Rock rulin' Roger Miller

Written by Al Barger
Published January 02, 2003

Songwriter and singer Roger Miller was born January 2, 1936. He may be the most underrated country songwriter ever. Most people today know one or two songs: "King of the Road" and maybe "Kansas City Star." He published thousands of songs before his death in 1992, including numerous hits and some others that should have been.

He was most known for the happy go lucky novelty songs, and he wrote many outstanding songs in that vein, but he also wrote a lot of more serious songs such as "One Dyin' and a Buryin'". He also wrote a Broadway musical called "Big River" based on Huck Finn. He also narrated and wrote songs for the Disney animated Robin Hood. [The soundtrack seems to be out of print, so you may have to just download some of it from Kazaa.]

I highly recommend the box set, but you can start out by downloading some of these classics:

King of the Road
Kansas City Star
One Dyin' and a Buryin'
England Swings
Oo-de-lay [from Robin Hood]
The Phony King of England [from Robin Hood]
Guv'ment [hunt down both his and the cast recording]
Dang Me
Chug a Lug
Husbands and Wives [perhaps his best song]
Dad Blame Anything a Man Can't Quit
You Can't Rollerskate in a Buffalo Herd
Engine, Engine #9

Unreformed hawkish Hoosier hillbilly and sometimes candidate Al Barger runs the still squeezin' down the psychodelic Kentucky moonshine at MoreThings.com, what with the paranoid religious visions and the Pentacostal music and visions of God and anarchy running amok and such. Somebody oughta call the cops to report his out of control freedom of conscience. Till they come to take him away somewhere where he can't hurt anyone else, you can check out his weekly column of NEW ALBUM RELEASES.
Keep reading for information and comments on this article, and add some feedback of your own!
Rock rulin' Roger Miller
Published: January 02, 2003
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Section: Music
Filed Under: Music: Broadway, Music: Country and Americana, Music: Folk
Writer: Al Barger
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Comments

#1 — January 3, 2003 @ 11:05AM — Eric Olsen

I have always liked Roger and agree he is underrated. He has never received much credit for his role as troubador/narrator of Disney's animated Robin Hood, which rules.

#2 — January 6, 2003 @ 23:55PM — bside

I'd have to say my favorite Roger Miller song is "Little Green Apples"

#3 — March 24, 2003 @ 17:38PM — julie

Hello,

Does anyone know if there is a book about, Roger Miller?

Thanks

#4 — March 24, 2003 @ 17:55PM — Eric Olsen

I didn't find one in Amazon

#5 — July 18, 2006 @ 17:19PM — Mr. E Style [URL]

Hi, there is a Roger Miller book available now - I wrote it, you can get a signed copy from www.doitwithstyle.com or order it from your local bookstore - also available online.

Here's a review from The New York Times:
AIN'T GOT NO CIGARETTES: Memories of Music Legend Roger Miller. By Lyle E Style. (Great Plains Publications, paper, $19.95.) When you've got a name like Lyle E Style, your only career options are playing point guard for the Kentucky Colonels circa 1973 or chronicling country music, and readers should be grateful that Style has chosen the latter path.

In this collection of Q. and A.'s with dozens of illustrious country artists and fixtures of the Nashville scene, he ostensibly recounts the life of the musician and raconteur Roger Miller, of "King of the Road" and "Dang Me" fame, who died of cancer in 1992. But through a quirk of deliberate or accidental genius, what Style has actually assembled is a living document of country music in its hootin', hollerin' outlaw heyday, when the D.J. Captain Midnight ruled the airwaves, Tootsie's Orchid Lounge was the ultimate hangout and everyone, it seems, was on cocaine -- even the mimes. Along the way, Style learns some unprescribed uses for diet pills, discovers that Miller's King of the Road Hotel may have been owned by the mob and reignites an old feud between Tompall Glaser and Waylon Jennings. As Mel Tillis says, "they're all characters or they wouldn't be in the business."
DAVE ITZKOFF - The New York Times


Hope you enjoy it!

Lyle

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