I've never liked country music but I do like Willie Nelson. I think of Willie as a hippie in a cowboy hat. It doesn't get a lot better than Willie Nelson singing Blue Skies.
And I like Jimmy Buffet's song, Biloxi. Sure, the instrumentation is country, the style is country, the rhythm is country, but the lyrics are far too poetic for it to be a country song. So it's in that same weird category as Blue Skies.
And now Sean Claes brought Lyle Lovett to my attention. Funny thing, Lyle's no more country than Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie, Matt the Electrician, Willie Nelson or Jimmy Buffett.
Oh, yeah. I also like Johnny Cash. Go figure.
These are the lyrics to Lyle's song, If I Had a Boat:
(You should also hear his song, Penguins.)
If I had a boat
I'd go out on the ocean.
And if I had a pony
I'd ride him on my boat.
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean,
Me upon my pony on my boat.
If I were Roy Rogers
I'd sure enough be single.
I couldn't bring myself to marrying old Dale.
It'd just be me and Trigger.
We'd go riding through them movies.
Then we'd buy a boat and on the sea we'd sail.
And if I had a boat
I'd go out on the ocean.
And if I had a pony
I'd ride him on my boat.
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean,
Me upon my pony on my boat.
The mystery masked man was smart.
He got himself a Tonto
'Cause Tonto did the dirty work for free.
But Tonto he was smarter
And one day said, “Kemo sabe,
Kiss my ass I bought a boat
I'm going out to sea.”
And if I had a boat
I'd go out on the ocean.
And if I had a pony
I'd ride him on my boat.
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean,
Me upon my pony on my boat.
And if I were like lightning
I wouldn't need no sneakers.
I'd come and go wherever I would please.
And I'd scare 'em by the shade tree
And I'd scare 'em by the light pole
But I would not scare my pony on my boat out on the sea.
And if I had a boat
I'd go out on the ocean.
And if I had a pony
I'd ride him on my boat.
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean,
Me upon my pony on my boat.