Vintage Wine Top Ten: My Old Kentucky Home (Turpentine and Dandelion Wine) (#9)

Tweet

Thanks to the bad word filter attacking @DianneN ‘s choice of wines I’m counting down favorite songs with “wine” in the title. I’ll have to throw in a couple of bonus songs because there’s just too much wine flowing through my music. Meanwhile, here’s the next song on the list. #9: My Old Kentucky Home (Turpentine and Dandelion Wine) - Three Dog Night The song that introduced me to Randy Newman! Well, I didn’t know it then, of course, as I was only 14. However, I love Three Dog Night’s hit “Pieces of April,” and I got Seven Separate Fools for it. This was, I think, the first non-Elton John rock album I bought. (Also on the album is their mega hit, “Black and White,” along with covers of acts as diverse as Larry Collins (of the west-coast country/rockabilly Collins Kids) and Allen Toussaint.) Immediately following “Black and White” on the album is this Randy Newman-penned tune (Newman also wrote their hit “Mama Told Me [Not to Come]”), a typical pile of sarcasm about the stereotypes of country living. I’m using the 3DN version for two reasons: one, Newman’s version didn’t have the parenthetical title (and subsequently the wine mention); and two, Three Dog Night actually found a way to make this funnier by humming “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” at the end! And Randy probably heard that and said, “Dang, wish I’d thought of that.” No, this is NOT what southern/country/Kentucky life is like. But I have a good sense of humor, and I can laugh along with the stereotypes! My Old Kentucky Home (Turpentine and Dandelion Wine) Written by Randy Newman Recorded by Three Dog Night From Seven Separate Fools, 1972 Brother Gene: