Saturday, July 12, 2014

On a hill far away

    Last night at Bill's Pickin' Parlor, the Thomas Family performed at Open Stage, father, mother, two sons and one daughter. They were very, very good. (You should book them!) They did three songs, all about the old rugged cross, but none of them the famous song called "The Old Rugged Cross." The latter reminded me of an old parody number my dad used to sing us, so I mentioned it to him today while driving him to dialysis.
    It went (he reminded me), "On a hill far away/ stood an old Chevrolet/ Its curtains all tattered and torn/ You could tell by its looks/ it had been driven by crooks..." and ok I don't remember what comes after that. I had looked it up on the 'net and nobody had the words right (curtains in cars being a far distant memory) nor any notion who had recorded it. I noted to Dad that it didn't sound much like Spike Jones and that since he used to have Kay Kyser numbers in his repertoire it might have been him. (Note: googling the longer quote above delivers bupkis as well.)
    So I reminded him of when he used to sing us "The Three Little Fishies," so he did again. Back in the day, he did it in a more baby talk fashion, but this time he did it more straight. YouTube suggests that Kay Kyser did it both ways. Kay's version
    Anyway, it was a rather sweet father-son moment, and also reassuring that he could remember the words.

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