Want a cure for "daylight saving" blues? When it's dark and cold at 4:30 in the afternoon, watch any one – or all – of these songs by some of the wittiest composers I know. Some of these songs are old, some are new; but they always pick me up with a laugh.
I had tickets for Ray Wylie Hubbard at McCabe's in Santa Monica a few weeks ago, but I gave them up to watch the Dodgers' game on TV. I hope he comes back to the West Coast soon. Start off with two beauties from this great Texas songwriter.
RAY WYLIE HUBBARD – "Snake Farm"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89VR_lZehw4
RAY WYLIE HUBBARD – "Screw You, We're From Texas" – "The problem with irony is not everyone gets it."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-cFtSPIF4Q
-- and four versions of Hayes Carll's new classic "She Left Me For Jesus." (Just because I like it so much.)
HAYES CARLL – "She Left Me For Jesus" – from his "Trouble In Mind" CD
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5D6dUhkoWc
HAYES CARLL – "She Left Me For Jesus" – official video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhkHG-oKCEU
HAYES CARLL – "She Left Me For Jesus" – solo, in a radio station
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wdF84qS_4o
HAYES CARLL -- "She Left Me For Jesus" – live at Schuba's in Chicago in 2008
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AyxEO9dqi44
JOHNNY CASH – "A Boy Named Sue" – Shel Silverstein's classic – live at San Quentin
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WOHPuY88Ry4
RANDY NEWMAN – "Political Science" -- live with the Rotterdam Philharmonic from 1979
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du3WhHrrNgs
RANDY NEWMAN – "Sail Away" – live with the Rotterdam Philharmonic from 1979
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwwhHI_IMog
BOB DYLAN – "Dignity" – always a first-class wit, and this song is Bob at the top of his game, written in 1989 – from a 1994 live "MTV Unplugged"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5NbvGJJ3tM
-- with Zimmy's gravely voice, it's a good idea to follow along with the lyrics
https://www.bobdylan.com/us/songs/dignity
"COMEDY TONIGHT" – from A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE FORUM – a shakey video from the Nathan Lane revival – gotta have a Sondheim when I should have seven
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvrh2e8Ep14
TOM LEHRER – "Poisoning Pigeons In the Park" – old laughs
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhuMLpdnOjY
TOM LEHRER – "The Elements" – which some people, not I, have memorized
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcS3NOQnsQM
and (can't leave out my Huckleberry friend JOHNNY MERCER – "Go out and try your luck / You might be Donald Duck / Hooray for Hollywood!")
"HOORAY FOR HOLLYWOOD" – the deliriously wacky opening sequence from "Hollywood Hotel" – directed by Busby Berkeley in 1933
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkPkHv8KnBs
And the last laughs are on me because I didn't include any John Prine or Roger Miller or Guy Clark or Frank Loesser or "Yip" Harburg or Tim Minchin or Robbie Fulks or Todd Snider or Amy Rigby.
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