Watch Thomas Csorba do a take on "Plastic Jesus" live from the Luck Mansion in Nashville, TN during AmericanaFest. For more from Thomas, click here: thomascsorba.com For more from Luck: www.luckjournal.com
I love this performance. Stripped to the bone, just a man with his well tuned guitar and rootsy voice... penetrated the heart of the song. People don't understand the solo performance is very, very difficult to pull off, to capture and keep peoples attention.
This is a brilliant arrangement & performance of this classic song. I keep coming back to it. This certainly deserves a lot more views. Congrats to Thomas Csorba ! Very talented indeed.
I remember it being When I weave around at night And the cops all think I'm tight They'll never find my bottle though they ask Plastic Jesus shelters me For his head screws off you see He's hollow and I use him for a flask. Ride with me and have a dram Of the blood of the lamb Plastic Jesus is a holy bar
The last verse is: And if I'm caught driving fast at night Policemen think I'm very tight They never find my weed, though they ask Plastic Jesus shelters me For his head screws off you see The perfect place for me to hide my stash
haha I think there must be at least 20 or 30 verses of this song. I never hear the same version twice each singer has their own verses. I like your version better, it makes more sense to when the song started out. I thought his weed verse was the verse he said he wrote but who knows?
@@beer1for2break3fast4 That's this guy's version, I never heard weed in the song before. This is one of those songs that's sung differently by every artist who sings it so you can't go around saying this is the right version because there just ain't no right or wrong version with this song.
Everyone does a chorus. For me I actually found out about this song from my uncle that knew of the original before CHL and requested it for Christmas and we had to illegally download it. Exquisite use of “river of Jordan”, props.
I like this version. I arrived here by way of Tia Blake and her tender version of 'Plastic Jesus'. I'm reminded of how spirited 'Cool Hand Luke' was: Harry Dean Stanton's cover of A Closer Walk With Thee is my all time version. Only wish that I could find the complete song somewhere.
Folk Music isn't about legal or owning. It's about coming across an old song and adding to it, developing it. My dad's friend Ernie Marrs took a musical comedy skit and developed it into this full-fledged folk song. You can hear my dad playing and singing with him in the Smithsonian recording. So, yeah, add lyrics. Ernie and Bud would have liked that. I know that for a fact.
that last stanza originally goes like this: When I weave around at night and the PO-leece think I'm tight, they won't find my bottle, tho they ask. Plastic Jesus comforts me, for his head comes off, you see. He's hollow and I use him for a flask. great performance! jist the raat amount uh twang!
I love it! We need this wonderful "tacky" humor mixed with faith in this difficult time all over the world. Thank ya Jesus for music, for humor and for people who are not afraid to be REAL!!!
Well I don't care if it rains or freezes Long as I've got my plastic Jesus Ridin' on the dashboard of my car Clothed in colors pink and pleasant Clothes in the dark cause she's iridescent She'll go with you when you travel far So get yourself a sweet madonna Dressed in rhinestones sittin' on a Pedestal of abalone shell Well going ninety That ain't scary Cause I've got that Virgin Mary Assuring me that I won't go to hell Oklahoma down to San Antonia 35 my river of Jordan I don't worry along the way Dallas Texas, Tennessee Plastic Jesus rides with me Bobbin' his head down the interstate When I'm in a traffic jam He don't care if I say "damn" I can let all my curses roll Because Plastic Jesus doesn't hear Because he has a plastic ear The man who invented plastic Saved my soul And if I'm gonna fornicatin' I've got my ceramic Satan Sittin' on the dashboard of my car Women know I'm on the level Thanks to the wide-eyed stoneware devil Sittin' on the dashboard of my car And if I'm caught driving fast at night Policemen think I'm very tight They never find my wheel, though they ask Plastic Jesus shelters me For his head screws off you see The perfect place for me to hide my stash Oklahoma down to San Antonia 35 my river of Jordan I don't worry along the way Dallas, Texas, Tennessee Plastic Jesus rides with me Bobbin' his head down the interstate
Pretty presumptuous to add a chorus to such a well worn favorite, except of course that's how it got most of its verses in the first place. Nice turns of phrase, and I like the bobblehead imagery update. I guess the dentist owned Texas radio station that inspired the original wouldn't have hawked those, but only because they hadn't been invented yet.
Ernie Marrs has been credied with writing the song, but said in Sing Out! magazine that, while he did write some of the verses, the song is in the public domain, so you're free to make any changes you like. He sang: If I weave around at night And the police think I'm tight They never find my bottle though they ask. Plastic Jesus shelters me 'Cause his head comes off you see He's hollow and I use him for a flask. Of course Ernie sang this in the days before breathalyzers. Your chorus works just fine, just as good as the original, but it's very different than the original chorus. Paul Newman didn't sing the chorus, but he did actually play the banjo. The original chorus always starts with: "Plastic Jesus, Plastic Jesus, Ridin' on the dashboard of my car,"but ends with different lines every time you sing it. Plastic Jesus, Plastic Jesus, Riding on the dashboard of my car Ride with me and have a dram Of the blood of the Lamb - Plastic Jesus is a holy bar. or maybe: Plastic Jesus, Plastic Jesus, Riding on the dashboard of my car Once His robe was snowy white, Now it isn't quite so bright - Stained by the smoke of my cigar. or Plastic Jesus, Plastic Jesus, Riding on the dashboard of my car Though the sunshine on His back Make Him peel, chip and crack, A little patching keeps Him up to par. or Plastic Jesus, Plastic Jesus, Riding on the dashboard of my car I'm afraid He'll have to go. His magnets ruin my radio And if I have a wreck He'll leave a scar. I first learned this song in the sixties, during "The Great Folk Scare". It was printed, with several variations, in Sing Out! magazine.
