Boogie Down (Me): The Shot Gun Boogie (#4)

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I’ve been here for an hour and a half and I’m beginning to think Chuy’s isn’t opening today! Just kidding, I’m home, enjoying tea after a very filling lunch. Just because it’s a holiday doesn’t mean you get a break from a boogie song! Here’s today’s song from my side of the list. Linda? Probably not. #4: The Shot Gun Boogie - Tennessee Ernie Ford Imagine a hillbilly song so cool that Cab Calloway covered it! That’s what we have here. This is also a song that was probably true in that time and that part of the country, but definitely meant to be humorous. After all, nothing says “true love” in the country like a Fox .410 shotgun, right? That’s what Ernest Jennings Ford (bet you didn’t know he had a real first and middle name, and it was not “Tennessee Ernie”!) presented here. This isn’t what you think of when you think of “gun-happy” people in modern times. No, this is what people had guns for “back then”: hunting. (Yeah, and dads threatening unwelcome suitors of their daughters. ) The narrator boasts of being able to knock off an animal for dinner quickly (“all I need is one shot, look out bushy tail, tonight you’ll be in the pot”). That’s how he meets a girl, who’s equally good with her gun. It’s love at first shot…er, ah, sight. Tennessee Ernie is one of the few names in country music that was very well known outside of country music, thanks to his TV show and his classic song “Sixteen Tons.” He gave the world a wide variety of somber, gospel, and novelty songs, and this is one of his best. The Shot Gun Boogie Written by Ernie Ford Recorded by Tennessee Ernie Ford Released as a single, 1951 He don’t like a man that’s going to trifle: