c or d: REDNEX

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The general Norwegian public probably do know who they are, Dadaismus.
I remember reading years ago that Rednex' "Cotton Eye Joe" had been No.1 in Norway for something like 20 weeks and then its follow-up "Old Pop In An Oak" immediately succeeded it for another 10. Since then I feel I've had a special insight into what drove Geir to become the critic he is.

-- Tico Tico (ticoticoil...), November 20th, 2003.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 07:58 (twenty-one years ago)

sorry, tom, i loved that post and couldn't resist!

anyway, they're a goofy novelty but a likeable one (to me anyway). then again, norway was the country where zappa had a number #1 hit ("bobby brown,") so we know that they seem to be kindly predisposed to "goofy novelties" in the first place.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 08:00 (twenty-one years ago)

i thought they were swedish?

― Jay Kid (Jay K), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 09:02 (twenty-one years ago)

I can tolerate a lot of cheesy stuff but this really is indefensable.

― Siegbran (eofor), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 09:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Time for critical re-evaluation in the light of Bubba Sparxxx surely.

CEJ is alright. Old Pop is funny because it's so shamelessly the same song but with the words "Old pop in an oak" (whose meaning eludes me) sung instead of the words "Cotton Eye Joe".

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 09:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes, they were Swedish.

Classic, if only for the memory of one particularly hazy New Year's Eve, dancing to "Cotton Eye Joe" (several years after it was a hit) in a bleak suburbian bar with a girl whose smile I'll never forget.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 09:55 (twenty-one years ago)

http://www.panhandlecountry.com/Photos/TexasPlayboysop.jpg

― zappi (joni), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 10:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Taking sides: Rednex vs No Mercy would have been a better idea.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 13:36 (twenty-one years ago)

did rednex have an actual album?

― scott seward, Wednesday, 10 December 2003 13:49 (twenty-one years ago)

I think they've put out three over the years.

― Dom Passantino (Dom Passantino), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 13:52 (twenty-one years ago)

Cotton Eye Joe was #1 in the UK for a few weeks. Not that long after Doop.

― pete s, Wednesday, 10 December 2003 13:53 (twenty-one years ago)

The first album was called "Sex & Violins", ha ha!

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 13:53 (twenty-one years ago)

luvly cover, innit?

http://www.scarlet4ever.com/Images/Rednex%20-%20Sex%20And%20Violins.jpg

― Jay Kid (Jay K), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:04 (twenty-one years ago)

martin mull had an album called sax and violins.

― scott seward, Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:06 (twenty-one years ago)

was his cover as good?

― Jay Kid (Jay K), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:06 (twenty-one years ago)

i would like to hear that rednex album.

his cover wasn't as good, no.

― scott seward, Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:07 (twenty-one years ago)

that brown stuff on the right side, is that rust, or ...

― Jay Kid (Jay K), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:08 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember some friend of mine actually buying the LP back then. There was a third hit single taken from the record as well, it was a ballad sang by the lady member of the band with the big breasts.

Also, at point there was a rumour that the members of Rednex were actually Swedish country musicians who just wanted to cash on the europop craze. If so, they managed quite well.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Certainly dud.

Btw. did you guys know that their third single, "Wish You Were Here" (also a Norwegian #1) was the first ever hit single written by Max Martin?

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Wow thanks Geir that is an interesting factlet!

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:33 (twenty-one years ago)

I really like cheesy music, but rednex are teh suck. I remember reading tom's post when it appeared, and it is a good one. doop were horrible as well iirc.

― Pashmina (Pashmina), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 14:33 (twenty-one years ago)

They are definitely not genuine country musicians. Rednex is totally a studio concept invented by professional songwriters a la Max Martin. The "band" that occasionally still play live is just a front, hired by the songwriters. My girlfriend went to the same high school as the male vocalist - a sad, semi-alcoholic nutcase - back in her childhood town of Kiruna, way north of the Arctic circle.

― Marten, Wednesday, 10 December 2003 15:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Rednex are linked to Cheiron and Martin aren't they? Would I be eliminated from ILM for thinking he actually wrote/produced CEJ?

― Nick H (Nick H), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 16:25 (twenty-one years ago)

I am shocked to see Pashmina being a DOOP HATER. Doop was marvellous. And the CD comes with a FREE GAME, as Swiggit demonstrated on Monday. The only other band who've done that so well are the Future Bible Heroes!

― Sarah (starry), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 17:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Doop? more like Poop! haha!

― stevem (blueski), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 17:34 (twenty-one years ago)

Yes Doop >>> Rednex

― Tico Tico (Tico Tico), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 17:34 (twenty-one years ago)

It's taken us til 2003 to get there but we've decided!

― Sarah (starry), Wednesday, 10 December 2003 17:36 (twenty-one years ago)

I loved Doop back then and still do. It's definitely better than anything by the Rednex.

