Kinky Friedman - Sensitive PoetNo, Really...No, I'm Not Joking...

Years ago, before i'd actually heard anything by *Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys*, i'd heard of them.(You can skip to the bottom of this post if you just want to hear the song it's about, but you'll miss lots of Interesting Stuff...)Then the mysteries under his name began appearing (beginning with "*Greenwich Killing Time*":http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0571191347/mikewebersweberw, and i liked them a lot; i was particularly fascinated by the "voice" of Kinky-as-character.And the dialog in general - in the second book, ("*A Case of Lone Star*":http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0571194125/mikewebersweberw, Kinky and Tompaul Glaser {one of the original Jewboys} are standing at the door of the late lamented Lone Star Cafe, watching urban cowboys ordering Lone Star longnecks, Glaser allows as how these folks think this is, like, a real Texas C&W roadhouse bar transplanted, sawdust floor, peanuts on the bar and all. Then he snorts and says "Hell, Kink - when we was on the road in Texas, we used to play joints where ya hadda puke twice and show three weapons before they'd let ya in - and that's if you was with the band!"Anyway, along about there i began looking for music by Kinky and the Jewboys, and i found "*Sold American*.":http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000AZKNO/mikewebersweberw(I must admit i was rather startled to find that it was on Vanguard Records - Lawrence Welk's label.)It featured several of the songs i'd heard of - The Ballad of Charles Whitman, Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in the Bed, We Reserve the Right to Refuse Service to You... and Ride 'Em Jewboy.Based on the title, the titles of other songs on the record, and Kinky's reputation, i was pretty sure that i know what Ride 'Em Jewboy was gonna sound like.Only it didn'tIt started out slow, soft and bittersweet:

ride, ride 'em jewboy - ride 'em 'round the old corral;i'm, i'm with you boyif i got to ride six million miles...

At the line about "six million miles" i was suddenly listening a lot closer...And as it went on, there were lines like "...on your chest you wore the yellow star..." and "...dead hands play, with ringless fingers..."A five-minute country-blues meditation on the Holocaust.Whenever you think you've got Kinky Friedman pinned down, he fools you.I hope he gets "*elected Governor of Texas*":http://www.kinkyfriedman.com/ next month.Anyway, now that you've been so patient and read my drivel all this way (or got *im*patient, and skipped ahead - and if you did, i bet you'd read the last page of one of Kinky's mysteries first, too), "*click here for Ride 'em Jewboy*":http://electronictiger.com/stuff/ride.mp3.(This file is fairly small for a fast download because it's mono, resampled down to 32KBPS. If you like it, you really need to "*buy the album*":http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0000AZKNO/mikewebersweberw to have a good copy...)