This one is very funny! Maximum coolness
factor.
Our visitor J. Knudtson
writes:
Richard and Jim were a Folk/Old-Time duo with guitars and banjos and such. They recorded at least 3 LPs 1: "R & J Sing American Folk Songs" Folklore Records (F-LEUT/5 (U.K.)) 2: "Folk Songs and Country Songs" (Capitol T 2058) 3:"Two Boys from Alabama" (Capitol T 2287). Richard I don't know much about.
Jim is Jim Connor, a fine banjo (frailing/clawhammer style) player. He lived in Sedona AZ in trhe mid-1970's but I haven"t heard anything about him since then. He has a 1975 RCA recording "Jim Connor" #APLI-0874. "Them Poems" are written by Mason Williams.
(Thanks, J. for sharing with us this great info!)
Our visitor Don Birchett writes:
These are works by Mason Williams, the guy who played Classical Gas. He was a song writer, singer, comedian, comedy writer who, other than "Gas", achieved his greatest fame on the Smothers Brothers Show as a writer/performer. He sang some and just chanted others.
He wrote a whole bunch of these "poems". Them Dog Kickers, Them Banjo Pickers, Them Stamp Lickers, Them Toad Suckers, one about exhibitionists called Them Doodle Dashers, Them Tummy Gummers which he performed on the SB Show and my favorite, Them Moose Goosers. As best I can remember, it went something like this:
How 'bout them moose goosers, ain't they cluse(?),
Up in them boondocks, goosin' them moose.
Goosin' them huge moose, goosin' them tiny,
Goosin' they mezza-moose, in they hynie.
Look at them moose goosers, ain't they dumb,
Some use an umbrella, some use a thumb.
Them obtuse moose goosers, up in the woods,
Pokin' them snoozy moose in they goods.
How to be a moose gooser, it'll turn you puce,
Just turn your gooser loose and 'rouse a drousy moose.
Here is another one, Them Toad Suckers:
How about Them Toad Suckers, ain't they clods?
Sittin' there suckin' them green toady-frogs.
Suckin' them hoppytoads, suckin' them chunkers,
Suckin' them leapy types, suckin' them clunkers.
Look at Them Toad Suckers, ain't they snappy?
Suckin' them bog-frogs sure makes'em happy.
Them huggermugger Toad Suckers, way down south,
Stickin' them sucky toads in they mouth.
How to be a Toad Sucker? No way to duck it.
Just get cherself a toad, rare back and suck it!
The Kingston Trio did a few of these on one of their albums. Mason Williams did a whole album of them on Everest Records.
I've been doing web searches and found this one on the Kingston Trio lyric site. I think that one line is wrong, it probably should go something like, "Runnin' kickin' every durn dog that's seen." Just a guess. Anyway, I'll try to find the album. There was also a great C & W parody on it, "You Done Stomped on My Heart (and Mashed That Sucker Flat!)".
The Smothers Brothers were always favorites of mine and after hearing them Tummy Gummers, I saw the album "Mason Williams Listening Matter" as a close out in the University Bookstore. That's the album on Everest I referred to. Anyway, here is Them Dog Kickers and Them Tummy Gummers. (A Tummy gummer is someone who, when seeing a naked or semi-naked baby, will put their mouths over their little tummies and blow making loud rude noises and causing the baby to laugh hysterically.) We've all known people like this. Heck, we've probably all been people like this!
(Super! Thanks, Don!)
Our visitor John Mackin writes:
These guys are from Gadsden, Alabama, which is near where I live. Jim is still around here, and Richard lives out west. I know them, but a friend of mine knows them pretty well. (Sounds good! Thanks a bunch, John!)
Do you have other background
information about
