Johnny Rebel

[Thomas G. McWilliams]

In the '60s and early '70s there was country and western singer
named Johnny Rebel (or maybe it was Johnny Reb) who used to
release humorous topical songs reflecting the red-neck
viewpoint. The songs didn't get much air-play, but you could
find his 45 rpm disks on roadhouse jukeboxes and at parties. Are
any Johnny Rebel collections available? Does anyone remember
Johnny Rebel? I'd be interested in a tape if anyone has one.

Thomas
t...@netcom.com

[Robert W. Northcott]

If you are referring to the Johnny Reb who recorded the incredibly racist
material like "Lookin for a Handout", and "Cajun Ku Klux Klan" then he was
on Reb Rebel Records out of Crowley, LA. I found a couple of them in the
Goodwill about 25 years ago, the above mentioned and "Happy Birthday
Thank-You, Tommy, from Viet-Nam" by Happy Fats. I think the flip was "Hey
Mr. President (Going in the No Hog Raising' Business"). I even vaguely
remember one or the other of these side being either written or produced
by Lenny LeBlanc. Anyhow, I wrote to Reb Rebel out of collector's
interest and they sent me a catalog of all their other stuff, lots of Jeb
and Cousin Easy stuff, redneck comedy stuff. I got one LP, called "For
Segregationists Only" that was a "collection" of their representative
stuff. Needless to say it was more racist stuff. I have no idea if they
are still in business, but I got this LP about 15 years ago, so they were
then. If you are interested still, I can email you the address on the
label and you can write to them. They may have Johnny Reb collections, I
don't know.

Bob
nort...@med.unc.edu

[Thomas G. McWilliams]

Robert W. Northcott (nort...@med.unc.edu) wrote:

Thanks for the information. Yeah, I haven't heard Johnny Rebel
in 20 years. I do remember his songs being outrageous but
compared to some of the rappers today, he was pretty tame. I
think that Johnny Rebel might have invented the term "welfare
queen". I remember one of his songs about a "welfare queen" and
her big black brand new Cadillac automobile. But the most
impressive thing about Johnny Rebel was the quality of his
musicianship and his sidemen. If he had stayed away from the
comedy stuff he might have made a name for himself in main
stream country music. His sound was definitely hard-core country
(not like this Barry Manilow style kross-over kountry that you
hear today). If you can find the address of Reb Rebel records,
please post it.

thanks,

Thomas
t...@netcom.com