Song of the Day 3/21: Kenny Rogers and the First Edition, “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)
Kenny Rogers, singer, actor and roast-chicken entrepreneur, died yesterday at age 81. Say what you will, but Rogers scored more than 120 chart hits and sold more than 200 million records during his 60-year career, working in a broad range of musical styles, from jazz to folk to, most successfully, country. His first top 10 hit was this tune, described as the first psychedelic country song, recorded in 1967 with a band of fellow alumni of the folk group the New Christy Minstrels. Some famous names worked on the track — it was produced by TV theme-song maestro Mike Post, and Glen Campbell plays the guitar solo. It’s also had a long afterlife on TV and movie soundtracks, most notably the bowling dream sequence in “The Big Lebowski.”
This live version is from 1972, well after the end of the psychedelic rock era but while Rogers still looked like a member of the counterculture.
The song was written by outlaw country songwriting legend Mickey Newbury, who gave the song a far more somber reading. It was supposedly inspired by a trip to the hospital with a fractured spine; the painkillers he was given caused frightening hallucinations (been there, done that) and prompted this song.
The first person to record it was Jerry Lee Lewis, but the Killer decided not to release it at the time. It finally came out after Rogers made it a hit.
RIP Kenny Rogers our Country Icon
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Thank you, Alby. Entertaining and enlightening, as always.
Most certainly welcome. Hope all is well there in the pond.
Kramer and Newman were more into the chicken.
https://youtu.be/glVkl1GOaHI
BTW, the song has been recorded by, among many others, Bettye Lavette, Tinsley Ellis, and Front Country, all of whom I’ve brought to the Gild Hall.
Hey, I’ve earned the occasional right to show off, haven’t I?
Yes you have. Who knows when the next show will be?
Good question. We’re booking for fall, mostly reschedules of shows we’d booked for the spring. Who knows if they will take place?
Maybe we can just all sing out our windows, like they’re doing in Italy.
I came to a show at a venue on the Arden green in 1974-76? I remember hearing and singing along with a band that played Born to Run; could i have seen Springsteen?