I Love Trash

Steven Tyler Trash As a kid, one of my jobs was taking out the trash at our house. After I moved away, though, I lived in apartments for most of my life.  So taking out the trash just meant putting my garbage in a common receptacle. It was convenient when I lived in a New York City apartment and could walk down the hall and put my garbage in a chute at my leisure.  But there was something I missed about having “trash night” when you have to gather all the garbage to put out by the curb for the morning pickup.

Through the years, I would return to my hometown and stay with my family.  And I would once again find myself helping with trash night if I happened to be there on that night of the week.

A few years ago, I bought a house and re-encountered “trash night” with my own house, where I had to gather the trash (and recyclables) to put it by the curb for the morning pickup. And once again, it is my household job to take out the trash. While it is an extra chore, perhaps because we had not lived in a house for so long, I find something nostalgic every time I take out the trash, standing by the curb at night.

It may seem odd to find a connection with the garbage.  But the chore reminds me of my childhood and gives me a connection to those days and the family who shared the chores who are no longer around.  I enjoy the moment and how something so common can give one a connection to the past.

I Love Trash

Perhaps, not surprisingly, there are not a lot of songs about garbage, something that plays such a big role in our lives in various ways. Maybe the most famous song is “I Love Trash” by Oscar the Grouch.  For many, the song itself reminds one of childhood and watching Sesame Street.

Below is Oscar the Grouch singing the song that he first sang during the first season of Sesame Street. Oscar is voiced by Caroll Spinney. It makes me laugh that on YouTube around one thousand people have taken the time to give this performance a thumbs down. How can you not love this song?

I’ve a clock that won’t work,
And an old telephone,
A broken umbrella, a rusty trombone;
And I am delighted to call them my own!
I love them because they’re trash.

In 1998, Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler covered Oscar’s song for the Elmopalooza! album of Sesame Street covers by pop stars. The recording sounds like an Aerosmith hit, complete with Tyler’s great screaming.

Steven Tyler is not the only popular artist to sing “I Love Trash.” On a 1989 episode of The Jim Henson Hour, singer k.d. lang used her wonderful voice to join a group of Muppets on “I Love Trash.” (Unfortunately, the video is no longer on YouTube.)

Who’s Gonna Take the Garbage Out

Despite Oscar’s popularity, perhaps the song about trash that did the best on the charts is “Who’s Gonna Take the Garbage Out.” The song written by Johnny Tillotson and Teddy Wilburn and originally recorded by Loretta Lynn and Ernest Tubb was a Top Twenty hit on the Billboard Hot Country Chart in 1969.

The duet by Lynn and Tubb appeared on their album If We Put Our Heads Together (1969). The song is in the tradition of many great country duets, with the couple going back and forth about whether or not the man is cheating. The woman is throwing him out of the house, but the man asks the question of the song’s title about how the garbage will be taken out after he is gone. The song perfectly captures the part that a household chore plays in our lives, and sometimes in our relationships.

More recently, John Prine covered “Who’s Gonna Take the Garbage Out” with Iris DeMent on his 2016 album For Better, or Worse.

However you discard of your trash and recyclables this week, may you find some joy in your weekly chores.

What is your favorite song about garbage? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Enjoy the History of Country Music with Cocaine & Rhinestones Podcast

    One of my favorite podcasts lately has been Cocaine & Rhinestones by Tyler Mahan Coe.  In each episode, Coe delves deep into the history of country music in the twentieth century.

    Cocaine & Rhinestones Episodes run anywhere between forty minutes and two hours, and each one may examine an artist’s career or may analyze the history behind a certain song, or both.  For example, one two-part episode centered on the relationship between Buck Owens and his guitarist Don Rich.  Another episode tells the story about how radio stations banned Loretta Lynn’s song, “The Pill.”  Another episode focused on Bobby Gentry’s “Ode to Bille Joe” while also giving a fascinating overview of Gentry’s career.

    Coe does an outstanding job trying to tell the truth behind the stories behind country music.  An avid reader, Coe delves into books that tell the stories, comparing versions of events so he can explain his best estimate of what really happened.

    Coe’s goal of telling us what really happened is part of the reason why he does not use original interviews but wraps information together to tell us the stories.  And at the end of each podcast, Coe also fills us in with “liner notes,” telling us a little more about his sources and other information that might not have fit in the main tale.

    As you might guess from the title Cocaine & Rhinestones, Coe does not shy away from the darker legends of country music, such as the first episode about how Ernest Tubb once showed up in slippers to try to shoot someone.

    But Coe is most interested in the music behind these artists.  His podcasts feature excepts from important songs, and he often breaks them down to help you hear them in a new way.

    Coe recently explained to The New Yorker how one of his radio inspirations is Paul Harvey, who hosted, among other shows, The Rest of the Story.  I used to listen to those shows as a kid too, and I even bought books with written versions of Harvey’s episodes.  So, I can hear the connection, mostly in the way that Coe tells a good story that keeps you entertained while you learn something new.

    Tyler Mahan Coe’s background in country music goes back to his birth, as he is the son of country legend David Allan Coe and later played guitar in his dad’s band.  Now, he lives in Nashville as he spreads the gospel of country music through the Internet.

    So, check, out the episodes from the first season of Cocaine & Rhinestones at the show’s website.  Find an artist or topic that interests you and start with that episode.  One of my favorites was his take on The Louvin Brothers (Running Wild), which also inspired me to read one of the books Coe recommended.

    Yet, part of the joy is learning about people you do not know and the way Coe ties together a number of country music characters throughout the episodes. So, yes, start with a song or artist you think you know already.  But, like me, you probably will just give in and decide to go back and listen to all of the episodes of Cocaine & Rhinestones in order.  And then you will wait anxiously for Season Two.

    What is your favorite episode of Cocaine & Rhinestones? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    John Prine Releasing New Album, “For Better, For Worse”

    John Prine Album John Prine is releasing a new album of duets called For Better, For Worse (2016).  On the upcoming album, Prine covers a number of country classics with some help from female singers like Iris DeMent, Alison Krauss, Miranda Lambert, Kathy Mattea, Kacey Musgraves, Fiona Prine, Amanda Shires, Morgane Stapleton, Susan Tedeschi, Holly Williams, and Lee Ann Womack.

    The Album

    For Better, For Worse is a follow-up of sorts to Prine’s 1999 album of similar duets, In Spite of Ourselves.   Jim Rooney helped produce the 1999 CD, and he is on board again for the new album.

    Prine explained to NPR that he was “kinda tricked” into recording his first full-length CD in five years.  His wife and his son-manager suggested he record a handful of songs to fill the last side of a vinyl version of In Spite of Ourselves.  Once he got started, they encouraged him to round out a new album.

    Although we long for a new album of original material from Prine, this one sounds pretty good so far. He chooses some great songs originally performed by artists like Hank Williams, George Jones, Ernest Tubb, and Buck Owens.

    “Who’s Gonna Take the Garbage Out”

    On the new album, Iris DeMent joins Prine on “Who’s Gonna Take the Garbage Out,” which you may hear below.

    Johnny Tillotson and Teddy Wilburn wrote “Who’s Gonna Take the Garbage Out.” The song was originally recorded by Loretta Lynn and Ernest Tubb in 1969. Check out their version below.

    For Better, Or Worse hits the Internet on September 30, 2016.

    What is your favorite John Prine album? Leave your two cents in the comments.

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    Blue Christmas & the Elvis TV Special

    In what is now known as “The ’68 Comeback Special,” what was originally conceived as a Christmas special ended up with only one holiday song, “Blue Christmas.”

    Elvis Presley ChristmasIt was the Christmas television special that never was. Peter Guralnick explained in his wonderful two-volume biography of Elvis Presley how Elvis’s famous 1968 “Comeback Special” started with the idea of a holiday special. But it turned into something completely different.

    By the late 1960’s, Elvis had become largely irrelevant to the current music scene.  In recent years he had spent his time in a wasteland of movies of declining quality.

    For a change in strategy, Colonel Parker negotiated a deal with NBC for a TV special around the holidays.  And Parker envisioned it as a Christmas special.

    Elvis Presley 1968 Comeback SpecialBut Elvis and Steve Binder, the director of the program, had something else in mind. They designed the special in a way to reestablish Elvis as a relevant music artist.

    The special featured several big set productions and an outstanding closing number written just for Elvis.  But the centerpiece of the special featured Elvis in black leather singing out the raw blues of his early work — both in stand-up and sit-down segments.

    Binder recorded two sit-down sessions with Elvis on June 27, 1968 for the December TV special.  Both versions of “Blue Christmas” are available on DVD. In one of the sessions, Elvis also sang “Santa Claus Is Back in Town,” but it was not used in the show.

    The special, promoted as “Elvis” but now known as The ’68 Comeback Special, was a turning point in Presleys career. It relaunched him as a relevant music artist who would soon record such great songs as “Suspicious Minds.”

    “Blue Christmas”

    In the special, which was broadcast on December 3, 1968, Binder agreed to allow only one Christmas song in the show.  The song was “Blue Christmas,” which Elvis had first recorded in 1957.

    Elvis’s 1957 rock and roll performance defined “Blue Christmas.” But the song had been recorded almost a decade earlier in 1948 by Ernest Tubb. One of the most recent covers of the song was released by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band with a horn section on a fun version of “Blue Christmas.”

    One can see why Binder allowed this one holiday song in the 1968 special.  “Blue Christmas” is steeped in the blues, and Presley knocks it out of the park.

    Watching the performance  feels like being in the living room jamming with the greatest singer in the world. The King had returned.

    Bonus Ranking: See where “Blue Christmas” ranks among the top depressing holiday songs of all time here.

    Bonus History Trivia: This week in 1957, Elvis was at Graceland celebrating the holidays when he received his draft notice on December 20, 1957.

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