Hit The Decks A Runnin' Boys And Spin Those Guns Around - the Johnny Horton appreciation thread

Growing up, my Dad was a huge Johnny Horton fan (still is). He'd crank 'Sink the Bismark' so loud it'd rattle the china cabinet, and we'd all run off and hide at the other end of the house out of embarrassment. I dunno when I crossed over from embarrassment into appreciation, but eventually I realized that goddamn that dude was a footstompin hellraiser!

'They Shined Up Rudolph's Nose' popped up on my christmas playlist today and thought, goddamn I wanna talk about how cool he is.

Any other ilxors down with ole Johnny?

My grandfather was a HUGE fan, so I have cherished memories of sitting in the living room singing along to "The Battle of New Orleans" with him. "Weeeeee fired our guns and the British kept a-comin', there wasn't quite as many as there was a while ago/We fired once more and they began a-runnin' on down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico"

haha yeah, that's what I'm talkin about!

Seriously, all my grandfather basically needed was Johnny Horton, Johnny Cash, George Jones and Porter Waggoner and he was a happy man. (Outside of Horton I think George Jones's "White Lightning" was his favorite song.)

YEAH THEY RAN THROUGH THE BRIARS AND THEY RAN THROUGH THE BRAMBLES

<3

kinda jealous of my dad that this was his primo party-time drinking music in his 20's. apparently him and his friends would all get together at someone's house and they would have these weird competitions to see whose stereo could play the loudest. Sink the Bismark or Boy Named Sue were the litmus tests, lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R24QLILwdHE

unreleased performance of "Battle of New Orleans" from Louisiana Hayride show in TX -- you can hear the crowd clapping and cheering all the way through

then there's this. which is pretty much just straight O_o
'yeesh' is about the only word that describes it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9YmpGcq0uE

I didn't know that his second wife was Hank Williams widow, Billie Jean. Damn that is one unlucky lady, losing TWO husbands? Hank dies in the Cadillac New Year's Eve 1953 - marries Horton September of the same year. Horton dies in a car accident 7 years later.

wiki says that apparently before he died Hank told Horton that Billie Jean would marry him ?!

and her and Hank had only been married a year! jeez louise.

GIS shows she was a stunner

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a66/GLIMMERBOY/GLIMMERBOYA/HANKMARRIAGE.jpg

i mean, dang

http://hankwilliams.nl/images/png/Hank_Williams_Billy_Jean_1952.png

Would Honky Tonk

the battle of new orleans was my favorite song when i was a little kid, my parents had the 45

so classic

THE GATOR LOST HIS MIND

gator is the best part

that and the briars/brambles

one last pic of Billie Jean, this made me lol

http://cache3.asset-cache.net/gc/90143275-country-singer-billie-jean-horton-widow-of-gettyimages.jpg?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=X7WJLa88Cweo9HktRLaNXjqGZvoaziCFG9PPnYJbAkX3qro792vk6d6HTTI5aqost3woA3StYNtE%2BowluJTh4A%3D%3D
SHREVEPORT, LA - CIRCA 1961: Country singer Billie Jean Horton, widow of both Hank Williams and Johnny Horton dances the twist with Al Jones at a nightclub circa 1961 in Shreveport, Louisiana. (Photo by Michael Ochs Archive/Getty Images)