Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,Mckittrick
Date: 19 Sep 16 - 06:53 PM

Best version to me- Sam Cooke

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,Kerry
Date: 24 Jan 14 - 07:46 PM

The version of this from the 1950s was Burl Ives. My dad heard it on the radio, sang it to my mom. It's been their song. I've searched for years. Pre-internet, a friend searched the archive of the CMA. No luck. If anyone has found it, I'd LOVE to get it for them while they're still around.

Thanks.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Dec 12 - 09:38 PM

There's a nice version by Steve Camacho (from the 1962 album "Folk and Other Songs") that's currently available for purchase via the usual online places.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,BigDaddy
Date: 21 Oct 11 - 01:32 AM

My favorite version is the previously-mentioned one by Harry Belafonte from the "In My Quiet Room." LP. Wish they'd release that album on CD or iTunes. Belafonte's version of the song is available on iTunes.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,Dennis in SoCal
Date: 20 Oct 11 - 06:04 PM

I wish I had gotten involved in this conversation earlier. George, better known as "oopie" is the singer everyone is talking about. In the mid 70's he was a member of a group calling themselves the "platters". I think one of the members may have had a short stint with the group in the 50's. They played every weekend at a place called Peppi's on Sepulveda Blvd, in Torrance. They played at my wedding in 1975. Oopie lived on 57th street in LA. LOng ago lost contact with him. He was an awsome vocalist. His version of God Bless The Child was the best.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,Kathy in Wisconsin
Date: 07 May 11 - 03:41 PM

Hi people, I just stumbled on this discussion, which has been going on for more than a decade ... I fell in love with this song listening to the Brothers Four's version on a RECORD ALBUM, which I still have.

Album title is "More Big Folk Hits: The Brothers Four" (Columbia). Credit there is to Folkways. By the way the album was produced in "mono" -- surely somebody else out there remembers THAT. I can't find a date on it anywhere.

I play the tune on a little wooden flute, which I carry around with me when I'm hiking. Taking it to Ireland next week.

Carry on!

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,Johnny Adelaide
Date: 22 Mar 11 - 09:19 PM

G'day Jeff Tyson, Pamela and Mike. I tried the ABC webpage with no luck. I even bought the McCurn 45rpm at auction but it's not the one played by Macca. Have you had any success?

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,Johnny Adelaide
Date: 22 Mar 11 - 07:22 PM

Margaret. Love your music. I caught this thread after I heard this song recently on Australia All Over. George McCurn sounded like the one and I managed by devious means to get a copy on an auction site. SADLY it's not the one I heard from back in the 50's and 60's. If only I could find out from the ABC whose record it was.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,Ron
Date: 24 Feb 11 - 11:37 PM

The original song, as someone here said, was sung by George McKern and I think its the best version. It was on the radio (AM of course)in the early 60's, I'm thinking about 1963-1964. Maybe some archival platters in a local long running radio station may have the song. Would be great to hear it again!

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,JEFF TYSON
Date: 14 Sep 10 - 09:00 AM

G'DAY from W.A , Pamela and Mike. I too heard it whilst driving to work on Macca's radio show last Sunday and it totally blew me away. It's the sweetest love song that a lot of ordinary guys (most of us) can relate to . Maybe all we Aussies should " JUST ASK MACCA" where we can get a download from, because ABC RADIO has obviously got it, unless MACCA was spinning some dodgy vinyl down by the banks of the old Murrumbidgee in the early hours. And also a big thank you to "Rich-Joy for all the correct information on this subject .

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: Larry The Radio Guy
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 03:07 PM

Just an addendum: I realize the George McCurn LP I had was called "Country Boy Goes to Town". So it appears as if it would be the first one that I'm not aware of.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: Larry The Radio Guy
Date: 12 Sep 10 - 03:04 PM

Rich-Joy. Thanks for all that information about George McCurn. That was the first version of the song I ever heard, and I eventually found it on a 45 rpm (I think the 'b' side was his version of "My Little Corner of the World". In the early 1960's I folowed the Top 100 (or in my case, "the Top 93" on CJCA Edmonton) hitparade charts faithfully, and my favorites were always the ones that were "number 89, 1nd week on, and on the way down". That's how I remember I'm Just A Country Boy.

