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Tumbling Tumbleweeds Record 5 Both Covers for site

Liner Notes

Cowboy songs and sagas

How are we only on record five of this great seven record set? Because I continue to find gold in this box set filled with legendary songs about the old west.

Each record, or in this case each side of this collection had its own theme. Even with those guides, I might take a little poetic license when I name episodes like this.

One side of this record is about things South Of The Border. The flip side mentions a thing or two about Legends And Sagas. Some you may know. Some have some pretty odd twists if you ask me.

So, get ready to hear plenty of “ahh aaahs” and stories about heroes and villains in what is technically Tumbling Tumbleweeds Record 5, Volume 214: Badlands.

Video Intro

Listen here or on my PodBean Podcast Episode page:

You can check out the video version here or on YouTube:

Credits and Copyrights:

Various – Tumbling Tumbleweeds
Label: Reader’s Digest – RDA-229 / A
Format: 7 x Vinyl, LP, Compilation Box Set
Released: 1982
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Country

We will be listening to record 5, sides 1 and 2.
We will hear 7 of the 12 tunes from this disk.

Eddy Arnold – The Ballad Of Jesse James
written by Billy Gashade

Red Foley – Don’t Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes
written by Slim Willet

Merle Travis – John Henry
Unknown, but One of the earliest written copies of this ballad, prepared by a W. T. Blankenship was published about 1900 or slightly earlier.

The Sons Of The Pioneers – A Gay Ranchero
written by Francia Luban, Abe Tuvim, Juan José Espinosa

The Sons Of The Pioneers – The Strawberry Roan
written by Nat Vincent, Fred Howard, Curly Fletcher, J.E. Patterson

Tex Ritter – Billy The Kid
A traditional song

Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys – South Of The Border (Down Mexico Way)
written by Jimmy Kennedy, Michael Carr

I do not own the rights to this music. ASCAP, BMI licenses provided by third-party platforms for music that is not under Public Domain.

#oldcountrymusic #cowboymusic #vinylcollecting #spinvinyl

Here is the Episode Script!

Thanks sweetie and thank YOU for tuning into episode 214 of Spinning My Dad’s Vinyl.

How are we only on record five of this great seven record set? Because I continue to find gold in this box set filled with legendary songs about the old west.

Each record, or in this case each side of this collection had its own theme. Even with those guides, I might take a little poetic license when I name episodes like this.

One side of this record is about things South Of The Border. The flip side mentions a thing or two about Legends And Sagas. Some you may know. Some have some pretty odd twists if you ask me.

So, get ready to hear plenty of Ahh aaahs and stories about heroes or villains in what is technically Tumbling Tumbleweeds Record 5, Volume 214: Badlands.

[Music: The Ballad Of Jesse James]

Eddy Arnold – The Ballad Of Jesse James (Did that song just idolize Jesse James?)
written by Billy Gashade

Days after Jesse James was shot down in 1882 by the vengeful and greedy Robert Ford, one of Jesse’s trusted gunmen, a ballad appeared picturing Jesse as a modern day Robin Hood betrayed by a dirty little coward. Whoever he was, the anonymous composer was a superb propagandist, for the substance of his song pursued Ford, who was pardoned and rewarded by the state of Missouri, to his death at the hand of an assassin in a small Colorado town.

That’s from the great booklet that is included in this 7-record box set. I’ll use those notes for each of the songs you’ll hear.

Ok…Why this record for this episode?

Like I said in the opening, it was time to get to another disk in this great collection.

Plus, I’ve really been enjoying the music from this box set. Some are songs I sang around some campfire during my boy scout years or school camps. Others are songs I played while on one radio station or another. But mostly, these songs are good ole americana.

No matter if you’ve listened to the past episodes that featured this collection or hear any of the remaining sides, you’re going to hear a song or more that you will recognize, no matter how old YOU are.

