Hank Williams, Jr.

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The PC nerds can't STAND Hank, Jr..

We're all supposed to like Hank, Sr. 'cause, dammit, he INVENTED this thing called country music. And it's chic to like Hank III because he Came From Punk-Rock. But Hank Jr. is seen as the buffoon in the middle with the questionable political views who sang the theme song from MONDAY NIGHT FOOTBALL and gave the "outlaw country" movement a bad name.

Hell, I'd probably hate John Lydon if I knew him, and the Sex Pistols remain a classic rock & roll band to me.

I was listening to one of his short-hair, pre-outlaw albums from the sixties the other night - BLUES MY NAME, which I think is from 1966. Even though most of side two comes up lame, when it's good it's good and today's alt-country traditionalists WISH they could write and sing this good. He even songjacks "These Boots Are Made For Walkin'" from Nancy Sinatra! And it's not camped-up, like when punk bands do it, but my man pulls it off with authority.

Of course, the Nashville pop factory eventually got to him, and most of his early-70's songs have the full weight of milquetoast choruses and string sections, but even then, he can turn pop tripe like "All For The Love Of Sunshine" into klondike gold.

After he went "outlaw" in 1975 with the HANK WILLIAMS, JR. & FRIENDS elpee, that pretty much introed the Hank we know today. So why would I defend him? A nasty sense of humor, and a style we'd call "eclectic" if he were Lyle Lovett or somebody. He's taken cracks at western swing, southern rock, and just a few years ago he released the almighty ALMERIA CAFE, which swung back and forth between rockabilly and Delta blues. Again: IF HE HAD A SLICK PUNK/ROCKABILLY HAIRCUT AND RECORDED FOR AN INDIE LABEL, YOU'D THINK THIS ALBUM WAS THE HIPPEST THING SINCE MIKE NESS. But no, everybody slept on it.

So what's the verdict, y'all?

― Rev. Hoodoo (Rev. Hoodoo), Saturday, 31 December 2005 00:53 (twenty years ago)

Classic 4-ever. In the space of a hiccup, Bocephus can come on all sad, rowdy, wrong, fucked-up and, in the case of "A Country Boy Can Survive", heavy with apocalyptic dread.

― brianistan (briania), Saturday, 31 December 2005 01:29 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, I wrote him off long ago, but "Family Tradition," which I used to especially resent, has turned out to be a some kind of a classic.

― Redd Harvest (Ken L), Saturday, 31 December 2005 01:46 (twenty years ago)

S: "And Friends" (which you should be able to get for seven bucks or so on CD), most of the first greatest hits . . . and "I'd Love to Knock the Hell Out of You" friggin' RULES.

― Rickey Wright (Rrrickey), Saturday, 31 December 2005 11:18 (twenty years ago)

HUGE classic

― j blount (papa la bas), Saturday, 31 December 2005 11:25 (twenty years ago)

stonecold classix, he's got a couple:

album: Hank Williams Jr And Friends
single: "A Country Boy Can Survive"

IMO he's hit or miss through the mid 80s, then just a sad old drunk redneck boorish self-parody like his critics always claimed.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Saturday, 31 December 2005 12:26 (twenty years ago)

"All My Rowdy Friends Have Settled Down" might be the best country single of the '80s, and the album that it and "A Country Boy Can Survive" (and "The Coalition to Ban Coalitions"!) are on, *The Pressure Is On,* is worth tracking down. And his last two albums were surprisingly great -- his most recent *I'm One Of You* even better than *Almeria Club* (surprise because I'd stopped paying attention; for all I know, he made good albums all through the late '80s and '90s as well while I was sleeping, but m coleman says no.)

Don Allred (who has written about him plenty) to the thread.

― xhuxk, Saturday, 31 December 2005 14:08 (twenty years ago)

(Last two albums not really boorish at all either; really quite good-humored and funky and even graceful, but yeah, the boorishness is why I'd stopped listening. Maybe he outgrew it? Then again, he could obviously afford to brag less in songs about who his dad was.)

