Happy Thanksgiving! The Alice's Restaurant massacree took place a half century ago today, or so the song says. Don't get caught driving garbage around on this Thanksgiving, and certainly not dumping it over a cliff where you might get caught. This song is probably why they have large fences installed in Massachusetts near all of the highway rest areas, to discourage people from dumping garbage.
This Herb Alpert song 45 years ago was number six on the charts. Seems like a good way to round on the mid-week -- somber but relaxed.
"Well I just popped over the ole state line
My headlights focused on a welcome sign
When hidin' in the bushes there waitin' for me
Was a big policeman with a capital P
Shoutin' look out stranger you're headin' for danger
There's a welcome sign ahead""He dragged me up to the old town square
The justice of the peace waitin' for his shareHe said looky here boy you'd better slow down
You're in a heap of trouble in this one-horse town
So look out stranger you're headin' for danger
There's a welcome sign ahead"
"I've got those drag 'em off the interstate sock it to 'em JP blues"
"Yeah welcome in the evenin' sock 'em when they're leavin' bluesA kangaroo court is the last resort on a low down shake down cruise
Got them drag 'em off the interstate sock it to 'em JP blues""A woman gettin' mugged in the heart of town
Yells for the cops but there's none around
They're down on the interstate settin' a trap
A huntin' for a live one to skin and wrap
So look out stranger you're headin' for danger
There's a welcome sign ahead""When a sign says Welcome To God's Country
Lord you got competion from a slick JP
Fuzzy old buzzards that fill in their craws
With highway robbery in the name of the law
So look out stranger you're headin' for danger
There's a welcome sign ahead""I've got those drag 'em off the interstate sock it to 'em JP blues...
Got them drag 'em off the interstate sock it to 'em JP blues
Yeah here they come"
The late Mr. Curless sings the truth. Drive carefully when you pass those welcome signs.
Country Moog (Switched On Nashville)
"Now there's more to do
Than watch my sailboat glide
But every day can be
A magic carpet ride
A little bit of courage is all we lack
So catch me if you can, I'm goin' back"
It was the third of June, another sleepy, dusty Delta day
I was out choppin' cotton, and my brother was balin' hay
And at dinner time we stopped and walked back to the house to eat
And mama hollered out the back door, y'all, remember to wipe your feet
And then she said, I got some news this mornin' from Choctaw Ridge
Today, Billy Joe MacAllister jumped off the Tallahatchie BridgeAnd papa said to mama, as he passed around the blackeyed peas
Well, Billy Joe never had a lick of sense; pass the biscuits, please
There's five more acres in the lower forty I've got to plow
And mama said it was shame about Billy Joe, anyhow
Seems like nothin' ever comes to no good up on Choctaw Ridge
And now Billy Joe MacAllister's jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge
This song, the third most popular song of 1967, fitting for it's lyrics about June 3rd, is considered an anti-war song that discusses the cruelty of war and the general apathy of the public towards it.
As Gentry told Fred Bronson, “The song is sort of a study in unconscious cruelty. But everybody seems more concerned with what was thrown off the bridge than they are with the thoughtlessness of the people expressed in the song. What was thrown off the bridge really isn’t that important.