Buck Owens, Who’s Gonna Mow Your Grass

1) This is my favorite Buck Owens.

2) Kick-ass fuzz guitar.

3) Kick-ass harpsichord.

4) Kick-ass three-quarter time.

5) The singer from Workin’ Class (best country cover band in Chicago when I worked for STATS, Inc. in the 1990s) and I used to discuss whether this was just Buck’s nice way of saying, “who’s gonna kiss your ass?” What do you think?

6) There’s a really lame live Hee Haw version on youtube with an accompanying awful video which is the perfect example of the buffoonery Buck Owens was subject to in the 1960s. There’s also a pretty good cover version by the Derailers with an accompanying pretty cool video, but it’s not as good as the original, which I give you now:

5 thoughts on “Buck Owens, Who’s Gonna Mow Your Grass

  1. The fuzz tone guitar is very cool in a country song, and the harpsichord is definitely a nod to LSD and chamber pop, or maybe I’m suggesting the Byrds. Not sure whether Grass was meant to replace Ass, but Owens’ autobiography is called Buck ‘Em! So I wouldn’t put it past him.

  2. The fuzz tone guitar in Buck’s original mono 45 version of this 1969 #1 country hit is not as prominent as on the stereo LP mix. The version posted above is the LP mix not the single hit. The two versions sound very different. The rhythm track and harpsichord are much more dominant on the 45. The single does not feature fuzz tone in the intro – just during the instrumental bridge and the play-off at the end. The mono hit single mix has not yet been posted to youtube.

    This was Buck’s final mono single release. His subsequent Capitol 45’s were all issued in stereo. Because the song was not initially released on an album a stereo mix was not needed until two years later for his 1971 Best Of Buck Owens Vol. 4 LP. Never heard an explanation of why the stereo version does not match the mono 45 mix. My speculation is that a stereo mix may not have been done initially and when it was mixed for stereo almost two years later whoever did it did not listen to the original single as a reference. Or perhaps they didn’t care.

    According to Buck the title of this song was derived from an old saying that he recalled.

    • Omnivore has released three 2-CD sets of Buck’s original single mixes. This is the original 1969 MONO single version that became the #1 hit. Note that the fuzz guitar is much less prominent than in the stereo LP mix posted above.

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