Johnny Horton: Cherokee Boogie
[purchase]
This isn't the most P.C. song, but (musically) it sounds good to my ears. Cherokee Boogie was released on Johnny Horton's last record, The Spectacular Johnny Horton, which came out in 1960. That same year, Johnny Horton was killed in a head-on collision caused by a drunk driver on a Texas bridge.
Wikipedia reports some interesting "facts" related to Horton's death:
"Johnny Horton reportedly had experienced premonitions several months before his own death about the possibility of dying in a car crash caused by a drunk driver. He always said that if he was in a head-on situation to drive into the ditch. His accident took place on a bridge so there was no ditch for which to head.
In connection with these premonitions, a story circulates that Horton, known to detest musicians who drank, had agreed to send his friend Merle Kilgore a message from beyond the grave. Ten years later, Kilgore heard from a group of psychics from New York of an apparition in a cowboy hat, whose message was 'the drummer is a rummer and can't hold the beat.' (recounted in "The View From Nashville", by Ralph Emery)
Both Horton and Hank Williams were married to the same woman [Billie Jean Jones] at the time of their death, and played their last shows at the Skyline Club in Austin, Texas."
