Know any 'underground' folkies ?

Subject: Know any 'underground' folkies ?
From: Les B
Date: 04 Sep 00 - 01:02 PM

I ran across an interesting little article on the backpage of our local news rag this morning;

"In the early '80's the outlaw country singer David Allan Coe released very small quantities of two underground albums of songs that are among the most racist, misogynist, homophobic and obscene songs recorded by a popular songwriter. Bootlegged by fans and college fraternity members for years, those songs have recently been stirring up new trouble on the Internet: They are being passed around as e-mail files accompanied by sexually explicit and racist animation..."

The article goes on to say that Coe had distanced himself from these songs at one time, but is now offering a CD on his own website, though he refuses to put his name on the disc.

Whether this is the case or not with Coe, has anyone heard of any other "underground" music being released by other performers ?

I seem to remember hearing about 15 years ago that Debbie Boone had done some tawdry songs in rebellion against her dad's (Pat Boone) rather strict religious views.

Subject: RE: Know any 'underground' folkies ?
From: GUEST, Banjo Johnny
Date: 04 Sep 00 - 01:26 PM

Doesn't sound any worse than "rap". -- Johnny

Subject: RE: Know any 'underground' folkies ?
From: Peter Kasin
Date: 05 Sep 00 - 03:38 AM

Would Bob Dylan's "basement tapes" he did with The Band count? I bought the album years ago. It has a plain white cover with "Great White Wonder" stamped across it.

Subject: RE: Know any 'underground' folkies ?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 05 Sep 00 - 02:03 PM

Hoo-ee!!!!

Subject: RE: Know any 'underground' folkies ?
From: Bert
Date: 05 Sep 00 - 02:06 PM

There's 'The Exit Visa' a collection of songs that were extremely insulting to Arabs. I'm sure that rogue copies are still circulating in Saudi Arabia. Even though the band finished up in jail.

Subject: RE: Know any 'underground' folkies ?
From: Jim the Bart
Date: 05 Sep 00 - 02:27 PM

I have actually heard one of the David Allen Coe albums - I believe it was called "Cum Stains on my Pillow" - years ago. My understanding at the time was that the tapes were the result of a guy goofing in the studio with his band - locker room humor at best and not meant for distribution. Of course once somebody else started making money bootleging it, there was an "official" version available via mail order only.

The stuff (how can you call them songs?)were lewd and adolescent, but not racist, as I recall. I would be surprised if it didn't have mysoginistic tendencies; all them macho "good ole boys" seem to be afraid of women, at the bottom of it all. I didn't really enjoy this type of adolescent humor when I was an adolescent; I find the sexist/racist stuff offensive and without any redeeming value and the rest (sexual innuendo) is more boring than offensive. Generally, this stuff - like a bad thread - should be allowed to sink into the muck under it's own power. As for there being folk-oriented tapes of a similar nature - why would any serious singer/writer waste time and tape on this kind of stuff?

Subject: RE: Know any 'underground' folkies ?
From: Les B
Date: 05 Sep 00 - 02:48 PM

I agree, I don't find this kind of material very interesting as music or humor. I am more interested in it as a "folklore" phenomena, and I'm curious if any other performers or groups have contributed to the mix.

For instance, I believe I heard years ago a bootleg tape of the Sons of the Pioneers doing Curley Fletcher's underground song, "The Castration of the Strawberry Roan" !

Subject: RE: Know any 'underground' folkies ?
From: Giac
Date: 05 Sep 00 - 04:51 PM

May have mentioned this on a thread some time ago, but in the 50s, I heard several 78 sides by Gene Autry that were, uh, bawdy, I guess. They were sold from under the counter at the local record stores. The only one I recall by name was "Pistol Packin' Papa," a parody of "Pistol Packin' Mama," a Western hit at the time they were released. By today's standards, they were pretty mild.

Subject: RE: Know any 'underground' folkies ?
From: Art Thieme
Date: 05 Oct 00 - 01:23 PM

There has always been underground folklore---songs and tales. The U.S.A. has always been a holier-than-thou nation so these were, more often than not, kept on bottom shelves under the old photo albums. I recall when Oscar Brand and Ed McCurdy's very mild albums with a bit of off-color humor were kept under the counter in record stores along with Whoopee John Wilfhart, Lenny Bruce, Red Foxx and somebody reading the Communist Manifesto.

Legman's book of limericks--dirty and not.

Vance Randolph's "dirty" songs he collected in the Ozarks. Also his book of tales Pissing In The Snow

The New Lost City Ramblers, in the 60s, put out a 7-inch 33 and 1/3 rpm mini-LP of four scatalogical songs called THE NEW LOST CITY BANG BOYS. It contained a song called "Bang Away Lulu"

"Bang away Lulu.
Bang away good and strong,
Whatcha gonna do for bangin'
Whenb Lulu's gone.

This was not only a bit "dirty" but it was a good song---as was Oscar Bran's "Blinded By Turds".

The cowboy songs genra has hundreds of these songs. Many are adolescent (as someone said) but some are just hilarious too. I'll never forget Mitch Podolac sticking me in a "Dirty Songs Workshop" at the Winnipeg Folk Festival around 1976 along with Kansas City's Bob Sukiel. The workshop was RIGHT NEXT TO THE CHILDREN'S AREA. All I could do was blush a million colors of red when it was Sukiel's turn to sing one of his bawdy cowboy ballads. It was great---but it was also bad festival planning. I knew a total of two songs--mild ones at that--that fit into the workshop.

I wanted to be underground during that hour for sure.

Art Thieme

Subject: RE: Know any 'underground' folkies ?
From: annamill
Date: 05 Oct 00 - 01:30 PM

Gee...I don't know. Those David Allan Coe undergrounds sound like fun. Where can I get it?

** BG ** ;-)

Love, annamill

Subject: RE: Know any 'underground' folkies ?
From: GospelPicker (inactive)
Date: 05 Oct 00 - 02:33 PM

Underground, I'm not sure, but there are a few albums out there by guys and gals with ABSOLUTELY NO COMMERCIAL POTENTIAL WHATSOEVER (which happens to be the name of my upcoming cassette release *HINT*)... and those albums should be considered subversive and dangerous because the music is made from the heart and there is not even a nod to commercial standards in terms of sales, production or image-making. Remember, Willie put out STARDUST and RED-HEADED STRANGER, both of which were considered doomed for failure when they were released... Willie still laughs about the Grammy for STARDUST... failure, indeed...

GospelPicker

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