“Art begins in imitation and ends in innovation.”
- Mason Cooley
When I was growing up, Roger Miller was the first songwriter I ran across that could combine subtle, wry humor with the vagaries and complications of life. Of course as a kid, I didn't understand the nuances of how that worked. I just thought his songs were fun. Deftly mixing humor with serious things in songwriting is a special skill. A few do it well. John Prine, of course, comes to mind. But Roger Miller introduced me to the magic act.
A while back I was talking about cover songs and some that have been reinterpreted from the originals in interesting ways. Another Miller, long-time Nashville heavyweight, Buddy, did this version of Roger's song. I'm not sure you could cover a song more differently.
Carry on, RP