When I was a kid, we moved to a small rural town that boasted an AM radio station that was quite literally all things to all people, which meant there was hardly ever anything good on. Every so often the station would latch onto an earworm and play the shit out of it. Lo and behold, a heavily bleeped version of "The Rodeo Song" was given the honour of spinning seemingly every hour for what seemed like weeks but was probably two days.
Still, this appealed wildly to my teenage goofball self and having a chance to hear the unedited version was a sought after treat. I never did get the album because I would have had hell to pay if my parents heard me playing it in my bedroom.
Here I am, four decades and a couple of years later, scouring the dollar bins and I'm passing over the ever-present Bill Cosby albums and occasional Nestor Pistor album (I am looking for one in decent enough condition to be worth my dollar) and dagnabbit, there's Showdown in all their glory. The jacket was in decent condition, and the vinyl looked like it would clean up enough to be passable. It did, and I was very happy. There were no liner notes, but that's more common than not for the bins. Besides, I already knew the lyrics to the song I really wanted to hear anyway.
Here it was.
I was ready.
Drop the needle ... It was country, or more accurately good old bluegrass for many of the tunes. Which was just fine by me as my tastes are a bit broader now than they were back then. Ten songs, and boy howdy they were short, I mean they were in Ramones territory for most of the record. The entire thing runs under a half hour by my count. I will admit the cover of The Outlaws' "There Goes Another Love Song" was a surprise, mainly because that track was played really fast (hats off for trying, the guitar work, however, was tasty). The other odd cover was "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" where the singer is careful to sing "son of a gun" to keep their version radio friendly. Sadly, the Charlie Daniels version had the distinction of being another AM earworm that was played near to death.
Still, for my buck getting "The Rodeo Song" in all its glory was totally worth it. After all, who doesn't want to hear an album by a bunch of guys riding minibikes at a rodeo on the cover?
Yee-haw, I'm off to the rodeo.
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