‘Hide Behind The Oak Tree . . .’

 by whiteray

I’ve got a bunch of music stored on my phone, stuff that I put there three years ago so the phone could be my mp3 player while I was in the hospital for back surgery, and every once in a while, as I take a rest, I lay the phone near the pillow and let the music lull me to sleep. 

Except not all of the tunes on the phone are lulling. Not so long ago, as I lay on the bed, with my cat Oscar keeping me company, I was roused when Long John Baldry began graveling his way through “Let’s Burn Down The Cornfield,” the Randy Newman tune Baldry covered on his 1971 album It Ain’t Easy. 

Here’s what the folks at All-Music Guide thought about Newman’s original recording of the song, found on 12 Songs from 1970: 

A sinewy ballad built around a fine bottleneck guitar riff, “Let's Burn Down the Cornfield” is a love song, basically, but the slightly demented lyric content is what gives it the edge. 

Slightly demented? Well, yeah. Take a read: 

Let’s burn down the cornfield,
Let’s burn down the cornfield,
And we can listen to it burn. 

You hide behind the oak tree,
You hide behind the oak tree,
Stay out of danger ’till I return.

Oh, it’s so good on a cold night
To have a fire burnin’ warm and bright. 

You hide behind the oak tree,
You hide behind the oak tree,
Stay out of danger ’till I return.

Let’s burn down the cornfield,
Let’s burn down the cornfield,
And I’ll make love to you while it’s burning. 

Newman’s original is in the digital stacks here, as is Baldry’s cover. There are others, too, from folks as disparate as Alex Taylor (the late brother to James, Livingston and Kate), Lou Rawls, Sam Samudio and the Walkabouts. I could certainly find more, as Second Hand Songs lists a total of eighteen versions of the song, which was originally recorded by the eccentric country singer Lee Hazlewood in 1969. 

I think my favorite cover, though, is Etta James’ version of the tune from her 1974 album Come A Little Closer: