Post by Deleted on Dec 6, 2012 14:27:13 GMT -5
Here's a rough draft of one I wrote I-don't-know-when and stuck away in a folder and forgot about. I was cleaning out some papers the other day and stumbled across it and wondered why in the heck I never finished it out.
I'm not sure on the chorus and there are a couple of other word choices I'm wondering about but, like I said, it is a rough draft. It is a song about a guy in my hometown named Johnny Underwood who ran a shoe-repair shop. Of course in a small town if you've got the equipment to repair shoes, folks are going to ask you to repair a lot of other things, too, and so he did.
The other thing I remember about him (and didn't work it ito the song) was that he was very hard of hearing. He was in the artillery corps during the war and all that time around howitzers ruined his hearing. He was a character, though, and I guess at somewhere along the line, I thought he deserved a song.
As I recall, one of the other reasons I wrote the song was to get "Step Master" in there. Step Master was a brand of shoes made by the Ettlebrick Shoe Company, which had a big factory just across the railroad from the house I grew up in. The factory is long gone, but I had an aunt who worked there.
Among the things I wonder about is the "farm folks" phrase. Also, part of me wonders about the reference to Vic Morrow's Tommy gun and the other part of me doesn't. I guess if you watched "Combat" back in the '60s, you'll get it. (And there is some strange juxtaposition between that reference and the later verse talking about John Stivers getting drafted. In truth, he didn't get drafted. Rather, he got a high lottery number so he was almost sure to be drafted, so he decided to enlist instead. I remember the day he headed over to Terre Haute to sign up for the Army. I saw him at the park that night and asked him if he'd joined the Army, and he replied that no, he had enlisted in the Marines. I asked him why and he explained that he got to the recruiting office about noon and the Army guy was out to lunch and he didn't feel like waiting around so he joined the Marines instead. He wound up at some base in Arizona or somewhere out West after being deemed "too bloodthirsty for combat" or something like that. I can assure you it was a scam to avoid being thrust into participating in the hostilities then going on in Indochina....)
JOHNNY UNDERWOOD
© 2012 by David Hanners
Johnny’s shop was on Central half a block north of Main
Just across the alley from the Rex Café
If you stepped into trouble, if your soles had the blues
You went to Johnny ‘cause Johnny fixed shoes
Buster Brown, Step Master, Thom McAn
Johnny knew their secrets; your feet were in good hands
His shop smelled of leather warmed by the midday sun
And that sewing machine rattled like Vic Morrow’s Tommy gun
Wore his apron leanin’ in the open doorway
Watched the cars roll by as the smoke from his Pall Mall drifted away
He opened the shop when he got home from the war
When this town had a downtown and Main was lined with stores
Back when people fixed things instead of always buying new
It’s not that they were cheap, it’s just what farm folks do
(chorus)
When John Stivers got drafted he left me some boots
Buckskin with fringe, they were 1960s cool
He’d worn ‘em forever, worn through the soles
So I took them to Johnny to patch up the holes
(chorus)
Johnny’s shop was on Central half a block north of Main
Just across the alley from the Rex Café
If you stepped into trouble, if your soles had the blues
You went to Johnny ‘cause Johnny fixed shoes
You went to Johnny ‘cause Johnny fixed shoes
I'm not sure on the chorus and there are a couple of other word choices I'm wondering about but, like I said, it is a rough draft. It is a song about a guy in my hometown named Johnny Underwood who ran a shoe-repair shop. Of course in a small town if you've got the equipment to repair shoes, folks are going to ask you to repair a lot of other things, too, and so he did.
The other thing I remember about him (and didn't work it ito the song) was that he was very hard of hearing. He was in the artillery corps during the war and all that time around howitzers ruined his hearing. He was a character, though, and I guess at somewhere along the line, I thought he deserved a song.
As I recall, one of the other reasons I wrote the song was to get "Step Master" in there. Step Master was a brand of shoes made by the Ettlebrick Shoe Company, which had a big factory just across the railroad from the house I grew up in. The factory is long gone, but I had an aunt who worked there.
Among the things I wonder about is the "farm folks" phrase. Also, part of me wonders about the reference to Vic Morrow's Tommy gun and the other part of me doesn't. I guess if you watched "Combat" back in the '60s, you'll get it. (And there is some strange juxtaposition between that reference and the later verse talking about John Stivers getting drafted. In truth, he didn't get drafted. Rather, he got a high lottery number so he was almost sure to be drafted, so he decided to enlist instead. I remember the day he headed over to Terre Haute to sign up for the Army. I saw him at the park that night and asked him if he'd joined the Army, and he replied that no, he had enlisted in the Marines. I asked him why and he explained that he got to the recruiting office about noon and the Army guy was out to lunch and he didn't feel like waiting around so he joined the Marines instead. He wound up at some base in Arizona or somewhere out West after being deemed "too bloodthirsty for combat" or something like that. I can assure you it was a scam to avoid being thrust into participating in the hostilities then going on in Indochina....)
JOHNNY UNDERWOOD
© 2012 by David Hanners
Johnny’s shop was on Central half a block north of Main
Just across the alley from the Rex Café
If you stepped into trouble, if your soles had the blues
You went to Johnny ‘cause Johnny fixed shoes
Buster Brown, Step Master, Thom McAn
Johnny knew their secrets; your feet were in good hands
His shop smelled of leather warmed by the midday sun
And that sewing machine rattled like Vic Morrow’s Tommy gun
Wore his apron leanin’ in the open doorway
Watched the cars roll by as the smoke from his Pall Mall drifted away
He opened the shop when he got home from the war
When this town had a downtown and Main was lined with stores
Back when people fixed things instead of always buying new
It’s not that they were cheap, it’s just what farm folks do
(chorus)
When John Stivers got drafted he left me some boots
Buckskin with fringe, they were 1960s cool
He’d worn ‘em forever, worn through the soles
So I took them to Johnny to patch up the holes
(chorus)
Johnny’s shop was on Central half a block north of Main
Just across the alley from the Rex Café
If you stepped into trouble, if your soles had the blues
You went to Johnny ‘cause Johnny fixed shoes
You went to Johnny ‘cause Johnny fixed shoes
