{"id":227,"date":"2025-04-05T17:21:08","date_gmt":"2025-04-05T17:21:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2025\/04\/05\/saturday-night-at-the-oldies-the-gambler-he-broke-even\/"},"modified":"2025-04-05T17:21:08","modified_gmt":"2025-04-05T17:21:08","slug":"saturday-night-at-the-oldies-the-gambler-he-broke-even","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2025\/04\/05\/saturday-night-at-the-oldies-the-gambler-he-broke-even\/","title":{"rendered":"Saturday Night at the Oldies: The Gambler He Broke Even"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kenny Rogers died in 2020 at the age of 81.  <\/span><\/p>\n

A few days after he died, on my way back from a traipse in the local hills, I encountered a couple the female half of which suffers from Parkinson's. Being the over-clever fellow that I am, I asked her what condition her condition was in, thereby alluding to a curious '60s number.<\/a> Her husband caught the allusion and hipped me to a fact hitherto unknown to me, namely, that the band in question, The First Edition<\/em>, was headed by Kenny Rogers before he went country.  He was quite the genre-hopper. Before the acid-rock tune. he sang with the New Christy Minstrels, a 'sanitized' and 'wholesome' collegiate folk outfit. Here<\/a> is "Green Green" with upbeat Barry Maguire in the lead. This was before Maguire got all topical and protesty and dark with Eve of Destruction<\/a> in the summer of '65.<\/span><\/p>\n

I never listened to much Kenny Rogers, but of course I know and like his signature number, now a permanent bit of Americana that taps into the myths that move the red-blooded among us. I mean The Gambler<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n
And when he finished speakin'<\/span>
He turned back toward the window<\/span>
Crushed out his cigarette<\/span><\/div>\n
And faded off to sleep<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
And somewhere in the darkness<\/span>
The gambler he broke even<\/span>
But in his final words<\/span>
I found an ace that I could keep<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
You've got to know when to hold 'em<\/span>
Know when to fold 'em<\/span>
Know when to walk away<\/span>
And know when to run<\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
You never count your money<\/span>
When you're sittin' at the table<\/span>
There'll be time enough for countin'<\/span>
When the dealin's done.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
 <\/div>\n
Bonus cuts:<\/em><\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Clancy Bros., Ramblin' Gamblin' Willie<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n
Byrds, Eight Miles High<\/a>.  Referenced in the 'condition' tune.<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kenny Rogers died in 2020 at the age of 81.   A few days after he died, on my way back from a traipse in the local hills, I encountered a couple the female half of which suffers from Parkinson's. Being the over-clever fellow that I am, I asked her what condition her condition was in, … Continue reading “Saturday Night at the Oldies: The Gambler He Broke Even”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[196,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-americana","category-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}