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Poster: dead-head_Monte Date: Aug 5, 2010 12:13pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: quote of the day

Quote of the day gets sung, in a down-home and long-forgotten context: "God done made me funky." Recorded on one of my tapes in 1976, Ricky Skaggs can be clearly heard saying it. Actually, he semi-sings it, sort of, in a mocking and high-toned shrill voice, "God done made me funky." What happened that night was that I had explained to Ricky - an hour earlier, about an unusual bluegrass concert experience I had. I was working as soundman with a bluegrass band named Country Comfort, in ne Tennessee. My friend was their violin / fiddle player. Both us were from NJ - NYC area. We all met this band at a bluegrass festival in 1974. We did a backpacking and camping trip in the Blue Ridge mountains. Then we hit this bluegrass festival. Eric Levine played his violin with Country Comfort in a jam session there. After 2 or 3 tunes, Country Comfort band offered Eric their fiddler position on the spot. They had a new album they just put out. Their previous fiddle player, Joe Green, had been busted for stealing stuff, and he was sent to prison. Country Comfort's fiddle player before Joe Green was killed in a gunfight with his wife's lover. The dude followed his wife to her lover's place, and then followed them to the hotel. The fiddler confronted the lover in the hotel's lobby. Then he shot this guy point-blank, in the chest. Being the upstanding and well-respected southern gentleman that he was, the fiddler goes to the restroom to "clean-up." After washing his hands, he goes back through the hotel lobby, and steps over the "corpse," and heads for the exit. The lover had one more gasp of air left in his body. As he "expired", he rolled over, pulled out his gun, and shot and killed Country Comfort's original fiddle player. I was told that the other fiddler, Mr. Green, was busted for stealing violin instruments. That's how he got sent to prison. But, Mr. Green was a very respectable fiddler. Before Country Comfort band, Joe had previously moved to Nashville. Joe Green established a career as a side man working with Roy Acuff and Little Jimmy Dickens. Mr. Acuff is a.k.a. King of the Hillbillies. So it was Roy Acuff who persuaded Tennessee's governor to get Joe out of prison. That's how Joe got out early. Country Comfort could not have Joe back in their band after that. My friend moved to Tennessee to join this band, after what happened to their previous 2 fiddle players. I moved there a couple of months later. They got an old school bus, and we fixed it up. Naturally, I drove that also. We were doing a gig one weekend somewhere in the bible belt's buckle, not too far from Johnson City, Tennessee. I seem to remember the town was Greeneville, Tennessee. We were playing a gig at some club there, in a "dry county." Alcohol is prohibited from being sold here. In this county, you were allowed to bring your own booze to the club, and they would sell you a "set-up" and provide your group with a table, glasses, ice, ashtrays, food, restrooms, and entertainment. The band took the school bus there, and I was driving it and running sound. Redneck doesn't begin to describe this place. At the end of the gig the manager is giving all of us a lot of shit about showing up late for the job. We had some trouble with the school bus. We arrived 15 minutes late. It was NOT a problem. The crowd there loved the band. I had my pick of numerous southern belles there. Soundman has its perks. So the manager shorts us on the paycheck, and tells us tough shit. Wayne, the band's loud-mouthed "leader", starts yelling back at the manager and his partners. The rest of the band was not looking for any arguments with these rednecks. About 4 or 5 of these Greenville guys pulled out their guns and pistols, and asked us if we had a problem with that. Wayne keeps yelling at all 5 guys bigtime. He is cursing at these guys, and calling them out. We are out-numbered and unarmed hippies and musicians. To this day, I do not know how we made it out of there with our lives. We ended up partying with some locals at a nearby motel. Everybody there was already high on mushrooms. They were drinking lots of beer and moonshine. I dropped a bunch of shrooms and we smoked a lot of dope. Then these black guys grouped together and started singing: "God done made me funky. God done made me funky. God done made me funky. God done made me funky." Evidently, they had practiced this verse and had sung it before. It was the funniest thing I ever saw when I lived in Tennessee. from my Boone Creek tapes - Ricky Skaggs saying, God done made me funky. Why Don't You Tell Me So - cue it up to 00:38 Vince Gill says the intro, Ricky Skaggs is caught on tape making the quote. First time I have ever explained God done made me funky.
This post was modified by dead-head_Monte on 2010-08-05 19:13:27

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Poster: deadpolitics Date: Aug 6, 2010 7:10am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: quote of the day

Love that story, Monte!

I can hear "God done made me funky" sung in a gospel call and response type of style. So good!

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Poster: mrs.greene Date: Oct 5, 2011 11:52pm
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: quote of the day

This post is WRONG! My grandfather was Joe Greene and he was NOT killed by a gunshot. He died in 2004 from a liver diease. He was a well-respected fiddle player and was never violent. Joe Greene had a drinking problem and would get mean and thats why people say he "vanished"...it got where nobody wanted him around. He played with Kenny Baker and recorded his own album. He knew Roy Acuff, which my dad and brother were named after him. If anybody knows about Joe Greene, It's me! No need to lie or try to make things seem more interesting than they are. Thanks!

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Poster: AltheaRose Date: Oct 6, 2011 3:08am
Forum: GratefulDead Subject: Re: quote of the day

Just saw this, so what the hey, I'll do the clarifying. Ms Greene, if you re-read the post, you'll see it doesn't say that Joe Greene was killed in a gunfight. It says that the original fiddle player -- the previous one, the one BEFORE Joe Greene -- was killed in the gunfight. I guess it's unclear.

I have no idea if it's true or not, but it doesn't say anything about Joe Greene's death. Just the other guy.

Btw, if you're Mrs. Greene, you married a Greene. So your screen name means that you're either a Greene who married a Greene, or a Greene grandchild by marriage. (Just by way of pointing out how the internet can be unclear :-) )