The Big Easy List: The Promised Land

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What do you know, it’s another day of “Hey, that’s not the version I know!” from the Crescent City! Yeah, I’m full of them. (Full of it, too, but that’s for another discussion. ) Hop aboard, let’s head to New Orleans in song! The Promised Land - Freddy Weller WHY NOT ELVIS? Because he left the verse about going through North Carolina out! And why not Chuck Berry, who wrote the song? He’s already been in the countdown (with “Johnny B. Goode”). So why not one of the other 300+ covers? Why Freddy Weller? This was the first version of the song I heard. He had a country hit with this song in 1970. (If you remember, Weller was in the McCartney celebration countdown, having referenced Sir Paul in his song “The Perfect Stranger.”) Fun fact time: this was set to the music of the old country classic “Wabash Cannonball.” I had never heard that from listening to the song, having grown up with both this version of the song AND Roy Acuff singing “Wabash Cannonball” on the Grand Ole Opry all the time. After I read that, I can’t un-hear it. The Promised Land Written by Chuck Berry Recorded by Freddy Weller From The Promised Land, 1970 NEW ORLEANS LYRICS: I was on that midnight flyer out of Birmingham smokin’ into New Orleans