Saturday, February 19, 2011

BOCEPHUS: IN BETTER SHAPE THIS TIME

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This doghouse here is mighty small
But it's better than no house at all
So ease it on over, drag it on over
Move over old dog 'cause a new dog's movin' in
~ Hank Williams, Senior.
from 'Move It On Over'

Cause he'd run through a ten and he'd run through a twenty
And he'd run through a hundred just as fast as it could go
Like a big dose of sauce to a little bitty fella
He'd spend a thousand dollars on a hundred dollar show
~ Hank Williams, Junior ("Bocephus")
from 'The Ballad Of Hank Williams'

OK, my minions, I've got a dream for you here that is hot off the mind. I was so sleep-deprived this week that my body finally crashed and I slept until just about an hour ago (11 AM). Well, just prior to coming back into consciousness I had a damned funny dream which I'm going to share with y'all. As I type this, my dream is no more than two hours old - they don't come any fresher.

Don't ask me why, but I found myself dreaming that I had come upon Hank Williams Jr. (his dad nicknamed him "Bocephus") and his band on their way to a gig. There was a bunch of band members and they were traveling in a van that was towing a U-Haul trailer behind it.

This convoy is going up an unpaved mountainous road. The scenery consisted of nothing but dust, boulders, sagebrush, and maybe some cacti; it was hot and desert-like.

On the side of the U-Haul trailer were images of Bocephus and the various band members. Suddenly the images came to life and began talking to each other. They spoke of being on their way to a Country music festival, one they had played the year before with disastrous results.

CUT TO:
Now I'm inside the van observing Hank and the guys. They are playing poker at tables in the back while the driver navigates the van and trailer over this rugged dirt road. Hank and his band are further discussing this Country music festival they are headed for and reminiscing about how awful the event was last year. Amongst their many complaints about the former festival, one is that, in the town where it is held, there aren't any really good bars.

That's when I learned that the U-Haul trailer contained a whole bar - Hank's and his band's own personal bar - which they were going to assemble once they got to town. It wasn't just a bar, but a barroom, with walls, windows, tables, chairs, lighting, everything! It was all disassembled in the trailer but they were planning to piece it all together so they'd have a good drinking establishment during their entire stay at the Country music festival.

As they continued to play poker, they discussed the myriad things that had gone wrong the year before and how they were determined to make a success of the festival this time.

CUT TO:
The van had broken down on the dirt road, and now I'm seeing Hank and his band scrambling to address the situation. A couple of guys are pushing the van up the mountainous dirt road, a few more are carrying musical instruments. Some are dragging the bar up the road and others are carrying the parts of the barroom - the walls, etc.

Just then, two band members walk past me carrying one of the barroom walls. It's wallpapered with an old-tyme design and mounted on the wall at the top is a deer head, with its many-pointed antlers serving as a cowboy hatrack. Standing on this wall as it is being carried up the dirt road is Hank Williams Junior.

And as all this activity is taking place, the entire band suddenly breaks out into song, just like a scene from some musical. They're all singing this really good upbeat Country song - a song that doesn't really exist because I dreamed the song up just like the rest of this stuffs.

It's a full-length Country song they sing (which I personally think has the potential to be a genuine hit in the "real" world). Unfortunately, I can't remember most of the words. I only know that it covered the same territory as the earlier discussion, about how rotten the Country music festival had been the previous year. But I do remember the principal line of the song's repeated chorus. Imagine seeing all this activity - these guys pushing a van and carrying their instruments up a hill, and dragging a bar and toting barroom walls through a dusty, barren wasteland - while they're singing something like this:

And we didn't make no money 'cause we lost every dime
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But we sho as f#ck in better shape this time!

I kid you not, I found myself laughing in my dream! How many of y'all LOL in your dreams?

And incidentally, in truth, Bocephus is more than capable of writing very funny songs. The idea of him writing a humorous song about a situation like this is not entirely inconceivable. For examples, check out the links below to some "real" Hank Williams Junior songs that are at least as funny as what I dreamed up:

Ballad Of Hank Williams

If You Don’t Like Hank Williams

The Coalition To Ban Coalitions
[I liked the plug for Ron Paul that some commenter posted!]

Pleasant Dreams, Y'all!

~ Stephen T. McCarthy

YE OLDE COMMENT POLICY: All comments, pro and con, are welcome. However, ad hominem attacks and disrespectful epithets will not be tolerated (read: "posted"). After all, this isn’t Amazon.com, so I don’t have to put up with that kind of bovine excrement.
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12 comments:

  1. Hmmm, something that happened or something you saw or something you ate triggered this really fun dream. And, hey, maybe this was a way for a song that's lurking and begging to come out. Try and remember the words!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. KITTIE ~
    This one's a real mystery. Sometimes I can trace back a dream to some seed in real life that was planted somehow and that the dream grew out of.

