The New York Dolls were before my time, a bit, but I did see David Johansen several times in college and he was awesome. With mannerisms and style reminiscent of Jagger, his repertoire included some Dolls tunes, like "Personality Crisis", plus "Funky, But Chic", "Frenchette" and "Donna". Saw him a couple of years back at B.B. King's in NYC. He's also done alot of acting, notably on the HBO series, "Oz". Not a fan of his Buster Poindexter days, when he had the mega-hit, "Hot, Hot, Hot". Still, I love Johansen. Reminds me of my college days, so long ago. Here's audio of David performing "Donna":
"Under My Thumb", "Shattered", "Dead Flowers" and "Far Away Eyes" are some of my favorites Rolling Stones tunes. I saw them once at Giants Stadium in NJ. Sat in the very last row. Endured Tina Turner; she was OK. But The Mick was awesome. He still is.
Before Miss Dolly Parton joined the Porter Wagoner Show, Porter had another "girl singer" named Pretty Miss Norma Jean. Ultimately, she left to get married, leaving a void. Dolly joined the show, launching her career and boosting Porter's, who was ahead of his time with possibly the most popular country music TV show ever--it ran for 20 years. Notice how comfortable Porter is on-camera and the friendly, unscripted ribbing that would never make it on TV today, unfortunately. Pretty Miss Norma Jean, "Walking Advertisement For The Blues": Porter Tubb
In looking up something regarding Roy Acuff, I came upon a listing of "honorific titles" in music and scrolled down to "The King of Country Music". Three names were listed--George Strait, Garth Brooks and Roy Acuff--but the title solely belongs to Acuff and always will. He originally came to the Opry in the late '30s to fiddle, but ended up singing "The Great Speckled Bird" and helped usher in a transition at the Opry from string band music to the singer-based format that endures to this day. He had many early hits, my favorites being his signature "Wabash Cannonball", "Precious Jewel", "Wreck On The Highway" and "The Great Speckled Bird". Interestingly, beyond the 40s, he never really topped the charts again, but his reign as the "King" was undisputed and his impact on country music was immense. The purity of his mountain voice, coupled with the whimsy and driving dobro of the largely unheralded Pete Kirby, Bashful Brother Oswald, is refreshing. The photo above is a really blurry shot of Acuff at Carnegie Hall on a package show I saw while in college that also featured Tammy Wynette and Merle Haggard. I met him that night and it was a thrill. I used to be into Roy a lot more in college than today, but he remains stuck in my craw and I'm glad I can't get him out! Here are three favorites, plus a bonus track, "Smoke On The Water," a song which predicted the defeat of the Axis powers in World War II. In fact, Acuff was so popular during the period, Japanese soldiers charging at Okinawa shouted, "To hell with Roosevelt, to hell with Babe Ruth, to hell with Roy Acuff". He died in 1992.
"Wabash Cannonball"
"The Great Speckled Bird" (Wilburn Brothers TV Show)
Dolly Parton is bigger than ever...no pun intended! She's best known for songs like "Nine To Five", but I prefer the more country side. Songs like "Just Because I'm A Woman" and "Dagger Through The Heart", which Sinead O'Connor covered so beautifully in a tribute album to Dolly. Porter Wagoner gave Dolly her first big break and the songs from that period were pretty remarkable. Here are three of my favorites, including Dolly's goodbye song to Porter, "I Will Always Love You". When Whitney Houston had a monster hit with that one, it was Dolly's version that I played on my turntable.
My son's debut at the Philadelphia Folk Festival last summer was exciting for a couple of reasons. His first time playing there, of course, but also the chance to see Steve Earle for the first time. Earle has battled some demons, but he's been on-track for years and has reemerged as an incredible artist. His son, Justin Townes Earle, is also amazing (more on him in a future post). I've opted to highlight Earle's artistry through his collaboration with Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, The Del McCoury Band, with whom he recorded an incredible album, "The Mountain", and the heavenly Emmylou Harris.