On this topic, wasn't there a sort of a europop/country'n'western hybrid minigenre in the early/mid-nineties? Apart from Rednex there was The Grid's "Swamp Thing", Two Cowboys' "Everybody Confi Con", then there was a track called "Fiddle" by some trance group (the name of which I have forgotten) with female country vocals and fiddle samples. Also, Perplexer's "Acid Folk" maybe counts as well, even though it had bagpipes instead of country instruments... That's got to have been one of the weirdest genre hybrids, alongside metal techno.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, 11 December 2003 12:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Would I be eliminated from ILM for thinking he actually wrote/produced CEJ?

well he sure as hell didnt write it

― zappi (joni), Thursday, 11 December 2003 12:58 (twenty-one years ago)

don't forget 2 In A Room's 'Giddy Up' Tuomas - they were American tho

― stevem (blueski), Thursday, 11 December 2003 13:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I have a lot of cheesy music (like Modern Talking and such), but Rednex is really over the edge, as it were. Definitely indefensible. :-(

― Rudolf (Rudolf), Thursday, 11 December 2003 13:39 (twenty-one years ago)

europop/country'n'western

hayzee fantayzee did this well. the fiddle breakdown on the dance version of shiny shiny and the song john wayne is big leggy. i like cotton eye joe. i'd like to hear the whole album.

― scott seward, Thursday, 11 December 2003 13:43 (twenty-one years ago)

They've been back, and we haven't even noticed it!
http://www.scarlet4ever.com/Images/CD_Cotton_Eye_Joe_2002.jpg

― Jay Kid (Jay K), Thursday, 11 December 2003 13:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I love it how the monetary worth of that record is honestly mentioned already in the cover.

― Tuomas (Tuomas), Thursday, 11 December 2003 13:54 (twenty-one years ago)

Would I be eliminated from ILM for thinking he actually wrote/produced CEJ?
well he sure as hell didnt write it

The AMG entry for Rednex' first album ("Sex & Violins" (?!)) credits him as a producer though, along with Denniz Pop.

― Nick H (Nick H), Thursday, 11 December 2003 15:53 (twenty-one years ago)

Norman Cook/Mighty Dub Cats also belong here (have forgotten what the track was called)

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 12 December 2003 00:33 (twenty-one years ago)

We're well overdue for the thumping 10 minute Trance cover/remix.

― donut bitch (donut), Friday, 12 December 2003 01:08 (twenty-one years ago)

The first two Rednex singles were produced by the late Denniz Pop.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Friday, 12 December 2003 01:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I recall their last comeback single "The Way I Mate", or it may have been their second last comeback single. It was atrocious - even worse than CEJ.

"Cotton Eye Joe" came out in 1994, apparently, but to me it seems like a far more recent horrifying memory.

― edward o (edwardo), Friday, 12 December 2003 01:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember hearing "Cotton Eye Joe" at half-speed when I was about 11 and thinking it was the coolest thing evah.

― Nick H (Nick H), Friday, 12 December 2003 12:20 (twenty-one years ago)

i heard a proper country'n'western version of CEJ on the radio once. Don't know if it was a cover or the original. Can someone confirm this?

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 12 December 2003 13:07 (twenty-one years ago)

erm, CEJ is an old old song, one of those 'trad. arr.' things, so you'll have heard a cover. most famous early version (& best) is by Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys (hence photo above).

― zappi (joni), Friday, 12 December 2003 13:15 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh man, I remember "The Way I mate" as well. I seem to recall it had some extremely disturbing train imagery for me at ten years old. I'm just glad FoW wasn't around...

― JOle, Saturday, 13 December 2003 05:06 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

REVIVE!

I was reminded of "Cotton Eye Joe" today. They always played it at the skating rink and during hockey games here. I should've realised it was about penis.

― That's not cocaine! It's Ian Riese-Moraine! (Eastern Mantra), Sunday, 8 May 2005 23:02 (twenty years ago)

Still, the only thing that decreases its dudness is the fact that the followup "Old Pop In An Oak" was even dudder.

― Geir Hongro (GeirHong), Monday, 9 May 2005 01:26 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

oh, geirpaws.

― Eisbär (llamasfur), Sunday, 28 January 2007 08:17 (eighteen years ago)

seventeen years pass...

Believe it or not, I had Sex & Violins on cassette when I was a young teen but somehow I didn't notice that the cover was someone pissing into a bedpan with the bands' faces swimming around in it. I think I assumed it was a frying pan of scrambled eggs(!)

In the same way that 'Doop' presaged the execrable electro-swing boom of the late 2000s, were Rednex unwittingly responsible for that trend of EDM-country spearheaded by Avicii's 'Hey Brother'? Maybe!

― ...eh you get the gist of it (dog latin), Tuesday, 13 February 2024 09:56 (one year ago)

ok wtf for some reason i got cotton eye joe stuck in my head the other day, likely for the first time since its airwave prevalence. what cosmic energy is circulating such that people are thinking about REDNEX now???

― Vapor waif (uptown churl), Tuesday, 13 February 2024 15:00 (one year ago)

yeah I heard this track the other day and who else would this be influenced by if not REDNEX??

https://aaronackerson.bandcamp.com/track/breaking-down

― frogbs, Tuesday, 13 February 2024 15:05 (one year ago)

I wrote about "Cotton Eyed Joe" on its 25th anniversary... Which, looks like we're onto the 30th this year. I will say I've heard the song played in public no less than five times every year since then.

― jon_oh, Tuesday, 13 February 2024 16:13 (one year ago)

you couldn't make the cotton eye joe video now, because of wokeness

― Vapor waif (uptown churl), Tuesday, 13 February 2024 17:29 (one year ago)

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