Arnold Zwicky's Blog

On Facebook on 3/23, Mike Pope passed along this book cover (from Raspberry Bow Press in 2024):

MP: Someone thought this was a good design for a book title

I had an immediate response:

AZ: I do hope to go gitco-oking in Genui Neska this week. Because Genui Neska is delightful in the springtime, and the gitcos are piled up so high then that you can just ok them right out on the streets.

Since then, I’ve discovered there’s a song:

Streets of Genui Neska

As I walked out in Genui Neska
As I walked out in G.N. one day
I saw a young gitco, oked all in white lumens
Oked in white lumens, as bright as the day

Appendix.

1. The book: Genuine Skagit Cooking ($30)

2. The original song: “Streets of Laredo”

From Wikipedia:

“Streets of Laredo”,  also known as “The Dying Cowboy”, is a famous American cowboy ballad in which a dying ranger tells his story to another cowboy.

…Derived from the traditional folk song “The Unfortunate Rake”, the song has become a folk music standard, and as such has been performed, recorded and adapted numerous times, with many variations. The title refers to the city of Laredo, Texas.

The first two verses:

As I walked out in the streets of Laredo
As I walked out in Laredo one day
I saw a young cowboy, wrapped all in white linen
Wrapped in white linen, as cold as the clay

“I can see by your outfit, that you are a cowboy.”
These words he did say as I slowly passed by.
“Come sit down beside me and hear my sad story,
For I’m shot in the chest, and today I must die.”

Then from my 11/24/14 posting “I hurt myself today”:

Several weeks ago I played a compilation of songs from Johnny Cash’s last album (American IV: The Man Comes Around, 2002) for a friend who didn’t know it — a compilation I put together for another friend who’s a great fan of Cash’s. Cash’s songs are covers, and I matched his versions (full of loss and regret, sung plain and clear) to earlier models.

1 – Hurt – Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral
2 – Hurt – Johnny Cash – American IV
…
13 – Streets of Laredo – Willie Nelson – Texas in My Soul
14 – Streets of Laredo – Riders in the Sky – Best of the West Rides Again
15 – Streets of Laredo – Johnny Cash – American IV

This entry was posted on March 25, 2025 at 5:58 pm and is filed under Books, Music, Parody, Silliness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.