The Ballad of Thunder Road - guitar chords and comments

Lyrics without distraction HERE

It's something fishy with that flippin' YouTube. Last year I got a recommendation in my feed, without any reasonable cause. It was a modest successful single from 1958, recorded by Robert Mitchum. I've never cared about that freak; I didn't even know that he had music as a sideshow. The song was horrible, and my mouse pointer instinctly went for the holy reliefing cross on right top, as I suddenly realized that the melody he tried to disguise was familiar. It was almost similar to a xmas song for children I hated already as a child. What the heck? Who was the copycat; Robert Mitchum or Alf Prøysen?   None of them. The songs are independently adapted from the same origin.   The origin is a traditional "Reinlender", a polka-like couple dance, widespread in Scandinavia and also common in e.g. Germany, which may be the hearth; nobody knows for certain. It was first recorded already in 1906. Forty years later, the Norwegian legend Alf Prøysen used it for a children's radio program - he was a brilliant lyricist and author, but no composer. Recorded in April 1949, it soon became an annual plague. The title "Musevisa" ... well, You may call it something like "Christmas Eve for the Mice".   Mitchum's mother was an immigrant from Norway, nee Ann Harriet Gunderson. Producing "Thunder Road" - a B-movie later to be a cult film - he cooperated with Donald MacRae Wilhoite, Jr. aka Don Raye, a professional songwriter. Mitchum wrote the song lyrics as well as the screenplay, and most probably introduced Raye to a tune from his childhood, which then got rearranged with a confusing mix of majors and minors. No mice here, and no copycat either.
I've seen Jack Marshall credited music for "Thunder Road". He arranged it. He was mainly a guitarist, arranger and conductor. Both theme song "Whipporwill" and "The Ballad of Thunder Road" are Mitchum/Raye's work.
The 1958 movie was inspired by a real incident a few years before, where a driver in the bootlegging business met his fate, chased by the police. You can dig it out yourself right HERE.   So. Why do I write this, as long as I dispite both songs? Well, recently I took a chance and played it for a small public. Nobody left their seat; polite audience. But they covered me up with questions. If I'm stupid enough to repeat the stunt, I can refer to my site instead of answering stupid questions.
And why I included this nonsense in my humble, but serious song collection? I've got a thing about whoopiecrap, and I get a kick from having a REAL good annoyance.

Cm                Am    C              C7
let me tell the story   I can tell it all
Dm                 G7             C         G
about the mountain boy who ran illegal alcohol
     C              Cm       Am                 A7
his daddy made the whiskey   son he drove the load
Dm               G7                    F               C
when his engine roared they called the highway Thunder Road
Cm             Am         C                  C7
sometimes into Ashville   sometimes Memphis town
    Dm         G7                  C                G
The Revenuers chased him but they couldn't run him down
     C                      Cm          Am               A7
each time they thought they had him his engine would explode
Dm               G7                F                 C
he'd go by like they were standing still on Thunder Road

                F        Fdim   C            C7
and there was thunder   thunder over Thunder Road
Dm              G7                C                 C7
Thunder was his engine and white lightening was his load
               F           Fdim         C                  A7
and there was moonshine   moonshine to quench the devil's thirst
    Dm                    G7               F             C
the law they swore they'd get him but the devil got him first