That would have been a weird dream...

(Don't worry, I'm not going to start dream-blogging.  It just looks that way.)

Early yesterday morning, about 6:20 or so, I got my free annual flu shot.  This isn't mandatory (my wife works at a nursing home, and her's is mandatory), just something my employer offers.  The first time I got a flu shot was 5 years ago, and it made me sick enough that I called in to work sick for one day.  I haven't gotten it every year since then--I think I skipped one year--but that first time was the only time I felt sick.  Until this time.  By around noontime yesterday I had fatigue and body aches, and by the time I got home I was running a very mild fever.  So anyway, I went to sleep very early last night--around 8:00.  My wife was off work last night, so she was watching TV while I went to sleep.  "Just don't put it on anything obnoxious," I told her and passed out.  By this time, she knows what I mean.  Some shows just annoy me so much that I can't possibly sleep through them.

So I had this dream that I heard Randy Travis singing some old love song in 3/4 time.  The part of my brain that analyzes music seems to work much better when I'm asleep, or nearly asleep, and I found myself saying the chord numbers--it was a very easy 3-chord song.  So I'm thinking, wow, I wish I could remember this when I wake up, but I know I won't because I've dreamed music before and could never remember it later.  Then I hear Andy Griffith singing along with Randy Travis, and I'm thinking, well, that's weird.  And then I hear what seems to be a ukulele strumming along with the guitar, and then my wife says, "He's playing a ukulele."

At this point, I realize I am not actually asleep, although I am not what you could call technically awake.  I also realize that my wife is watching Matlock.  "I hear it," I answer.  "Have you ever played that song?" she says.  "No," I answer.  "You were saying numbers in your sleep," she says.  "Those are the chords," I say.  "You should learn to play it," she says.  And then I passed out again.

"Nobody's Darlin' But Mine" was written by a guy named Jimmie Davis, who was born in 1899 into a very poor family of sharecroppers.  But he rose above his humble beginnings and became a teacher, a musician, and a politician.

During the late 1920s [says Wikipedia], Davis taught history (and, unofficially, yodeling) for a year at the former Dodd College for Girls in Shreveport.

 "...unofficially, yodeling" just strikes me as hilariously funny.

You know that horribly, horribly famous song "You Are My Sunshine"?  He claims to have written it.  Well, I guess somebody somewhere must have.  He recorded it in 1940, but there were two previous recordings, both in 1939, and a pair of collaborators were credited with its writing.  So...I guess that was his politician side beginning to come through.

Anyway, he wrote and recorded "Nobody's Darlin'" in 1937.  It has been covered by numerous artists, but I guess most famously by Merle Haggard, who even performed it in one episode of The Waltons.


Here's a Jimmie Davis' version.



Since this is in stereo, I'm guessing this isn't the original. I don't think it would have been recorded in stereo in 1937.

Does anyone else think he looks like Bill Cullen?

So I guess I'll have to learn this one, too.  Shouldn't be too hard.

P.S.  I almost forgot.  Here's the clip from Matlock.