Red Sovine — Teddy Bear

May 18, 2007

Okay, first things first…

If this song came out today there would be more than a couple of people upset with the lyrics. Some would be upset that the boy in the song is called “crippled”. Others would be bothered by Red saying “you better believe I rode that Teddy Bear.” Others would just think that part was funny. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, onto the point of the post…

I guess I’ve never understood the “talking song”, especially the “talking trucker song”. I hear them a lot on XM. I guess they were big in the late 60s because I don’t remember hearing them a lot growing up.

I’m actually a fan of story songs, but the song has to have more than just a story to make me want to hear it twice–it has to have a good singer and tune. For instance, compare “Teddy Bear” to a song like Marty Robbins’ “Big Iron”. “Big Iron” is a great story, and the vocals are amazing. It’s a song you could love even if you didn’t speak English.

So while Teddy Bear is “awful sweet”, and “bless that little crippled boy’s heart” the first time I heard it, after that it just became kind of funny to me.

Writing this just now kind of inspired me. I’m going to do a series of posts on my favorite story songs.

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