Lyr Req: Tom Green County Fair (Roger Miller)

Subject: Lyr & chords Req: Tom Green County Fair
From: GUEST,Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 25 Jan 04 - 01:50 AM

Okay. I been a good boy. I checked all the usual net resources. No luck.

Might anybody have the full lyrics, maybe even chords for "Tom Green County Fair". I had a recording of it by David Rea on one of his first LPs.

First verse, I recall is:

"Hot dog stand!
When you're hungry hot dogs smell so dog-gone grand
Skippin' throught he sawdust, runnin' with my brothers
Head-to-toe in smilin' at the Tom Green County Fair."

While I'm at it, might any of you know if Mr. Rea has any web presence? I know he was performing at the Home County Festival in London, Ontario a few years ago (which I couldn't attend), but otherwise he's seems to be darned elusive.

H'ep me Mudcat, h'ep me!

Subject: Lyr Add: TOM GREEN COUNTY FAIR (Roger Miller)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Jan 04 - 02:10 AM

Hi, Jeremiah - I found the lyrics in several places on the web. I took the following lyrics from here (click).
-Joe Offer-

The Tom Green County Fair
(Roger Miller)

You know, it's funny how certain things stick with you through the years, like how it feels to be 10 years old at the county fair

Hot dog stand, when you're hungry, hot dogs smell so doggone grand
Hopping through the sawdust, running with my brothers, head to toe we're smiling at the Tom Green County Fair

Rodeo, Tom Green County Fair's got one fine rodeo
The cowboys are the greatest, the clown he is so funny
You bust your britches laughing at the Tom Green County Fair

Well, a Sunday at the fair can make a memory more valuable than gold
Especially when you're 10 years old

Ferris Wheel, just like an airplane in the sky that's how you feel
Look down and see the people, wave your arms and holler
Everybody's grinning at the Tom Green County Fair

Nighttime comes, up there on the bandstand we see Billy Swan
Everybody's clapping, Mom and Pop are dancing
Sawdust is flying at the Tom Green County Fair

Well, a Sunday at the fair can make a memory more valuable than gold
Especially when you're 10 years old

Time to go
The pickup truck, it rattles down the gravel road
And all of us kids sit backwards, looking through the dust cloud at the lights and the laughter, at the Tom Green County Fair

---

Try this Google Search (click) for David Rea.

Subject: Lyr Add: TOM GREEN COUNTY FAIR (Roger Miller)
From: Joe Offer
Date: 25 Jan 04 - 02:13 AM

This one may be a bit better.
-Joe Offer-

---

Roger Miller The Tom Green Country Fair lyrics

by D.Linde
(As covered by Roger Miller)

Released on 4 RM albums

(spoken)
You know it's funny how certain things stick with you thru the years,
Like how it fells to be ten years old at the County fair

Hotdog stand,
When you're hungry hotdogs smell so doggone grand
Hoppin' thru the sawdust, runnin' with my brothers
Head to toe we're smilin', at the Tom Greene county fair

Rodeo,
Tom Greene county fairs got one fine rodeo
The cowboys are the greatest, the clown he is so funny
You bust your britches laughing, at the Tom Greene county fair

Well a Sunday at the fair can make a memory more valuable than gold
Especially when you're ten years old

Ferris Wheel,
Just like an airplane in the sky, that's how you feel
Look down and see the people, wave your arms and holler
Everybody's laughing at the Tom Green county fair

Night time comes,
Up there on the bandstand we see Billy Swan
Everybody's clappin', Mum and Pop are dancin'
Sawdust is a flyin', at the Tom Green county fair

Well a Sunday at the fair can make a memory more valuable than gold
Especially when you're ten years old

Time to go,
The pickup truck it rattles down the gravel road
And all of us kids sit backwards, lookin' thru the dustcloud
At the lights and the laughter at the Tom Green county fair

(spoken fadeout)
well step right up and see the three eyed malarkey brothers
smoking one big round cigar fresh from Havana,
see the one legged chicken do the footrace with a sack of....

Subject: Lyr Add: COUNTY FAIR (Jerry Rasmussen)
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 25 Jan 04 - 09:53 AM

Another County Fair song, from my memory:

COUNTY FAIR

Out on the back road, wait 'till night
Watch until the moon slips out of sight
Then you slip through the gate just as slick as a whistle
And you float through the crowd like the down from a thistle

CHORUS:

   And when you wake up in the morning, you can feel it in the air
   It's time again for the County Fair
   And if you're looking for me, well you can find me there
   'Cause it won't be back again until summer

Off across the fields from a mile away
The lights in the sky are just as bright as day
And it's ten cents a ride, or three for a quarter
But if you only ride twice, you got a nickel left over

The men are all talking by the John Deere Tent
They'll give you shirt-pocket buttons, don't cost a cent
And the 4H girls, they all act so shy
And they all stop talking when you're passing by

When you're running out of money and it's getting late
You can have yourself a time at the Penny Arcade
And if you got a nickel and you're five feet tall
You can take a peak and see what the butler saw

Words and music by Jerry Rasmussen

This song is on my first album for Folk Legacy.

Jerry

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tom Green County Fair
From: GUEST,Jeremiah McCaw
Date: 25 Jan 04 - 11:37 PM

Heavens Joe! You keep the same kind of ridiculous hours that I do. I offer my sympathy.

Thanks muchly for the lyrics. Kinda interesting to subsequently find that the writer, Dennis Linde, is the same old Nashville hand who has more recently written "Good-Bye Earl" for the Dixie Chicks. Ever neat!

Now, if I can just figure out the chord progression . . .




Jerry - thanks for your song lyrics. I'll hafta catch up with it one of these days.

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tom Green County Fair
From: Willie-O
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 09:49 AM

Sure brings back memories. Of the song, I mean, and that David Rea album in particular. "By The Grace Of God". Somebody (Judy Geenhill actually, a name some of the southern Ontario folks might know) put it on the turntable once and said "This is Toronto's best guitarist".

So I played that Tom Green C.F. song, and others including "My Time Ain't Long", a lot in the 70's.

There are some pretty interesting bio details in that first Google search link. He went from playing in the early screaming acid-rock band Mountain (and co-wrote "Mississippi Queen"!) to...Fairport Convention? I had no clue about either. Somehow it doesn't surprise me that he seems to be playing with a Native American flautist now...anything that has feeling is possible for that old picker and spark-plug-wrench slide guitarist.

W-O

Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Tom Green County Fair (Roger Miller)
From: PHJim
Date: 09 Feb 12 - 12:06 AM

I just went on Youtube to see if David Rea's version of Tom Green County Fair was there. It's not. Lots of Roger Miller's. Then I googled the words and that brought me here. Someone borrowed that David Rea record years ago and never returned it. Has it ever been reissued on CD? Is it downloadable anywhere?