Steve Earle, Gillian Welch, Dave Rawlings: "Sin City" (Gram Parsons):
Steve Earle with the Del McCoury Band: "I Still Carry You Around":
Steve Earle and Emmylou Harris: "Goodbye" (Earle's Masterpiece):
On March 3, 1963, Patsy Cline, famous for "I Fall To Pieces" and Willie Nelson's "Crazy", played a benefit concert in Kansas City with George Jones, Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas and others. Two days later, she was killed in a plane crash, along with Hawkins and Copas, only 90 miles from her destination. That day, three country music stars died; a fourth, Jack Anglin, of Johnny and Jack, best known for "Ashes of Love", was killed in a car accident on the way to a memorial for Patsy Cline. Ironically, country singer Dottie West had pleaded with Pasty not to board the plane, but to ride back home with her by car. Patsy refused, wanting to get back sooner to her children.
Almost four years earlier, on February 2, 1959, Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson were killed in a plane crash after playing a show in Iowa. Valens got a seat by flipping a coin with Holly's bandmate, Tommy Allsup, and won the toss. The Big Bopper convinced a second Holly bandmember, Waylon Jennings, to give up his seat. Of course, this story was immortalized in Don McLean's classic, "The Day The Music Died".
I think the death of Patsy Cline, Hawkins, Copas and, indirectly, Anglin was a devastating blow to country music. That's why I call it, "The (Second) Day The Music Died." Patsy Cline: "Leaving On Your Mind"
Growing up in the tranquil hamlet of Yonkers, NY, I got into Bowie in high school and later, in college, played him quite a bit on the radio. My two favorite Bowie songs, then and now, are "Sound and Vision" and "Heroes", which follow. Not expected choices, but they're mine!
These days, our impressions of the Bee Gees are largely colored by the really funny SNL skits featuring Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake...and, of course, their disco period spurred by "Saturday Night Fever". I happen to like some of their music from the disco age (now sounds prehistoric!), but I LOVE their pre-Travolta phase. They actually burst onto the scene in the late 60s with tight harmonies, a la Everly Brothers and Beach Boys. Here are three, early songs performed in later years.
Gillian Welch and David Rawlings' songwriting, harmonies and "Keep It Close To The Ground" style are but a few of the reasons why they're among my favorite duos. Their voices blend seamlessly. Gillian's phrasing; Dave's subtlety and mesmerizing guitar.
Years back, they were interviewed by Whispering Bill Anderson, who complimented her on her shirt that she wears below in the "Hickory Wind" performance. Gillian said thanks, you should, it used to be yours! A small sample of how this duo honors the tradition--and there is a tradition that merits honoring--but go their own way. And what a way they have...
"Caleb Meyer" and "Time (The Revelator)" are originals; "Hickory Wind" a Gram Parsons masterpiece.
Johnny Paycheck had four careers. He played in some of the best country bands for artists like Ray Price and George Jones (though not widely acknowledged, his vocal style was a major influence on Jones). He went solo and had some minor hits, great songs like "A-11" and "The Real Mr. Heartache", and wrote hits for others, like "Apartment No. 9" for Tammy Wynette. Then, he made it big, too big, with the song he's most famous for, David Allan Coe's "Take This Job And Shove It". That's when he fell into drugs, alcohol and prison. During this period, he also scored with some remarkable, play-on-words-type-songs like, "Slide Off Of Your Satin Sheets" and "I'm The Only Hell (My Mama Ever Raised)." He finally cleaned up in his later life and was invited to rejoin the Opry, where he made several, unforgettable appearances. But just as things were turning around, he died on Feb. 19, 2003. One of his greatest compositions was the "Old Violin". Here's an acoustic version, played among his peers, followed by the words. It's his story and I think his best work.
Old Violin
Well, I can't recall, one time in my life,
I've felt as lonely as I do tonight. I feel like I could lay down, and get up no more, It's the damndest feelin'; I never felt it before.
Tonight I feel like an old violin, Soon to be put away and never played again. Don't ask me why I feel like this, hell, I can't say. I only wish this feelin' would just go away.
I guess it's 'cos the truth, Is the hardest thing I ever faced. 'Cos you can't change the truth, In the slightest way. I tried.
So I asked myself, I said: "John, where'd you go from here?" Then like a damned fool, I turned around and looked in the mirror.
And there I saw, an old violin. Soon to be put away and never played again.
