Yeah Stephen Foster, maybe the first American Rock Star.
Playing Songs You Dislike
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When I made that, it was the first time I’d ever recorded myself (I think). Also, I printed out the verses and taped them to a wall but when I started I was reading them side by side instead of down the page so the lyrics really didn’t make sense. So then I was thinking, “How the heck did anyone like this thing? It’s a bunch of nonesense.” It made a lot of sense when I figured out I needed to read it down the page.
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Yeah, I agree with what you are saying about that song because I never much cared for it myself. Overly wordy overly sentimental sort of in the same vein as the left my cake out in the rain song. I believe the term for this type of music is Schmaltz. If I sound a bit harsh, then all apologies to anyone who likes that song, but just not my thing.
OK, that’s funny! 
There are days we all do goofy things.
Still, playing banjo & singing does not come naturally. It takes a lot of dedication & work…which is extra difficult with a song you don’t like!
Hartford would agree. He once said he wrote it “during my wordy period.”
Actually, he wrote the song
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That’s what I said -
"He once said he wrote it “during my wordy period.”
He also said he regretted writing “Granny Won’t You Smoke (Some Marijuana”)
But he never regretted writing “Gentle On My Mind,” for that song gave him financial freedom for the rest of his life.
Oddly enough, the same could be said for Randy Brooks, who wrote “Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer.” Maybe not as $ucce$$ful as “Gentle,” it’s still paying dividends, but now it’s a paltry sum.
"The song has earned him fans around the world, sold more than 11 million copies and launched a merchandising empire that includes an animated special, musical greeting cards, reindeer toys, ornaments, an iPhone app and more.
At one point, the kooky carol — about a grandma who drank too much eggnog and got plowed by Santa’s sleigh — bumped Bing Crosby “White Christmas” from the top of the Billboard Christmas singles chart.
The main reason, however, is that the song that used to appear on countless Christmas compilations now gets most of its play through streaming services like Spotify and Pandora, and, well, that changes everything.
“I used to get royalties in hundreds of dollars and now they are in hundredths of dollars,” he said, pulling out a recent royalty check he got for a whopping 44 cents.
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