― xhuxk, Saturday, 31 December 2005 14:10 (twenty years ago)

don allred on almeria club:

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0212,allred,33201,22.html

bill friskics-warren on i'm one of you:

http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0401,friskics-warren,50019,22.html

― xhuxk, Saturday, 31 December 2005 14:19 (twenty years ago)

well I fell asleep too around the time that Bocephus box set came out. not sure when he "jumped the shark" as they say...

sounds like re-investigation time, however. will check out those recent albs. wish i still had rowdy friends to invite over tonight.

― m coleman (lovebug starski), Saturday, 31 December 2005 14:23 (twenty years ago)

i demur becuz one of the local older teenagers in my neighborhood who would try and pick me up via th walkie talkie(th internet of th 70's)handle was Bocephus and he had a big brass Bocephus belt buckle which im sure he envisioned me undoing.

― dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Saturday, 31 December 2005 15:01 (twenty years ago)

>th internet of th 70's<

well, until CB Radio came along, anyway...

― xhuxk, Saturday, 31 December 2005 15:22 (twenty years ago)

walkie talkies all broadcast on channel 14 on the citizens band

― dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Saturday, 31 December 2005 21:45 (twenty years ago)

walkie talkies all broadcast on channel 14 on the citizens band
http://www.microphonerentals.com/images/Radios/images/Realistic%203%20channel%20CB%20Walkie%20Talkie%20TRC-75_JPG.jpg

― dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Saturday, 31 December 2005 21:47 (twenty years ago)

If the South would’ve won we'd a had it made,
I'd prob’ly run for President of the Southern State.
The day Elvis passed away would be our national holiday,
If the South would a won we'd had a it made.
I'd make my Supreme Court down in Texas,
And we wouldn't have no killers gettin’off free.
If they were proven guilty, then they would swing quickly,
Instead of writin’ books and smilin’ on T.V.
We'd all learn Cajun cookin in Louisiana,
And I'd put that capitol back in Alabama.
We'd put Florida on the right track ‘cause, we'd take Miami back,
And throw all them pushers in the slammer.
If the South would’ve won we'd a had it made,
I'd prolly run for President of the Southern States.
The day young Skynyrd died we’d show our Southern Pride,
If the South would a won we'd had a it made.
I'd have all the whiskey made in Tennessee,
And all the horses raised in those Kentucky hills.
The national treasury would be in Tupelo, Mississippi
And I'd put Hank William’s picture on one hundred dollar bills.
I'd have all the cars made in the Carolina's,
And I'd ban all the ones made in China.
I'd have every girl and child sent to Georgia to learn to smile,
And talk with that southern accent that drives me wild.
I'd have all the fiddles made in Virginia
Cause they sure can make'em sound so fine.
I'm goin up on Wolverton mountain and see ole Clifton Clowers,
And have a sip of his good ole Arkansas wine.
Hey, if the South woulda won we'd had it made
I'd prolly run for President of the Southern States,
When Patsy Cline passed away that would be our national holiday,
If the South woulda won we'd a had it made.

If the South woulda won we'd a had it made.

There was always at least one girl who would do a clogging routine to this song in my hometown's pageant.

― Pleasant Plains /// (Pleasant Plains ///), Saturday, 31 December 2005 22:23 (twenty years ago)

four years pass...

WOAH

"A Country Boy Can Survive" totally rocks

― lukevalentine, Monday, 1 February 2010 12:02 (sixteen years ago)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4s0nzsU1Wg&feature=related

man that note he sings at the end

SURVIIIIIIIVE

― lukevalentine, Monday, 1 February 2010 12:03 (sixteen years ago)

five months pass...

nice...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD9ozx1-oT0

― TN's only candidate for Governor with a handgun carry permit, so... → (will), Monday, 26 July 2010 03:01 (fifteen years ago)

hard to get past this guy being an A no. 1 asshole, but yeah he could belt one out.

― by another name (amateurist), Monday, 26 July 2010 04:25 (fifteen years ago)

one month passes...

man that last video posted is great! I love that song, though. I wish there were a good Hank Williams Jr. box set (I like them as a way of learning to negotiate my way through an artist's oeuvre) but my impression is that none of the ones presently available do the trick.

― Euler, Saturday, 4 September 2010 17:43 (fifteen years ago)

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