Moving on…

Singer-songwriter Slim Willett, Skeets McDonald, Ray price, Red Foley and Perry Como all scored a hit with Willett’s Don’t Let the Stars Get in Your Eyes, then an answer song also penned by Willett, I Let the stars get in my Eyes, was a major seller for Goldie Hill. One song, six hits. When Foley recorded this song in 1952, he was at the peak of his popularity and was Master of Ceremonies on the only Network telecast from the grand ole opry. Shortly thereafter, he went into semi-retirement because of personal problems and was never able to fully recapture the success of his earlier career.

[Music: Don’t Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes]

Red Foley – Don’t Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes
written by Slim Willet

Now let me tell you about my dad’s vinyl I am spinning for this episode.

Various – Tumbling Tumbleweeds
Label: Reader’s Digest – RDA-229 / A
Format: 7 x Vinyl, LP, Compilation Box Set
Released: 1982
Genre: Folk, World, & Country
Style: Country

We will be listening to record 5, sides 1 and 2. Reader’s Digest did not use the automatic spindle numbering order for this collection.

We will hear 7 of the 12 tunes from this disk.

I’ve already read all of the paragraphs of the liner notes that do not deal specifically with any of the songs, so let’s move on.

Let’s see what prices this record is being sold at on discogs dot com.

$16.00 High
$5.00 Low

$11.06 Average
$10.85 Median

Last sold on Aug 13, 2024 for $15.

My dad’s record is in fair condition. Not much crackle or pop, and not too much noise between the tracks. The record surface itself is extremely clean, with no visible marks or scratches. Probably because the records are in nicely designed internal sleeves. They are plastic lined thick paper sleeves. You can see each disk’s label, but they are behind the plastic.

One of the best protectors in my dad’s entire collection.

The box is in great shape. The cover image is still very bright. And the box itself is still very green.

The internal booklet, where I get all this great info for each song, is also in very good condition. Even with how much I’ve been handling it over the last three and a half years.

Reader’s Digest did a really nice job with the quality of this collection.

I’ll value my dad’s vinyl at $10.

Up next…
The first album that Merle Travis recorded for Capital Records was called folk songs of the hills, which included one of his own songs, 16 tons. his own material is so close to the language and feeling of traditional music that it has been collected by folklorists and often appears in folk song collections. here, he gives his own special twist to what has been called America’s greatest ballad, John henry, about a black railroad worker who met his death during construction of the big bend tunnel on the C&O Railroad in the West Virginia mountains in the early 1870s

[Music: John Henry]

Merle Travis – John Henry
Composer is unknown, but one of the earliest written copies of this ballad, prepared by a W. T. Blankenship was published about 1900 or slightly earlier.

Here’s where I usually do a bio of the featured artist, but since there isn’t just one, we’ll move on with a double shot from the group that is probably present on every record in this collection, if not every side.

Until 1836 Texas was a part of Mexico and the Tex-Mex influence is still strong throughout the southwest. It’s not surprising, therefore, that a number of Western and country songs have emerged with a strong romanticized Spanish influence. One of these, A Gay Ranchero, was first heard in a 1943 Roy Rogers film called King of the Cowboys, which also featured Smiley Burnette and the Sons of the Pioneers. It was used again in 1948, this time as the title song of another Roger’s film.

[Music: A Gay Ranchero]
[Music: Strawberry Roan]

We started that Sons Of The Pioneers doubleshot with
A Gay Ranchero
written by Francia Luban, Abe Tuvim, Juan José Espinosa

And we just heard

The Strawberry Roan (lyrics are a little suggestive)
written by Nat Vincent, Fred Howard, Curly Fletcher, J.E. Patterson

Curly Fletcher was a famous rodeo rider who also wrote poetry. He wrote the Strawberry Roan in 1915 as a long, rambling narrative poem. After he broke both arms and legs and could no longer ride, he took the piece to popular songwriter Nat Vincent and offered to sell it for $200. Vincent gave him the money together with a full share of any royalties and then broke up the song into stanzas and added the refrains. It was first heard in a Ken Maynard picture, Strawberry Roan, and later sung by Gene Autry in another film with the same title. The Sons of the Pioneers, who appeared with both Maynard and Audrey in their films, have been singing this song since the 1930s

Time now for this episode’s interesting side note and it has to do with the story from the booklet behind this next song that got me intrigued to find out more about this historical figure.

