Top Ten Non-Hit Eye Songs: Black-Eyed Susie (#10)

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Now that the baby giraffe is born and walking around it's time to turn my attention to the eyes. Yeah, giraffes have cute eyes, but I'm counting down my favorite songs with "eyes" (or a variation) in the title. It's split into hits and non-hits. Here's one that technically wasn't a hit, but everyone in my neck of the woods knows. #10: Black-Eyed Susie - Johnson Mountain Boys This is one of those fiddle tunes with more or less nonsensical lyrics that are meant to serve as a hoedown call. If you remember Bugs Bunny playing fiddle and singing things to the two hillbillies, that's pretty much what we have here. The song is so old nobody really knows where it came from. That's another cool thing about music research: "old-time songs" that predate the recording process are the subject of much scholarly research, discussion, and even debate. But that's for the music geeks. Most people just love to dance to this song, and maybe sing along with those "deep" lyrics ("love my wife, love my baby, love my biscuits soppin' gravy"). I picked the Johnson Mountain Boys' version for a number of reasons. I love Dudley Connell's voice. Eddie Stubbs is a fiddling force. And this was the last song I ever saw the JMB do live before they broke up. Black-Eyed Susie Traditional Recorded by the Johnson Mountain Boys From Requests, 1988 Hey!