Saturday, April 23, 2011

Chicago Schlager Saturday: Austria Has Its Own Jethro Bodine: Andreas Gabalier:


Jethro Bodine
Austria, once home of the mighty Habsburg Empire and birthplace of Mozart has now produced a socio-cultural phenomenon of no lessor import: its very own version of Jethro Bodine.

His name is Andreas Gabalier and he is the biggest pop singing phenom in that little country right now and threatens to spread his appeal to Germany and other parts of the Germanic world.
Andreas Gabalier


Germans consider Austria something of a cultural backwash and the 26 year old Gabalier is from the Styrian region near the border of the former Yugoslavia -- a backwash within a backwash.

I'm told he sings in a Styrian dialect, which would be something like an archaic Appalachian dialect in the US.

His attire is Bodinesque -- only lacking Jethro's trademark rope belt (Gabalier holds up his shorts with suspenders.)

His on-stage exaggerated pelvis thrusting is comic, to say the least. Still, just like the 60s Beverly Hillbillies star Gabalier exudes a kind of innocent, boyish exuberance, which may explain his apparent appeal to the Austrian frauleins.




See more videos and info on Andreas Gabalier at The Chicago Schlager Music Review.

And here, from a 1966 episode of The Beverly Hillbillies, is the original Jethro:

2 comments:

  1. LOL at the 1st 2 images! Great find with the Jethro one! :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. I miss our Jethro. I remember when he was applying at the exclusive Beverly Hills prep school and Jed said that Jethro "went to eatin'. This really impressed the haughty school marm who thought that Jed was saying that Jethro had gone to Eaton.

    ReplyDelete

Comments invited, however anonymous commentors had better deal directly with the issues raised and avoid ad hominem drivel. As for Teachers' Union seminar writers -- forget about it.