Interestingly, I eventually found the George McCurn lp by the same name, but the version on that LP was different from the one on the 45.

Anyway, it would be great to find his rare 2nd lp.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,Pamela
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 09:50 PM

Trying to get the sheet music. My mother heard it on Makka this morning and is desperate to get a copy so she can play it. She said it was the loveliest song she had ever heard!

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,mike addley
Date: 11 Sep 10 - 05:12 PM

Makka played it on the ABC this morning.Great song.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: Martha Burns
Date: 27 May 10 - 11:01 AM

Stringsinger: I've always loved the Eric Darling song, one of the first I learned to sing and play. Still like to sing it, now. Should have more verses. So many birds, so many possibilities.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: rich-joy
Date: 09 May 10 - 08:29 PM

I'm Just A Country Boy
George McCurn

Words and Music by Fred Hellerman and Mashall Barer

-peak Billboard position # 55 in 1963
-Arranged and Conducted by Herb Alpert


Read earlier posts for his BIO ... (and I still consider his the best version!)


Cheers, R-J

PS    for net-searchers, please note that the spelling is McCURN not McKERN
:~)

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,Barry
Date: 09 May 10 - 12:52 AM

I know that George McKern was the original singer of "I'm Just a Country Boy" & I feel it is the best version.
However it seems to be lost forever.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: fumblefingers
Date: 31 Dec 09 - 05:42 PM

I wonder if it's an old Jimmy Dickens song?

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: Stringsinger
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 07:22 PM

Before any of these guys, Erik Darling was singing "Woody Knows Nothing". He even
might have written some of the verses.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,Mary Hockaday
Date: 30 Dec 09 - 06:57 PM

I saw a movie in about 1946-47-48 that had a plot very similar to "WW and the Dixie Dancers" and this song was sung in the movie. I was a Country Girl (still am!) and a teen-ager at the time; didn't go to many movies, but this one stuck in my mind. The song held a lot of meaning to me because although I was just a Country Girl and money had I none; but I always had 'silver in the stars at night and gold in the morning sun!" I would like to know if "WW and the Dixie Dancers was a re-make of an old film with a new name. Anyone with information could e-mail me at [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 05:13 PM

http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:George%20McCurn:1927160992:page=biography

Apologies but forgot to submit a message with the link.

This is the guy I beleieve you're looking for and it is indeed, to my mind, the best version of a wonderful song. Would love to know where a copy might be available now.

Grant

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,Grant
Date: 29 Jul 09 - 05:10 PM

http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:George%20McCurn:1927160992:page=biography

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: Artful Codger
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 03:15 PM

Bob's link clickified: Woody Knows Nothing thread

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,Bob Coltman
Date: 03 Jul 09 - 09:05 AM

To sum up, this song is traditional, dating back probably into the 1930s or before, but has been augmented since 1955 or so with a few songwriter-composed "tin pan valley"-style verses.

As far as I've been able to trace it, the oldest original was sung as early as the 1930s by Bascom Lamar Lunsford, probably learned by him from one of the mountain people he collected his songs from.

It was then picked up by Susan Reed sometime in the 1940s. She may well have learned it from Lunsford personally, perhaps at the Asheville Folk Festival. She then sang it in New York and on the folk circuit in the 1940s and 50s, and made it quite well known.

I think, but am not sure, that the next professional folksinger to spread it around was Bob Gibson. Based on that, the various composers like Fred Hellerman got going on their own proprietary versions, such as the "I'm Just a Country Boy" and "Woody Knows Nothing" variants quoted above.

