other guy "had a do whacka do." I swear the way Williams cracked up looked genuine.
Perhaps my favorite Roger Miller song is a little piece he did for the Walt Disney movie he wrote the music for -- Robin Hood -- the opening title song of "Whistlestop." He recorded it for Disney, and also on his Dear Folks, Sorry I HAven't Written Album." A thoroughly delightful tune.
Frank S. Hurrat
This is beautiful.
I'll look up whistlestop.
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