"The Far Side" disses Christmas music (This one, for me, was laugh-out-loud funny)

[Willie G. Moseley 3,503]

[velorush 5,751]

He was the best. 

[crunchee 5,394]

What, no accordion?  

[HamerCustomEr 418]

I like the cartoon, but I don't interpret it as dissing Christmas music at all.  It looks, to me, like the angel is just banning the banjo player from participating, while the LIttle Drummer Boy is allowed to have a go.

[diablo175 8,129]

10 minutes ago, HamerCustomEr said:

I like the cartoon, but I don't interpret it as dissing Christmas music at all.  It looks, to me, like the angel is just banning the banjo player from participating, while the LIttle Drummer Boy is allowed to have a go.

+1 

Not a dis on X-mas at all. Just a well played poke at banjos and banjo players. No harm done.

Edited December 6, 2020 by diablo175

[Dave Scepter 3,092]

11 hours ago, velorush said:

He was the best. 

[hamerhead 17,729]

Thanks, Willie! I sent that to my banjo-playing brother-in-law.

[crunchee 5,394]

17 hours ago, velorush said:

He was the best. 

+1!  Gary Larson kinda became semi-retired on a now-and-then basis recently.  Sorta.

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/gary-larson-new-stuff-trnd/index.html

https://www.thefarside.com/new-stuff

 

Edited December 6, 2020 by crunchee

[diablo175 8,129]

I dunno, this almost seems better suited to the Outer Circle.

[Steve Haynie 12,193]

Well, banjos are musical instruments, so this thread is fine right here.  I recommend everyone try playing the banjo.  Take a look at this promo for online lessons. 

 

[velorush 5,751]

Two words to the banjo haters: Bela Fleck

 

[Steve Haynie 12,193]

I got my Bela Fleck and The Flecktones ticket for next year.  It would have been this year, but it got postponed like everything else. 

[hamerhead 17,729]

1 hour ago, Steve Haynie said:

I recommend everyone try playing the banjo.

My brother-in-law was pissed when I picked his up for the first time and played it better than him. In his defense, he was only a few months into lessons (which he started taking in his late 60s) with no musical background/aptitude whatsoever. Seeing him take it up is inspiring because he has to work so hard at it.  But he's sticking with it and he's getting better. Gotta admire that.

[velorush 5,751]

I think Hee Haw (ubiquitous in the '70's south) did great harm to the perception of banjo, or at least the skill level required.  Grandpa Jones, Roy Clark and the other banjoists (?) were, in retrospect, absolutely wearing these things out with chops galore, but with all the goofiness going on around them (and by them), it was difficult to pick up what they were putting down.  

And, can we take just a minute to acknowledge Roy Clark was an absolute monster - any instrument, any idiom?

 

 

[Biz Prof 4,889]

23 minutes ago, velorush said:

Grandpa Jones, Roy Clark and the other banjoists (?) were, in retrospect, absolutely wearing these things out with chops galore, but with all the goofiness going on around them (and by them), it was difficult to pick up what they were putting down.  

At my age in the 1970s, I was more interested in the endless parade of T&A than anything else on that show.  As I got older, I listened more closely to players like Roy and damn...chops galore.

[velorush 5,751]

1 minute ago, Biz Prof said:

At my age in the 1970s, I was more interested in the endless parade of T&A than anything else on that show.  As I got older, I listened more closely to players like Roy and damn...chops galore.

Oh, don't let the musical opinions of a quinquagenarian for a minute lead you to think his pubescent self was tuned in to listen to a bunch of country music!

 

[Steve Haynie 12,193]

Watch Stringbean play.  He and Grandpa Jones played clawhammer style.  Roy Clark, Roni Stoneman, and Buck Trent played Scruggs style.  Stringbean was a great player.  He was also the guy that Earl Scruggs replaced in Bill Monroe's band. 

[JohnnyB 3,356]

On 12/6/2020 at 7:34 AM, diablo175 said:

+1 

Not a dis on X-mas at all. Just a well played poke at banjos and banjo players. No harm done.

Reminds me of the joke:
Q: What's the definition of perfect pitch?

A: When the banjo lands in the dumpster without hitting any of the four sides.

[JohnnyB 3,356]

2 hours ago, Steve Haynie said:

Watch Stringbean play.  He and Grandpa Jones played clawhammer style.  Roy Clark, Roni Stoneman, and Buck Trent played Scruggs style.  Stringbean was a great player.  He was also the guy that Earl Scruggs replaced in Bill Monroe's band. 

Ernie Ford on lead vocals with Grandpa, Stringbean, and Roy on banjo:
 

 

 

[RobB 5,959]

4 hours ago, velorush said:

 

That, right there, is whutcha call a, "shit eatin' GRIN!"

[DaveH 2,430]

Steve Martin is no slouch on banjo either.

[velorush 5,751]

6 hours ago, DaveH said:

Steve Martin is no slouch on banjo either.

He's been at it for a long time.  From '69, second from the right:

 

[hamerhead 17,729]

Sorry, but the real Steve Martin has always had gray hair.

[m chops 378]

Oh my goodness!  I seem to recall that Roy Clark was ok but *WOW*

[BruceM 1,503]

This seems like as good a thread as any to drop my new favorite Xmas song, by U.S. Girls, Santa Stay Home: