''"Curb Your Tongue, Knave!"'' is the fourth comedy album recorded by the

Smothers Brothers The Smothers Brothers are Thomas ("Tom" – born February 2, 1937) and Richard ("Dick" – born November 20, 1938), American folk singers, musicians, and comedians. The brothers' trademark double act was performing folk songs (Tommy on acoustic gu ...

, released November 1, 1963 on

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it is ...

. The album was recorded live at Mister Kelly's in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. It reached number 13 on the ''Billboard'' Pop Albums chart. This was the first of their original albums to be released on CD.

Track listing

#"Church Bells" (4:25) - Song about the bells of a Catholic church, a Protestant church, and a Synagogue during which Dick mistakenly says "Catholic Chowers" instead of "Catholic Towers". The song is a "

shaggy dog story In its original sense, a shaggy dog story or yarn is an extremely long-winded anecdote characterized by extensive narration of typically irrelevant incidents and terminated by an anticlimax. Shaggy dog stories play upon the audience's precon ...

", a drawn out explanation ending with the church bells finally playing in sequence, the effect being to ring out "

Shave and a Haircut "Shave and a Haircut" and the associated response "two bits" is a seven-note musical call and response (music), call-and-response couplet, Ostinato#Riff, riff or fanfare popularly used at the end of a musical performance, usually for comedic e ...

". – 4:22 #"American History-1A" (5:09) - Tom tells what he knows about

Davy Crockett David Crockett (August 17, 1786 – March 6, 1836) was an American folk hero, frontiersman, soldier, and politician. He is often referred to in popular culture as the "King of the Wild Frontier". He represented Tennessee in the U.S. House of Re ...

Jim Bowie James Bowie ( ) ( – March 6, 1836) was a 19th-century American pioneer, slave smuggler and trader, and soldier who played a prominent role in the Texas Revolution. He was among the Americans who died at the Battle of the Alamo. Stories of h ...

, John Henry, and the ballad of Big Ben Covington, a friend of

Johnny Appleseed John Chapman (September 26, 1774March 18, 1845), better known as Johnny Appleseed, was an American pioneer nurseryman who introduced apple trees to large parts of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Ontario, as well as the northern coun ...

, the main topic of the dissertation. "American History-IIA" and "IIB" are found on '' Tour de Farce: American History and Other Unrelated Subjects''. – 5:07 #"

Lonesome Traveler ''Lonesome Traveler'' is a non-fiction collection of short essays and sketches by American novelist and poet Jack Kerouac, published in 1960. It is a compilation of Kerouac's journal entries about traveling the United States, Mexico, Morocco, t ...

" (4:16) - Tom thinks he is the classic radio detective "The Whistler," for he walks by night and he knows many things. Some of Tom's best guitar work is featured on this classic folk song. – 4:14 #"Gnus" (2:29) - Tom has thought about being a big game hunter and hunting the vicious gnus. – 2:29 #"The Incredible Jazz Banjoist" (4:24) - Tom attempts to play "Nola" and "Whispering" on the banjo. – 4:23 #"

I Talk to the Trees I, or i, is the ninth Letter (alphabet), letter and the third vowel letter of the Latin alphabet, used in the English alphabet, modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in Engl ...

" (3:40) - Dick is singing the show tune from '' Paint Your Wagon'' but has to stop to explain to Tom what the song was about. Tom thinks the guy in the song sounds like a nut. – 3:40 #"Flamenco" (2:51) - Tom attempts a Flamenco guitar number from his "Spanish homeland." – 2:50 #"Swiss Christmas" (4:35) - Actually the Israeli song "

Tzena, Tzena, Tzena "Tzena, Tzena, Tzena" (), sometimes "Tzena, Tzena", is a song, written in 1941 in Hebrew. Its music is by Issachar Miron (a.k.a. Stefan Michrovsky), a Polish emigrant in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine (now Israel), and the lyrics a ...

", which was previously the story of a one-humped camel race on ''

The Smothers Brothers at the Purple Onion ''The Smothers Brothers at the Purple Onion'', released May 1, 1961 on Mercury Records, is the first album released by the Smothers Brothers and established their reputation as folk music satirists. The Purple Onion was a celebrated comedy and m ...

''. – 4:34

Personnel

*Dick Smothers – vocals, double bass *Tom Smothers – vocals, guitar *Carole Allen – Tape Editor *Brent Averill – Engineer *Elvin Campbell – Tape Editor *David Carroll – Producer *Bernie Clapper – Engineer *Doug Hawkins – Mastering

Chart positions

References

External links

*Complete

' discography can be found
here
'. {{The Smothers Brothers Smothers Brothers albums 1963 live albums Mercury Records live albums Albums produced by David Carroll (musician)