JUST DROPPED IN . . .

. . . To See What Condition My Condition Was In (yeah, yeah, oh yeah)

It's sad news that Kenny Rogers died a few weeks ago. Like many, I was a fan right from his days as lead singer for The First Edition with its evolving rock/folk/country sound, through to his even more successful solo career as a country singer.

Here's Kenny Rogers' first big hit with The First Edition in the late 1960s when he was almost unrecognizably young, hairy and handsome. Now considered to be an early classic of psychedelic rock, it's also a classic cautionary description of drug addiction.



This song went on to even greater heights as the musical backdrop for the drug-fueled dream sequence "Gutterballs" found in the cult classic movie The Big Lebowski (1998). This surreal dream sequence has it ALL -- bad visual double entendres, bowling, a valkyrie, a fabulous Busby Berkeley-esque dance sequence, and (best of all in my opinion) the hilariously exuberant, but completely atrocious, dance routine of Jeff Bridges as The Dude.



Please pardon me, but in the true spirit of over-the-top Lebowski excess, here's a third version of the song that I simply must include in this post. I found it while looking for the other two. It's a great cover version done recently in a more folksy-bluesy-country style by a band called Front Country. As you can see, they perform it while dressed as the main characters from The Big Lebowski, LOL! Their lead singer, Melody Walker, does a superb job -- it's definitely worth a listen!



And this concludes our musical interlude for today!