Ollie Hardy should have had more sense

In 1974, Paul McCartney, late of The Beatles (I guess we have to add that fact now) went to Nashville to try his hand at cutting a country song or two. One result of those sessions was a song called "Sally G." I was still a country DJ at the time, and my boss made me play it one time to see what kind of reaction it got from the listeners. I can come close to summing up that experience by sharing the words of one South Baltimorean, who asked - demanded! - that I "get that shitoffadaradio!"

Ever since, I have wanted to write an autobiography and title the chapter about my on-air days "Shitoffadaradio." But I digress.

"Sally G" is just the sort of turgid music that people put out when they want to "go country," and it was a huge flop. Never went anywhere in country music, and as I understand it, McCartney is still eking out a living by appearing with James Corden and singing his old songs. He has been singing about Strawberry Fields forever.

So the record company made it the flip side to the one and only McCartney song I do like.  Also released in 1974, "Junior's Farm", was a #3 hit in the US later that year.

The lyrics to "Junior's Farm" are below for your enjoyment. In the 60s and 70s, it was a standard practice among songwriters to write down 2,493 words on index cards, toss them up in the air, and then stack them once they landed and call it a song. I mean, he goes from playing poker to talking to an Inuit to seeing a seal to wanting to "lay" low to Parliament talking about Richard Nixon to buying cement to Oliver Hardy, of Laurel and Hardy fame, to inflation and back to playing poker. 

Always nice to hear a guy with a fortune whine about the prices of soup and beans.

It's dizzying in its total lack of meaning, but, McCartney, asked just what he was talking about, said he had been listening to Bob Dylan's "Maggie's Farm" and "the idea was to just get a fantasy song about this person Junior." Paul acknowledged that while Dylan's song had meaning and gravity, " 'Junior's Farm' has silly words and basically all it means is, 'Let's get out of the city' ... As for reading deep meanings into the words, people shouldn't bother, there aren't any."

He is right. We shouldn't bother. But who is this "Junior," you ask? Well, sir, if you like good country music with lyrics that mean something, you probably know songs such as "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" (Tammy Wynette), "Dumb Blonde" (Dolly Parton), "Green Green Grass Of Home" (Tom Jones, Porter Wagoner, and dozens more), "He Stopped Loving Her Today" (George Jones), "My Elusive Dreams" (David Houston and Tammy Wynette), and "You Can't Have Your Kate and Edith Too" by the Statler Brothers.

And those songs, and literally hundreds more, were written by Princeton, Alabama native Claude Putman, Jr, known professionally as "Curly" Putman. Or "Junior." With the bags of money he made from writing "Green Green Grass Of Home," Junior bought himself and his wife a nice farm in Lebanon, Tennessee, and that's where McCartney and company stayed while cutting songs in Nashville at Soundshop Studios. 

McCartney and Wings at Junior's Farm (lyrics below)




You should have seen me with the poker man

I had a honey and I bet a grand

Just in the nick of time I looked at his hand

I was talking to an Eskimo

Said he was hoping for a fall of snow

When up popped a sea lion ready to go




Let's go, let's go, let go, let go

Down to Junior's Farm where I want to lay low

Low life, high life, oh let's go

Take me down to Junior's Farm




At the Houses of Parliament

Ev'rybody's talking 'bout the President

We all chip in for a bag of cement

Ollie Hardy should have had more sense

He bought a gee-gee and he jumped the fence

All for the sake of a couple of pence




Let's go, let's go, let go, let go

Down to Junior's Farm where I want to lay low

Low life, high life, oh let's go

Take me down to Junior's Farm

Let's go, let's go

Down to Junior's Farm where I want to lay low

Low life, high life, oh let's go

Take me down to Junior's Farm

Everybody tag along




I took my bag into a grocer's store

The price is higher than the time before

Old man asked me why is it more

I said you should have seen me with the poker man

I had a honey and I bet a grand

Just in the nick of time I looked at his hand




Let's go, let's go, let go, let go

Down to Junior's Farm where I want to lay low

Low life, high life, oh let's go

Take me down to Junior's Farm




Let's go, let's go

Down to junior's farm where I want to lay low

Low life, high life, oh let's go

Take me down to Junior's Farm

Everybody tag along

Take me down to Junior's Farm




Take me back

Take me back

I want to go back

Yeah yeah



Later on, Putman said that the band had fun visiting his farm: “They just seemed to enjoy being out in the country. They rode horses. I have a pond and they went swimming in it…Paul was very likable, personable. He just seemed like one of us.”

Those were the days, my friend, when a Beatle could seem like one of us. So there's the story of a record I didn't like (along with everyone else) and the one McCartney song I did, along with millions and millions of others.