I've covered this in more detail in the "Woody Knows Nothing" thread:

http://mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=18708#1947471

The two threads ought to be linked to one another, as it's all the same song. Bob

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: Artful Codger
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 03:44 PM

YouTube has several ciips of this song, including renditions by Don Williams and Harry Belafonte.

Nat King Cole sang "Nature Boy"--one of the songs closely identified with him, but not the same song. Perhaps this is what some folks were thinking of when they mentioned him.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: Eric the Viking
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 02:45 PM

Sorry Ted (get your own life and prove that you know what you are talking about) it was just an observation and an addition to the list of recordings. I've heard it sung by at least two other people over the years.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,Ted Anderson.
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 12:30 PM

sorry mate,you dont know what your talking about.I like Allison,but you have never heard this song by the man,get a life.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: Eric the Viking
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 12:06 PM

Alison Krauss does it beautifully on "A hindred miles or more" released 2 years ago.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,Ted Anderson.
Date: 02 Jul 09 - 11:12 AM

The man was george Mckern.
I found him,My father has looked for him,It has taken me 2 years to find him,you are right,it is the best version I know,it was written in 1958.As far as know,it was written by sam cooke,but never published.It is brilliant.Don Williams and the like do not do it justice.I hope you all like it.
    Cheers ted.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,TJ in San Diego
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 12:38 PM

Thematically, a pretty little Travis Edmonson (Bud & Travis) song that follows along these lines is "Guess I'll Go Home." Unfortunately, I don't have the sheet music, only the lyrics.

Guess I'll Go Home

She's the butterfly in my cottonwood tree
She's a cool sip of cider in the sun
She's a bluebird's wing, she's the song I sing
When my day is done

She doesn't know she sets my heart to singin'
And I don't guess she even cares
'Cuz other fellas hold her hand at dances
And other fellas walk her on the square

One bought her a ribbon
One bought her a comb
I can't buy her nothin'
So I guess I'll go home

But I could give her the diamonds in the morning dew
Or the gold in a field of corn
Or the pearls of light in the stars at night
Before the day is born

If only I could tell her how I'm feelin'
If only she would listen to my song
I'd think of all the pretty things to tell her
Then she'd know I'd loved her all along

Then she'd walk beside me
And call me her own
But that's just a dream
So I guess I'll go home

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: Acorn4
Date: 08 Jan 09 - 06:54 AM

The song was used as the theme for a program on country life hosted by Jack Hargreaves in about the sixties or seventies -called something like "Country File" or similar.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: PinkAliPink
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 09:52 PM

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=fwueuaKkAE8 is the Harry Belafonte version & seems to be the right one, what a shame if the OP didn't find it & doesn't return.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,klaas feenstra (netherlands)
Date: 07 Jan 09 - 08:07 PM

No doubt it is an old song, but Belafonte made it known.
A very nice version came from Julie Felix in the David Frost Report show on BBC television, by the way.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,iamfarmerpaul at hotmail.com
Date: 04 Dec 07 - 08:01 PM

I see someone mentioned jack hargreaves' Southern T. V. programme and its theme song. It was sung in a very classical way by a deep voiced singer. I'd love to hear that again if anybody knows who it was.
Also I always thought it was, I've got silver in the MOON,not stars.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: Stringsinger
Date: 26 Oct 07 - 07:33 PM

Freddie Hellerman did not write this song. He probably got it from Erik Darling who recorded it and sung it regularly.

Woody Knows Nothin' has many variants.

One is the Burl Ives offering,
"Saturday night and Sunday too, true love on my mind.
Monday morning and the rest of the week,
White man got me gwine."

"Jaybird pull a four horse plow.
Sparrow why can't you?
'Cause my legs is little and long
and they might break clean in two."

Frank

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,Pete
Date: 26 Oct 07 - 05:09 PM

You're looking for Ronnie Lane

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,Tuccaboy
Date: 13 Sep 07 - 05:23 PM

I have a 45 Festival record of George McCurn singing this song backed by Herb Alpert. It shows (Brooks-Barer) (Davis) as the writers/composers, and it has wonderful voice variations going from low to high. Absolutely beautiful singing. On the other size of the record George sings 'In My Little Corner of the World', also backed by Herb Alpert. Date of the record? - I would say at a guess late 1950's/early 1960's

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,RF
Date: 16 Aug 07 - 11:52 PM

Allison Krauss did a version of this recently on GAC.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,Scotty Boy
Date: 13 Jul 07 - 11:58 PM

You all are blowing my mind. Amazing stuff.....

I thought the song was original when I heard Richard manuel of The Band sing the song when it was released shortly after his death (Jerico, 1993). I can not imagine the song being sung by anyone else. I will have to check this stuff out.

I definitely can not imagine the song have the same impact sung by a smooth sounding carooner like Harry Belafonte.

I am not warming up to Allison Krausse's new version yet. I want to hear the pain in the voice. Richard manuel sounds like he lived this song for 30 years before he ever recorded it.

Thanks for all the great history on this amazing song.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 28 Apr 07 - 05:41 AM

Now if Val Doonican were to cover the Albert Lee song...............

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Apr 07 - 02:36 AM

Yes - he wrote it!

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: Sliding Down The Bannister At My Auntie's House
Date: 27 Apr 07 - 02:34 AM

Wasn't this a hit for Jack Hargreaves?

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,rattymatty
Date: 26 Apr 07 - 08:13 AM

I have the album and the single on A&M - probably the rarest record herb alper t ever produced. The singer from america now living in sydnet, Delilah, used to go out with george back in the early sixties. i spoke to her about him only weeks ago. he was known as oopie and toured with the ink spots. Country boy goes to town!!!!! is the album and his name is spelt McCurn not with a K. My father payed it sunday mornings on reel to reel tape - fabulous album...

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: Jim Lad
Date: 21 Jan 07 - 11:28 PM

Many fond memories of Val Doonican singing this on his rocking chair and his Faire Isle Knit on a Saturday night. Lovely song.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,Murray MacLeod
Date: 21 Jan 07 - 07:48 PM

For an immensely enjoyable clip of the great man showing what chicken-pickin' guitar is all about, try this clip Albert Lee playing "Country Boy"

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,Kenoldies
Date: 30 Dec 06 - 07:07 PM

George Mccurn hit #100 on Billboard March, 1963

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 04 Sep 06 - 07:24 AM

BTW, I've read on the internet that Albert Lee's 'Country Boy' was too fast to play, and that he used some kind of electrickery (delay?) for the recording. However , I saw HHF at the 'Greyhound' in Fulham Palace Road in the early 1970's, and Albert played a Gibson straight into an amp, no gizmos at all that I can remember. He did cheat, though, and use natural genius.

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Sep 06 - 01:44 AM

Any idea who did the version in 1979 ? Same title. Went, I 'm just a country boy, country boy at heart. Show me where I start, buy a horse and cart.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Record I remember is by Ricky Skaggs. Was it as long ago as 1979, or did he do a cover somewhat later?

This particular "Country Boy" was written by virtuoso British guitarist Albert Lee and was first recorded by him on the album " Head Hands and Feet"

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,MRS. TRAYON HAWK
Date: 03 Sep 06 - 08:06 PM

HELLO THE ORIGINS OF I'M JUST A COUNTRY BOY CAME FROM MY GRANDFATHER MR. GEORGE MCCURN, HE WAS ONE OF THE ORIGINAL MEMBERS OF THE GOSPEL GROUP THE INK SPOTS

Subject: RE: Origins: I'm Just a Country Boy
From: GUEST,Tony
Date: 22 Aug 06 - 08:58 PM

George McCurn was the singer of Country boy in 1960