Ever wonder about what NOT to play on the jukebox? That’s assuming all you button-pushing country music loving cowboys can even find a jukebox in some out-of-the-way diner or laundromat in a turnout off America’s loneliest highway.
In “Please Mr. Please,” Olivia Newton-John beseeches us to
“Please, Mr., please don't play B-17, it was our song, it was his song, but
it's over.” She put that song out back in 1975 when “you can hear your five
selections for a quarter.”
In “Don’t Rock the Jukebox,” Alan Jackson's heart ain't
ready for the Rolling Stones. He wants to hear some Jones, as in George Jones,
but the heartbroke hillbilly would settle for any good ol’ slow country song with
some wailing pedal steel guitar. It’s better that he’s using music to “drown a
memory" than the typical whiskey of choice mentioned in most country songs
with the same sorrowful theme.
“Bubba Shot the Jukebox” is another one that a friend on social
media brought to my attention. She stated, “It was a very funny song, and I
loved singing along to it.” As told by Mark Chesnutt, the song does have quite
a story. Isn’t it so true about how a sad song can make you cry? Or nostalgically
bring back a memory of an old flame? Or,
as in this song’s case, inflict pain?
So what’s one to do if you’re in Margie’s Bar and hear that
mournful song that makes you break out in a cold sweat and sends a teardrop
down your nose? I wouldn’t recommend doing what Bubba did … jumped to his feet,
went to his truck and got a Colt .45. The song’s plot only thickens when the sheriff
arrives with his bathrobe on. I’m not going to give away the punch line (the “hook”
as they call it in the music business).
You’re just going to have to listen to the song to find out what Bubba Boy
is charged with, and what his response is.