    But in this case, I got nuttin'! I like Hank Junior, but haven't listened to him lately, and haven't heard his name mentioned. I have never been to a Country music festival and haven't heard of any coming to town.

    So... I have NO IDEA what brought this dream on, but it sure was funny, and so was the song. However, the rest of the lyrics were long gone before I even opened my eyes.

    I probably have hundreds of songs lurking in me and begging to come out. I should have chosen a music career. I'll definitely do that in my next lifetime.

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'Loyal American Underground'

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  3. Ha! My latest post is about a dream too. Yet your dream was way more fun than mine.

    I enjoyed reading all the details about your dream!

    Doris

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks, DORIS!

    I'll check out your dream.

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'Loyal American Underground'

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm not sure what Hank Jr and all the other music stuff symbolized but I think probably the real focus of the dream had something to do with the bar and drinking. I've had a few dreams with songs in them and on some fewer occasions I've managed to actually write a song from it. I love dream inspirations.

    Lee
    Tossing It Out

    ReplyDelete
  6. BOID ~
    I hear ya, and you might be right, but I don't really feel that the focus of the dream was the bar and drinking. In fact, there wasn't anyone actually drinking in the dream.

    I'm pretty clueless about any deeper meaning the dream has, although I imagine I could come up with some interpretation if I were inclined to spend a little time thinking more about it. But I'm not.

    However, the thing that really struck me as being so funny (and I'm not sure if this came across in my writing) was this:

    If the band is singing that they're in "better shape this time" all the while they're pushing their van and U-Haul trailer up a mountain, and trudging up the road toting all of their belongings, just imagine how bad the music festival must have gone for them the PREVIOUS year!

    That's what cracked me up. This experience was evidently a piece of cake compared to the troubles they had the last time.

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'Loyal American Underground'

    ReplyDelete
  7. However this year the guys have prepared for the bar and are looking forward to when they can set it up and presumably start drinking. You've pointed out that last year was notably disasterous in part because there was no good bar.

    Now you see them toting this barroom and you describe some of the details pertaining to it. The singing might be part of a festivity that you associate with bars that you have liked.

    The past festival fiasco may represent your own past and the way you look at it in retrospect. The wasteland land is your current life which you might identify with living in the Arizona desert. You are currently trudging through this wasteland of your life carrying whatever it is you have to look forward to. You laugh in realization that it this immediate future might be little more than the next time you are drinking. The absurdity of life because laugh out loud funny.

    From this stand point it reminds me somewhat of the dreams I often have about looking for someplace to pee and then when I wake up I realize that I need to pee. Or same with dreams I have when I'm hungry--they'll be weird, but somehow related to eating or food.

    Just some random thoughts that come to mind as I ponder this. And you probably already know about my fascination with dreams and their meanings.

    Lee
    Tossing It Out

    ReplyDelete
  8. Minions? Can we be minions????

    WEEEEELLLLL, Doggies!

    W'as my job? I failed at my last minion-duty.

    ReplyDelete
  9. BOID ~
    Ha! Sounds good to me, Brother. I like it, and I'm willing to run with it.

    You've definitely given this dream more thought than I have, and I enjoy the way you dug into it.

    A couple of things that I can add: There is something on my mind and it is troubling me a bit. It has to do with my immediate future (THIS year!) and I'm understandably apprehensive about it. I would reveal more but I literally CAN'T because I am sworn to secrecy. This may or may not have something to do with this dream.

    But I am indeed concerned about what awaits me at the top of the ridge (or, "beyond the horizon" - however one wants to word it).

    The "drinking" part still doesn't line up in any obvious way, but suffice to say that... Reno might play a part in my future, and I have always associated Reno with booze, as it is the site of my all-time worst hangover ever! But I don't drink anything like that anymore, so who knows?

    Regardless, I like what you did with this dream interpretation, and I guess it's only fair since I once spent some thought and words analyzing one of YOUR dreams.
    ;o)

    Good work, McBrother!

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'Loyal American Underground'

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  10. SHEBOYGANBOY 6 ~
    Not to worry! I don't have sufficient money to hire minions.

    I was merely bluffing.

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'Loyal American Underground'

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  11. I just read the comment you left on my blog, which I found quite interesting! I had no idea about the photograph on the back of the album's booklet...It IS very strange that my photo looks alike.

    My photo is actually one that took of the hallway in the hotel where we stayed... yeah, the haunted hotel, I have no doubts now...LOL

    Thanks for stopping by. Hope you grabbed a cup of coffee, sorry I ran out of sugar :-D

    Doris

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  12. DORIS ~
    I did have a cup. Thanks! (And no need to apologize: I drink mine black WITHOUT sugar.)
    [:-)

    ~ D-FensDogg
    'Loyal American Underground'

    ReplyDelete

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