The case of the time-travelling Tex Williams.

The other day I was listening to Tex Williams’s 1947 Western swing record, “Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)”, which I first recall hearing in the film Thank You for Smoking. In the second verse Tex drawled a lyric I’d heard a dozen times before, but which I hadn’t given a passing thought to until now:

The other day I had a date

With the cutest little gal in these fifty states

This time my thoughts were: “Wait, fifty states? In 1947? But—but didn’t Alaska and Hawaii only gain statehood in 1959? Huh? Is Tex Williams a time traveller? An undercover time traveller who slipped? Or maybe it was common knowledge that Alaska and Hawaii were going to be admitted to the Union, and it was only a matter of time, so Tex wanted to avoid dating the record? But twelve years? That’s a long time in politics. I doubt it. Maybe he just thought, fifty scans better. But didn’t any of his band-mates object? And would he have snapped back, everybody’s gonna understand I mean forty-eight anyway, haven’t y’all heard of approximations? Naah. I think it’s funnier if he’s an undercover time traveller who hasn’t done his research.”

Mystery solved with a visit to Wikipedia. The version I was listening to was “a stereophonic re-recording of the song for Capitol in 1960.” And sure enough, when I seek out the original 1947 recording:

The other day I had a date

With the cutest little gal in these forty-eight states

All is right with the timeline. Tex, you’re free to leave the station.

Actually, before you go, another question: Is this talking-blues thing that you do, by another name, rap?