Wednesday, December 24, 2014

40 Year Itch: A Ragged Kid in Overalls




   From the 1974 self-titled album that featured "They Ain't Makin' Jews like Jesus Anymore", Kinky Friedman's "Rapid City South Dakota" may be country music's first pro-choice song: 

"There’s a doctor in Chicago/
I know she’ll be alright"/
He told himself as he stared into the night. 

   The more time you spend with Friedman's music, the more certain you'll be he's not a single punchline songwriter. Some of his tunes are incredibly moving as well.He's been called Country Music's answer to Randy Newman. "Rapid City South Dakota"  was eventually covered by Dwight Yoakam.


1 comment:

  1. This is great (as is Dwight Yoakam's cover) -- thanks for posting. Notwithstanding all of Kinky's bluster and bullsh*t, and all the novelty songs, he was (as you point out) capable of some remarkably subtle and poignant lyrics, and it's a shame he's not making records any more.

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