Henry McCarty was born September 17 or November 23, 1859. He soon went as William H. Bonney, but was better known as Billy the Kid. He was an American outlaw and gunfighter of the Old West who was linked to nine murders: four for which he was solely responsible, and five in which he may have played a role alongside others.

Orphaned at the age of 15, his first arrest was for stealing food at the age of 16 in 1875. Ten days later, he robbed a Chinese laundry and was arrested again but escaped shortly afterwards. He fled from New Mexico Territory into neighboring Arizona Territory, making himself both an outlaw and a federal fugitive.

After killing a blacksmith during an altercation in August 1877, Bonney became a wanted man in Arizona and returned to New Mexico, where he joined a group of cattle rustlers. He became well known in the region when he joined the Regulators and took part in the Lincoln County War of 1878. He and two other Regulators were later charged with killing three men, including Lincoln County Sheriff William J. Brady and one of his deputies.

Bonney’s notoriety grew in December 1880 when the Las Vegas Gazette, in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and The Sun, in New York City, carried stories about his crimes. Sheriff Pat Garrett captured Bonney later that month. In April 1881, Bonney was tried for and convicted of Brady’s murder, and was sentenced to hang in May of that year. He escaped from jail on April 28, killing two sheriff’s deputies in the process, and evaded capture for more than two months. Garrett eventually shot and killed Bonney, by then aged 21, in Fort Sumner on July 14, 1881.

During the decades following his death, legends grew that Bonney had survived, and a number of men claimed to be him. Billy the Kid remains one of the most notorious figures from the era, whose life and likeness have been frequently dramatized in Western popular culture. He has been a feature of more than 50 movies and several television series.

And now from the internal booklet.

William Bonney, born in New York City in 1859, shot his first man in silver city, new mexico, at the age of 12, and thus earned the nickname Billy the kid. All attempts to make him a handsome and Gallant Daredevil have failed, and he emerges historically as a nondescript, physically repulsive little man who never won a fair gunfight. The Ballad Billy the Kid, which Tex Ritter sings in his characteristic deep campfire voice, was composed long after Bonney’s death in 1881.

[Music: Billy The Kid]

Tex Ritter – Billy The Kid
A traditional song

Well, I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I enjoyed bringing it to you.

I would often catch my dad listening to this kind of music late in his life out on the patio where he spent a lot of time during warm weather. He usually rotated this music with his big band and rat pack CDs.

I’ve really been enjoying listening to the music on all of the records of this box set. I’ve already digitized the last two disks in this collection.

I think I remember this box set cover from my growing up days in the house.

It’s a silhouetted image of a cowboy on horseback at either sunrise or sunset. Who knows, they work from one to the other. Very distinguishable.

Now onto the title track of Side A of this disk.

In 1939 Gene Autry was at the peak of his career, making a half dozen films every year and following them with best selling records. That year, English men Jimmy Kennedy and Michael Carr composed South of the Border for Autry, and it served as both the title tune for a film and an Autry recording that sold more than 3 million copies in two years. Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys give South of the Border a distinctive Western swing touch on this recording.

[Music: South Of The Border (Down Mexico Way)]

There’s a song you’ll recognize from Frank Sinatra and Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass from earlier episodes of this show.

Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys – South Of The Border (Down Mexico Way)
written by Jimmy Kennedy, Michael Carr

And there you have selections from what was technically Tumbling Tumbleweeds Part 5, Selections from the fifth record in a 7-record box set with great country hits.

So thanks for tuning into Volume 214: Badlands

however you did. If you want more information about this SHOW, head over to spinning my dad’s vinyl dot com.

I’ll be back next week with all my skips, scratches, and pops

FOR Volume 215: Single-sided 78s

Until then,
Go with the flow my friends.

 

 

 

 

 

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