I know they crossed paths. Did they ever do an album together?
Was one an influence on the other? (other than drugs, I mean)
I love both those guys.
Q
Horton died in car crash in 1960. Am nearly certain they did no albums together. I know they both recored for Columbia -but as you know Horton’s songs were mainly stories & about movies. I never heard Cash mention him as an influence. What is up re: Horton & drugs? This is the 1st I heard about it, but Horton is far from well known & has been dead 43 years.
Doc: Horton was on amphetamines for a while, and I have to disagree with you about his well-known status: He did Rock-A-Billy early on, and then graduated into “story” songs for Columbia. No, he was never a star of the Cash magnitude, but he might have been.
The two Johnnys may not have made an album together, but their style was so close I decided to ask in the post. I’m thinking JH was a bit of a historian as well.
Anyway, thanks very much for your reply.
Q
Gotta quibble a bit on that.
Our local oldies station plays “North to Alaska” and “Sink the Bismark” fairly often. On the personal side, I have a copy of his “Greatist Hits” on tape and on my own compilation of songs to sob to, I have “Whispering Pines” in the number one spot. Memories, okay?
Wow! He’s been dead as long as I’ve been alive!
Hey zoogirl!
Let’s me and you Drink To Old Jim Bridger, and Comanche.
Why?
Guess 'cause I’m A Honky-Tonk Man!
Q
Summer of 1959:
“In 1814 we took a little trip
Along with Colonel Jackson down the mighty Mississip.
We cooked a little bacon and we cooked a little beans
And we fought the bloody British in a town called New Orleans.”
– Johnny Horton
But what was the name of that song? “The Battle of New Oreleans”?
I hadn’t thought of that song in probably forty years, so the lyrics may be a little off.
Can we invite Johnny Reb?
Sorry, Louisiana Dopers. I really can spell “New Orleans”!
Zoe, dead on! And, yep, it’s “The Battle of New Orleans”, all right!
I know this is a bit off topic, but I gotta give a big “phat” shoutout to Jonny Cash for his cover songs. The man has the most eclectic taste in music I can think of… From Nine Inch Nails to Depeche mode… Crazy.
Sam McCord and George Pratt will be there as well, and we’ll have a party In The Mansion You Stole.
So I guess what I’m sayin’ is I’m Ready If You’re Willing!
Afterward, we’ll take a walk in the Whispering Pines.
Thanks for the memories, zoogirl!
Q
Well, this 33 year old Australian is a big fan of both those guys. Sure, I wouldn’t say many of my friends would know about Horton, but then again, the fact that I have a Johnny Horton Greatest Hits album wouldn’t be that unusual.
Thanks, zoogirl!
“All For The Love of A Girl”
God, I love sweet simplicity, don’t y’all?
Q
Makes you my friend, Dude, and I don’t come from this country either. I still remember listening to stolen copies of the song Tom Dooley while living in Communist-occupied East Germany.
I think it has something to do with bravery. It’s another universal language.
I wish you a great day, LoadedDog!
Q
Well, the soldiers explicitly “took” bacon and beans, although the men presumably cooked the foods as well. This page renders the lyric as “caught the bloody British”, but I (born in 1959!) always heard “fought” as well. Then again, the site’s compiler admits: “I couldn’t find the words to the song so my dad and I sang Johnny Horton’s version of the song with the cassette player while my mom typed out the words for me.”
Jimmy Driftwood, who died in 1998, taught history in a high school and wrote “hundreds of verses” for The Battle of New Orleans. Understandably, only a fraction were committed to vinyl. The linked page features a continuous music-only soundtrack. Wish I knew what happened to my aunt’s old “45” of the song – the record jacket featured a cartoon-like illustration for each verse.
Quasi- you disagree, meaning he is NOW well known? I like the Dick Clark clip of him in US army outfit singing New Orleans, used on those late nite info mercials selling country albums.
Side note-it is infuriating that Clark has the best video collection in the world & I have seen more clips that were stolen from him than he released.
Quasi- you disagree, meaning he is NOW well known?
Sorry, doc. Of course I did not mean that he was as known and as appreciated as he should have been. Just that for the time he was with us, he made an impact and could have made more of an impact had not fate stepped in and prevented it.
I mention as cites Hank Williams, Jim Reeves, Patsy Cline and Jim Croce and not all for the same reasons. They were just taken from us too soon. I apologize if I made it seem otherwise in my OP. I think the same way of Buddy Holly and all the other ones who for reasons of their own or beyond their control left us too soon: I like what they left us with and wonder what we are missing.
Thanks for allowing me to clarify a bit and it’s very nice to meet you!
Quasi
Did perhaps Horton and Hank Williams have something else in common… leaving the same widow or something? Anybody else recall something like this?
You know I could have sworn I posted something last night about how Johnny Horton and Hank Williams both were married to the same woman.
I guess my post disappeared into the ether.
But that was the case with Horton and Williams.