Tuesday, June 6, 2023

Big Bad John - Jimmy Dean

Big Bad John - Jimmy Dean
3:03
Big Bad John And Other Fabulous Songs And Tales, 1961
Written by Jimmy Dean

Title trax!

A half-sung, half-spoken story-song about a giant of a man everyone avoided, in the same vein as later songs like "You Don't Mess Around With Jim" and "Bad, Bad Leroy Brown."  The song starts out like it might end up in a similarly ironic way like those songs, but then turns more into a musical folktale, more reminiscent of the legend of John Henry.  A great song, its power dimmed a bit by the passage of time and parodies (like the sublime "Ballad of Irving").

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