First one that came to mind! I only heard that song once in my life, on the radio, IIRC 1972 at age 14, and I still sing it in my head occasionally (though I don’t remember many of the words.) Love that song! It’s a riot.
Good one.
Doesn’t ANYTHING by Air Supply qualify?
ah yeah, of course.
No kidding!
Without listening to the ones I don’t know, I award this the winner so far!
Delighted to hear it.
What do you get if you play a country song backwards?
You get your dog back, you get your truck back, you get your girl back …
Bonus points for truly stupid lyrics. And yeah, the “Oh no”.
Looking forward to having time to don my headphones and listen to the ones I haven’t heard!
My Little Home In Tennessee, by The Carter Family
A lot of you probably never heard of this one. My father used play it on his guitar and sing it. As a child I always found it upsetting and didn’t understand why he would sing something so maudlin.
I think what does it is the line “How I wish I’d never caused her pain”.
He grew up in the Pennsylvania Appalachians in what was literally a little shack (like in the song) so I suppose it resonated with him. I don’t think he ever played it again after his mother passed away.
(It’s the first song in this clip).
I love(d) SALS - a very pretty song. On the other hand, you can hear the hippie/drippy pretentiousness behind the writing of “Make Love Stay” in the liner notes:
It’s not exactly satire, though, since it was something that actually happened to Shel Silverstein. He called up the mother of a girl he was in love with and found out (for the first time) that she had left town to go get married. Of course, Silverstein could laugh at himself as good or better than any of us, so he probably wrote in more maudlin details in order to get over it.
Check out the works of Karl & Harty, and others of their ilk:
I Love the Hymns They Sang at Mother’s Grave (“they’re the only things I find that can bring cheer To an orphans life that is so sad and drear”)
The Lightning Express (“I’ve got to get home and kiss mother goodbye Before God takes her away”)
I’m Just Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail (“she kissed her baby boy and then she died…But smiling”)
The years from 1890 to WWI were also quite good for maudlin. In addition to Baggage Coach Ahead there are also such gems as Hello Central, Give Me Heaven ('cause my mommy’s there). I’d list others but am feeling entirely too lachrymose…
Clarence Carter’s Patches. Whenever I mention this song in any maudlin song thread people think it’s a different song by, um, Bobbi Goldboro maybe? Sorry but Clarence walked 10 miles uphill to school both ways while suckling baby pigs and picking cotton along the way. All because his mother just could not deal.
