The Ballad of Davy Crockett

"The Ballad of Davy Crockett" is a song with music by George Bruns and lyrics by Thomas W. Blackburn. It was introduced on ABC's television series Disneyland, in the premiere episode of October 27, 1954. During The Residents performance of Sam's Enchanted Evening at The Marsh in Berkeley this song was covered by Randy Rose and Joshua Raoul Brody.

History

This song is unique in the sense that it's completely absent from So Long Sam, being one of the only completely new songs to appear in Sam's Enchanted Evening. In the context of the show, Mack starts by playing a acoustic rendition of Hound Dog and Out as seen on Cube-E, which perfectly segues into a interpretation of Constantinople. As to start the show with a comedic and chaotic entrance, Sam waltzes onstage and very crudely starts singing the song over Mack's playing.

Sam takes this time to introduce his brother Convoy and explain their rather brotherly relationship. Convoy would sing this song all the time, likely due to the real "Crockett craze" of the 1950s, which would make Sam quite upset. This led to the not so affectionate nickname for Convoy, "FB", short for "Fat Brother". He is referred to as FB for the rest of the show. After this Sam rudely stops Mack's playing leading to Sam's Opening Monolog.

Development

As Sam's Enchanted Evening was a developing show, some differences can be found between the official release and a bootleg of the first show performed on October 20th 2011. The flow of this song Is completely different, it takes place after "Teddy Bear's picnic" where Sam would usually give his "Big Jon and Sparkie" monologue but this was moved to the intro likely as a better intro to Sam.

It is unknown when this change was made and this monologue was added, but it is presumed it was kept until the show's abrupt end in 2012.

It is also worth noting that this is not the first time The Residents have referenced Davy Crockett. During The Aging Musician he can be heard saying "Davy Crockett said it all when I was a kid, If you're sure you're right then go ahead on."

Lyrics

(As heard on the November 10th 2011 recording)

Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier!
Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee
Greenest state in the land of the free
Raised in the woods so's he knew ev'ry tree
Killed him a b'ar when he was only three

Heh heh heh, Killed him a b'ar when he was only three
Heh, Killed him a b'ar, Davy Crocket! Crocket of Shit if you ask me! 
My brother, my brother Convoy. He loved that god damn song! Sang it all the time.
He was kinda chunky, so I called FB, FB! For FAT Brother, heh heh, and he hated that!
He hated, like I hated that GOD DAMN SONG!

Buddy! Hey buddy! Hey Mack hey! Hey,
Hey Mack! Im talkin to you Mack Hey!
Hey, hey buddy hey, hey,
Heh heh, heh heh heh heh
Uhhh, uhhh

References

• The Ballad of Davy Crockett at Wikipedia

List of releases

• Sam's Enchanted Evening (2023)