Vote Kennedy / Satan in '60!

There've been a lot of Kennedys in the news lately, what with the Triborough Bridge being renamed for RFK, Teddy's ill health and now Caroline's gambit for Hillary's Senate seat. I know the bracing winds of change are all a-swirl, but the Hyannis Port horde sure do know how to hog the spotlight. Another Kennedy reference, and a rather bizarre one at that, came to my attention just the other day. I'd downloaded a collection of country gospel records on the old Loyal label out of Birmingham, Alabama, and, reviewing the track list, I spied a tune with a peculiar title and went to play it first. Now, unlike telling books from their covers, strange song titles almost always deliver exactly what you're hoping for—strange songs—and this number did so in spades. Here, give a listen:

Bill Franklin: Mr. K. and Mr. D. (MP3)

[I can't say for sure, but this Bill Franklin sounds a whole lot like a feller with the same name who sang "I Died All Over You" and "Slippin' Around With Jole Blon" with Bud Messner & the Skyline Boys for Abbey in 1950.]

Here are the lyrics:

Well the Devil is the father of every lie / And right here I want to state /
He has a lot of windy boasters / That he uses for his bait /
There's a big breeze blowin' from across the sea / And there's nothin' he's afraid to say /
And as sure as you're born, another set of horns / Will be placed on Mr. K.

Chorus:
You better get out of the way Mr. K. / You're flirtin' with Mr. D. /
He's been around much longer than you / Knows every trick in the book you see /
And the way you talk / You're teachin' them to blot the pages of history /
Instead of one, we've got two to watch / Mr. K. and Mr. D.

Mr. K. you stated you were goin' to the moon / Mr. D. is throwin' the switch /
That's the story of the blind leadin' the blind / You're gonna wind up in a ditch /
And it always was a puzzle to me / It has been until this day /
How are you and Mr. D. gonna land on the moon / When you're headed the other way

Chorus

Mr. K. you stated you know everything / But there's a God who'll have his say /
You've never put the stars to bed at night / Nor given light to a new-born day /
King Jesus he reigns in heaven above / And he wears the brightest crown /
There's comin' a day Mr. K. and Mr. D. / That he's gonna tear your playhouse down

Chorus

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Weird, right? I don't know what the holy hell to make of it. Is this evidence of a Christian backlash against a blasphemous space program or was this just garden-variety anti-Catholic / anti-liberal / anti-JFK  Southern sentiment? I searched all the ditches along the info superhighway, but couldn't dig up any more details. In fact, I could only find two other references mentioning JFK and Satan:

The first, no surprise, were the words to "Sympathy for the Devil," which the Rolling Stones were in the studio recording on June 4, 1968, just two days before RFK was assasinated. (The line in the lyrics were hastily changed from "Who killed Kennedy?" to "Who killed the Kennedys?"

The second reference was, strangely, another song lyric involving a bizarre imagined partnership between our two protagonists, though from the diametrically opposite perspective, politically. This tune, "The Devil Is Talking," (by everybody's favorite hippie grandma folksinger Malvina Reynolds), is an excoriation of Kennedy and his choice to head the CIA, John McCone, who owned over million dollars worth of stock in companies of the military industrial complex. I couldn't find any audio for this 1962 ditty, but the words sure make a nice contrast to Bill Franklin's magnum opus:

The Devil is talking in Kennedy's ear / The Devil is talking in Kennedy's ear /
The people are calling but he cannot hear / Cause the Devil is talking in Kennedy's ear

The ones that are closest, they make the most noise / The ones that are closest, they make the most noise /
The bomb politicians, the nuclear boys / The Devil is talking in Kennedy's ear

Well Mr. McCone made a million or more / And Mr. McCone made a billion or more /
And he makes a million with every war / The Devil is talking in Kennedy's ear

He can't hear the children, he can't hear the Pope / He can't hear the children, he can't hear the Pope /
The voice of the people is our only hope / Cause the Devil is talking in Kennedy's ear

So we'll have to holler decisive and clear / And we'll have to holler and talk without fear /
And we'll have to shout till the Devil can hear / Cause the Devil is talking in Kennedy's ear

Comments

[Tony Cabanellas]

Doug: Could Mr K have been Krushav as in Nikita? There were lots of hillbilly songs in that era about sputnick and cold war paranoia involving Russia and Cuba.

[Doug Schulkind]

Tony,
Sheesh, you're probably right. The line "There's a big breeze blowin' from across the sea" surely would seem to indicate a foreign not domestic "Mr. K." At least there can be no mistake with Malvina Reynolds's finger-snapper! Whoever the mysterious Mr. K. is here, it's a wonder that this track didn't make onto the amazing 5-CD set from Bear Family called ATOMIC PLATTERS: Cold War Music from the Golden Age of Homeland Security. (Check it out here: http://www.atomicplatters.com/box_set.php).

Now here's one more tantalizing thing: If you check closely on the cover art to the collection of country gospel LOYAL RECORDS: I Saw the Light, there is a partial shot of what looks like the other side of the 45 containing Bill Franklin's "Mr. K. and Mr. D." The only word in the title that is visible appears to be "Space." So it appears that Franklin was rather fixated on the subject of interstellar travel. I've done a ton of Googling, but haven't found anything yet. Give a holler, friends, if you unearth more info.

[seviyeli sohbet]

ummhhh :S

[Sean Daily]

Mr. K = Nikita Kruschev? First Secretary of the Godless Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 (according to Wikipedia, so it's probably wrong)?

[sohbet siteleri]

:)

[jercarbra]

This song is not about satan and Kennedy... it is about satan and Khrushchev... he was a leader of the Soviet Union, serving as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, following the death of Joseph Stalin, and Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. Khrushchev was responsible for backing the progress of the world's early space program. When I was a child, this song was popular in my church, sung by a group The Senn Family from Lakeland, Flordia.

[cam balkon]

This song is not about satan and Kennedy... it is about satan and Khrushchev... he was a leader of the Soviet Union, serving as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, following the death of Joseph Stalin, and Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. Khrushchev was responsible for backing the progress of the world's early space program. When I was a child, this song was popular in my church, sung by a group The Senn Family from Lakeland, Flordia.

[cam balkon]

Mr. K = Nikita Kruschev? First Secretary of the Godless Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 (according to Wikipedia, so it's probably wrong)?

[seo]

This song is not about satan and Kennedy... it is about satan and Khrushchev... he was a leader of the Soviet Union, serving as General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964, following the death of Joseph Stalin, and Chairman of the Council of Ministers from 1958 to 1964. sung by a group The Senn Family from Lakeland, Flordia.

[Tolga]

Heil satan.

[Goldpreis]

TThere were lots of hillbilly songs in that era about sputnick and cold war paranoia involving Russia and Cuba.

[film izle]

TThere were lots of hillbilly songs in that era about sputnick and cold war paranoia involving Russia and Cuba.

[chat]

Mr. K = Nikita Kruschev? First Secretary of the Godless Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1953 to 1964 (according to Wikipedia, so it's probably wrong)?