Last Of The Jewish Cowboys: The Best Of Kinky Friedman

Kinky Friedman

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 5, 2006)
• Original Release Date: September 5, 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Shout Factory
• ASIN: B000H7JD3G
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #85,147 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. Sold American

2. Before All Hell Breaks Loose

3. Ballad of Charles Whitman

4. Waitret, Please, Waitret

5. Get Your Biscuits in the Oven & Your Buns in the Bed

6. Asshole from El Paso

7. People Who Read People Magazine

8. Somethin's Wrong with the Beaver

9. We Reserve the Right to Refuse Service to You

10. Home Erectus

11. Ride 'Em Jewboy

12. Take-It-Easy Trailer Park

13. Rock and Roll Across the USA

14. Ol' Ben Lucas

15. They Ain't Makin' Jews Like Jesus Anymore

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Often called the Frank Zappa of country music, Kinky Friedman--like Jimmy Buffett--knows how to poke fun at Nashville and pay homage to it at the same time. This first ever best-of collection oddly omits his "Wild Man from Borneo" and "Rapid City, South Dakota," but still captures the most outrageous of his social commentary (racism, classism, anti-Semitism), as well as his more serious songs ("Sold American," "Ride 'Em, Jewboy") about outcasts sad and solitary. Nothing is too gross (the mucus-lined ode to booger-picking, "Ol' Ben Lucas") or off-limits (the invitation to oral sex--"eatin' ain't cheatin'!"--in "Waitret, Please Waitret"). But no matter if one is offended by such references--or those to bestiality and "wetbacks" in "Asshole from El Paso," the hilarious parody of "Okie from Muskogee"--Friedman's importance in the pantheon cannot be denied. As his horrifying, if jaunty, treatment of the University of Texas sniper ("The Ballad of Charles Whitman") proves, he's a Lone Star throw-back to Lenny Bruce--a serious sociopolitical comic who turns a clear mirror on America, warts and all. --Alanna Nash

Product Description

With his signature cigar always in hand, Kinky Friedman uses country music as a platform to inform, amuse and outrage his audience. Starting in the early Â’70s, Kinky and his band, The Texas Jewboys, broke out of the stifling, often prejudiced, Nashville mold. Last Of The Jewish Cowboys: The Best Of Kinky Friedman, a mixture of live and studio recordings, includes many of his controversial hits, such as Â"Asshole From El Paso,Â" Â"Sold AmericanÂ" and Â"They AinÂ’t MakinÂ’ Jews Like Jesus Anymore.Â"

Never one for censoring himself, Kinky raised eyebrows with Â"Get Your Biscuits In The Oven And Your Buns In The Bed,Â" Â"Before All Hell Breaks Loose,Â" (off the pop album charting release Kinky Friedman) Â"Waitret, Please, WaitretÂ" (to be said with a lisp) and Â"The Take-It-Easy Trailer Park.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Doesn't get any Kinkier than this!, September 12, 2006

By	David Mandau (Takoma Park, MD) - See all my reviews

Kinky Friedman is a Lone Star treasure. Heck, make that a national treasure. For decades he's written and recorded alternately touching and hilarious country songs that marry traditional country musical values with a uniquely skewed lyrical vision. Lots of country singers claim to be rugged individualists, but Kinky is one singer-songwriter who truly stands apart from the pack.

If you're a long-term fan--and your're in good company, with fans like Willie Nelson, Dwight Yoakam, and Lyle Lovett having covered his songs--you'll find that this collection will bring back a lot of great memories--and laughs.

If you're new to Kinky, this CD is the best entree to his very special world.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Most tracks aren't the original versions!, November 10, 2007

By	Barack Obama (Washington DC) - See all my reviews

Don't get me wrong here. I love Kinky's music. But this CD is a disappointment, as most of the tracks on it are live cuts, not original studio cuts.

Kinky classics like "Get Your Biscuits In The Oven And Your Buns In The Bed," "We Reserve The Right To Refuse Service To You," "Homo Erectus," and (gasp!) "They Ain't Makin' Jews Like Jesus Anymore" are not present in their original versions, but rather inferior live cuts. This collection has other cuts from the Sold American and Kinky Friedman albums; why couldn't the above songs be included in their original versions?

Overall, this CD could have been great, but it's a disappointment.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, Funny, and Worth It, December 4, 2006

By	Michael Z. Jody "Psychoanalyst, amateur music... (NYC & East Hampton, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Back in the 1970's I used to go see Kinky Friedman and his Texas Jewboys at the Lone Star Café in New York City. He was a pretty entertaining performer. Let's face it, Kinky Friedman can't really sing for beans, but he is one hell of an interesting, funny, and politically interesting songwriter (he was also recently seriously in the race for the governorship of Texas) and there is something appealing about his voice.

Kinky's songs are much like the film Borat (come to think of it Kinky looks a little like Sascha Baron Cohen): you're not always quite sure what he intends, and the lyrics can be pretty offensive, but, they are also funny as hell. Examples: "Waitret [waitress] please waitret come sit on my fate." Or The Ballad of Charles Whitman, a comedy song about Charles Joseph Whitman, the Texas Tower Sniper who in 1966 killed 15 people and wounded 31 "all the while he smiled so sweetly then he blew them out completely...he was settin' up there with his 36 magnum, laughing wildly as he bagged `em." Then again, there is also Sold American, which is about...well, I'm not quite sure what it's about, but it is actually a lovely song.

If you don't know Kinky and his work, then this is a great place to start, and if you do, then this fairly complete collection will bring back a lot of (hopefully good) memories from the 70s.