The other side of Roger Miller

I was listening to some Roger Miller the other day, and decided to write this blog not about an album, but about some songs. Roger Miller was one of the greatest Country songwriters and is best known for wacky, seemingly noveltyish songs such as "Dang Me," "Chug-A-Lug," "You Can't Rollerskate In A Buffalo Herd" (and many others) as well as the more conventional "King Of The Road" (a masterpiece of a song and his most well-known song). But what may surprise those familiar only with these songs is that Roger Miller wrote and performed some of the most dark, depressing and heartbroken songs of all time. Let's take a look at a few of them.

The first one is probably be the most disturbing. Its not so inviting title is "One Dyin' And A Buryin'". The narrator of the song and he thinks the best way for him to be free of heartache is to go down to the river.... and to end it all. The end result? "Some cryin', six carrying me". The song is very sparse, just Miller's narration and acoustic guitar. He think its foolproof but immediately admits its actually foolhardy. The most devastating lines in the song are "The love that once was warm and then just somehow turned to hate. Made my life a prison from which there’s only one escape . That’s one dyin' and a buryin'....". Believe it or not, this song made it to #10 on the Country charts and #34 on the Pop charts.

Another heartbreaking hit is "Husbands And Wives," a divorce drama. But 'drama' may not be the correct term, as the music and lyrics are anything but dramatic and in fact are resigned and contemplative. The killer line is "pride is the chief cause and the decline in the number of husbands and wives". As true today as it was forty years ago. This song also made the Top Ten on the Country Charts and the Top Forty on the Pop charts.

Finally we have Roger Miller's spectral take on "A World So Full Of Love," a song he co-wrote with Faron Young, who had a minor hit with in 1961. Miller's demo version was unreleased until its inclusion on the 3-CD set "King Of The Road: The Genius Of Roger Miller" in 1995. Accompanied by just his acoustic guitar, Miller squeezes every ounce of emotion out of unbearably dark verses such as "I know how it feels to be alive with no desire to live. I know how it feels to die inside but try hard to forgive. And my way of finding out is 'cause a love just let me down. In a world so full of love yet not enough to go around ."