Live at the Purple Onion

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The Songs and Comedy of the Smothers Brothers at the Purple Onion
Live album by Smothers Brothers
Released May 1, 1961
Label Mercury Records
Smothers Brothers chronology
The Songs and Comedy of the Smothers Brothers at the Purple Onion
1961		 The Two Sides of the Smothers Brothers
1962


The Songs and Comedy of the Smothers Brothers at the Purple Onion (released May 1, 1961 on Mercury Records). This was the first album released by the Smothers Brothers and established their reputation as folk music satirists. The Purple Onion is a celebrated cellar in the North Beach area of San Francisco that launched the careers of the Kingston Trio and Phyllis Diller in addition to the Smothers Brothers. Complete Smothers Brothers' discography can be found here.

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Pretoria" (4:26) - Made famous by The Weavers as "Marching to Pretoria," given slightly different words by Tom (e.g., "You sleep with me, I'll sleep with you"). Also includes Tom's discussion of great marching songs, including "The March from The Bridge on the River Kwai" (actually the "Colonel Bogey March"), where they just whistled the words because "the words were dirty."
  2. "Dance, Boatman, Dance" (5:55) - A song about the boatman working the great rivers of America with poles, although they wanted oars, and would "go into town to pick up their oars." Tom's introduction talks about our hearty forefathers with "pioneer blood cursing through their veins" who came over the "Applechain Mountains."
  3. "Down in the Valley" (4:21) - Tom introduces the rest of the group and notes that they are indeed brothers and admits that while "Smothers is a stupid name," that is their real name. The song is a lovely duet based on the Smothers's own arrangement.
  4. "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena, Tzena" (2:11) - Another song made popular by The Weavers now becomes a song about the excitement of a one-humped camel race in Uruguay.
  5. "I Wish I Wuz in Peoria" (1:50) - A song from the "Probation" era of the Roaring Twenties.
  6. "They Call the Wind Maria" (4:23) - The showtune from Paint Your Wagon becomes a folk song "from the Israeli section of Holland."
  7. "Jezebel" (5:42) - The Frankie Laine hit becomes a song about a beautiful woman named "Mary Ann Johnson" who was "evil, wicked, bad, and mean and nasty inside," and who Tom puts in the same category with Lolita and Betty Crocker.
  8. "I Never Will Marry" (2:48) - Sung straight. Recorded again with a comic ending on Think Ethnic!.
  9. "Tom Dooley" (4:47) - The "virgin edition" of the "internal triangle" supposedly written by Dick and then stolen by a crass commercial group (i.e., the Kingston Trio), along with his luggage.

[edit] Complete Discography