Way back yonder in the late 60s, Buck Owens put out an album entitled, Meanwhile Back at the Ranch. According to every source I’ve found on the 'net, the title track is an instrumental. I recall seeing him perform this on Hee Haw in the early 70s, but the song had lyrics. My Google-fu is weak and I can’t seem to find them.
Here’s the bit I remember (may be off by a word or two) from the chorus:
"Meanwhile back at the ranch
I’m smokin’ my last cigarette.
Meanwhile back at the ranch
The sun’s sinkin’ low in the west.
So hurry home darlin’
Your sweet love is callin’
Meanwhile back at the ranch"
The only help I can provide (strictly from hazy memories) is that there was some bit perfomed by at least a duo where the “story” or “flow of the narrative” would develop along the lines of your basic Shaggy Dog Story for a little while. This would be the equivalent of a written version running a few paragraphs. Then the other participant would break in with “meanwhile back at the ranch…” and turn the story in an oblique direction for a few paragraphs and then the first one would repeat the process with yet another tangent.
I believe the notion came from radio drama narratives where the narrator would cause a scene change in the mind by the “meanwhile back at the…” wherever, in order to cause the equivalent of a movie cut.
Songs and comedy bits as far back as the 50’s were riffing on this basic theme.
I also recall a song by a group like The Coasters (may have been The Coasters) doing a song along the lines of “Along Came Jones” where some damsel in distress was being tied to the railroad tracks and one of the singers breaks in with “…meanwhile back at the ranch…” or someplace.
These all run together enough in my mind that I can’t isolate any “original” instance in my own experience.
Every Buck Owens reference I can Google says it was an instrumental. The Badfinger song and the Clark Family Experience songs of that title have different lyrics than you’ve shown.
Maybe you’re thinking of the lines “Meanwhile, back in the jungle …” and “Meanwhile, back in the States …” from The Cadets’ “Stranded in the Jungle”?
I too remember this song and it’s been driving me crazy that I can’t find any reference to it. Unfortunately, the YouTube video linked here has been removed. Was it a link to the Hee Haw performance?
The first one was an instrumental released in the late 60’s (I think '68) and another version with the same title (the song Mr. Blue Sky was referring to) in 1974 on the album, It’s a Monster’s Holiday. It’s a great song with fun lyrics that reference “Gunsmoke” and you really can’t find it anywhere except an old vinyl record or 8-track (which is what I had). I don’t really understand why both of those songs had the same title and were completely different types of songs by the same artist, but you can be sure if Buck was around I would be asking him because I’ve had a helluva time trying to find it since my 8-track broke years ago!
In Australia last century [70s-80s-ish] we also had one-liner jokes based on, I assume, the title. Was this a local invention or an import from US cowboy-based humour?
Examples I remember [and always featuring Cisco Kid, who was very big out here]
‘Meanwhile, back at the ranch, tension mounts and rides away’
‘Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Cisco, disguised as a door, gets his knob twisted’.
‘Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Cisco, disguised as a cactus, feels a tiny prick’.
I remember hearing him sing it. I don’t have the same clear memory of the full lyrics as the OP but I remember Buck’s voice on the refrain: “mean while back-at-thuh ranch”.
