THE BALLAD OF JED CLAMPETT

Original Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs version

Come and listen to a story about a man named Jed
A poor mountaineer, barely kept his family fed
And then one day he was shootin' at some food
And up through the ground come a bubblin' crude

Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea.

Well the first thing you know ol' Jed's a millionaire
Kinfolk said, "Jed move away from there"
He said Californy is the place you oughta be
So they loaded up the truck and he moved to Beverly

Hills that is, swimmin' pools, movie stars.

Now it's time to say goodbye to Jed and all his kin
They would like to thank you folks for kindly droppin' in
You're all invited back again to this locality
You have a heapin' helpin' of their hospitality

Beverly Hillbillies, that's they call 'em now.
Nice folks, you all come back here.

Page last updated: 01 Mar 2010

Original Version

THE BALLAD OF JED CLAMPETT was the theme song for The Beverly Hillbillies TV show and movie. The song was written and composed by Paul Henning, and sung by Jerry Scoggins, who was accompanied by bluegrass musicians Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs. It went number one for three weeks on the country charts and reached #44 on the music charts in 1962. It is one of the better-known defining banjo songs of the 1960s, remembered as it is for its catchy rolls and lyrics. The above lyrics are for the original Lester Flatt And Earl Scruggs version.

THE BALLAD OF JED CLAMPETT was released on Lester Flatt And Earl Scruggs' 1963 album Hard Travelin' (The Ballad Of Jed Clampett) [first scan below]. This and their 1970 album Final Fling were combined on a single CD in 2000 [second scan below].

Springsteen's Cover

Bruce Springsteen played a half-hour acoustic set at the fifth annual Joe Torre Safe at Home Foundation benefit that was held on 09 Nov 2007 at Chelsea Piers in New York City, NY. Saying that he had been a Yankee fan since he was a kid, Bruce played a riff on the Beverly Hillbillies theme about Torre heading for Beverly Hills and then went right into a take of CALIFORNIA SUN, with heavily modified lyrics also in honor of Torre. See the live 09 Nov 2007 version of CALIFORNIA SUN.

As far as it's known, that was only time that Springsteen performed THE BALLAD OF JED CLAMPETT (or a snippet of it).

Credits / References

Info about the 09 Nov 2007 performance is taken from Backstreets. Thanks Jake (ol'catfishinthelake from BTX and Greasy Lake) for the help.