Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Old dogs, Children and Watermelon Wine

For some reason this weekend, this old Tom T. Hall song entered my ADD-rattled brain and I've had trouble getting it off my mind. A quick search this morning showed me I'm not completely alone (see this lady's blog about the song and her family).

In the song, the singer stops in a hotel bar in Miami for a quick drink before bed. He sounds like he'd prefer to be alone, but someone sits down beside him and begins to talk. Man, I hate it when that happens. But the singer learns something from the visitor as he explains "Ain't but three things in this world that's worth a solitary dime..." ...wait for it... "...But old dogs and children, and watermelon wine."

Hall has many songs that I love, including his hit "I Love". Some of his songs are funny, one that my kids have heard me sing a lot is "Sneaky Snake". I also like "Faster Horses" (another song about the virtues in life, in this case "faster horses, younger women, older whiskey and more money").

Probably my favorite song by Hall is the simple melody "I Like Beer". But of course a paragraph on simple melodies would be incomplete without the mention of the song "That Song is Driving me Crazy" - ever get a song stuck in your head and it won't leave? - this song will stay in your head for weeks.

Rhapsody describes Tom T. Hall as "story teller, poet, philosopher." I think when I die, I'd like to be known as a philospher (it would be even better to be thought that way now - but the pay isn't what it used to be). You can read the lyrics and even listen to "Watermelon Wine" on Rhapsody's site here.

2 comments:

Chuck said...

I always liked this song. Not as catchy as some of the new ones like "I like stanky Hos" or some of the others, but still a good one.

Randy said...

Chuck, not sure I ever heard that song...