So one more time, just to be sure, I said: "John, where in the hell do you go from here?" You know that when a nickel's worth of difference, And I looked in the mirror, that's when I knew.
That there I was seein', an old violin. Soon to be put away, and never played again.
And just like that, it hit me, That old violin and I were just alike. We'd give our all to music, And soon, we'd give our life.
I was a DJ at my college radio station. It was a blast. We broadcast to three states via 50,000 watts. On my rock show, without exception, I always played a song by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. He's still cool. Following is my favorite, "Listen To Her Heart", plus three other classics.
"Listen To Her Heart""I Need To Know""I Won't Back Down""Free Fallin'"
Writing about Conway and Loretta brought back memories of two concerts, in particular, that I was unable to get to and regretted for a long time. Conway Twitty was co-billing with George Jones in New York, but an unreal blizzard prevented me from making it. Shortly thereafter, he died. Conway was a prolific hitmaker, from hardcore country--the best, in my view being, "This Time I Hurt Her More (Than She Loves Me), to tons of I guess what can be call slick pop and adult contemporary. One of his earliest hits was "Hello Darlin'":
"Hello Darlin'"
A second concert I just couldn't get to featured one of my all-time favorites, Marty Robbins. A consummate singer, songwriter, performer, he was also a ham, but his fans loved him. His voice was magnificent and he excelled at all forms of music, from cowboy songs to Mexican-themed tunes to Hawaiian music and the ballad. Here are three of his finest:
Loretta Lynn's first duo partner was Ernest Tubb. ET could have chosen anyone as a duo partner, but he believed in Loretta and wanted to give her a break, as he did to countless artists. They had a few hits, but Loretta struck gold when she teamed up with Conway Twitty. I believe their first hit duet, from 1971, was their finest musical collaboration. It came to mind recently when hearing an awesome version by Marty Stuart and Connie Smith on the Ernest Tubb Midnight Jamboree on WSM radio.
Here's Conway and Loretta's version of "After The Fire Is Gone."
Commenting on the death of country star Faron Young in December 1996, Joel Bernstein wrote, "Many of today's country fans don't know Faron Young from Mighty Joe Young." True then...even more true now. Earlier that month, on December 10, 1996, Faron killed himself. He was despondent over his deteriorating health and perhaps equally despondent over the end of his hit-making run some 20 years earlier and feeling the country music industry had turned its back on him.
Bernstein noted that one of Faron's early hits was "'It's A Great Life (If You Don't Weaken)', (but) forty-one years later, suffering from emphysema and prostate cancer, Young did weaken. He put a bullet in his head and...his great life ended. He may have been thinking back to his first Number One record, 'Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young (And Leave A Beautiful Memory).'"
Faron Young had his first break on the Louisiana Hayride, which launched the careers of Hank Williams, Elvis Presley and Webb Pierce. At age 20, Faron, known as "The Hillbilly Heartthrob" and "The Singing Sheriff", had his first hit, "Goin' Steady," which reach the Number Two spot. Forty more Top Ten hits followed through 1974, including "If You Ain't Lovin", "Wine Me Up" and "It's Four In The Morning". Faron's success as a recording artist was rooted in his ability to "smooth out some of the grittiest elements of honky tonk music, balancing it with pop vocal phrasing and flourishes." He also had a good ear for a good song and was willing to give up-and-coming songwriters a chance. Faron one was of five artists to reach Number One with Don Gibson's "Sweet Dreams" and hit the Number 12 spot on the pop charts with Willie Nelson's "Hello Walls". In fact, when "Hello Walls" hit the charts, Willie, desperate for money, offered to sell Faron the song, but Faron asked Willie how much he needed--$500--gave him the money and made him swear never to sell that song to anyone.
There are many colorful stories about Faron, but, perhaps the most interesting involves a girl and the biggest country star ever. In 1952, Faron was invited to guest on the Grand Ole Opry and drove to Nashville with his new girlfriend, Billie Jean Jones. "Sitting in the visitors box (onstage at the Opry), in her off the shoulder black and white dress, she attracted the attention of Opry headliner, Hank Williams." Bernstein picks up the story, "By the end of the night, she was Faron's ex and Hank's bride-to-be. " According to country singer Billy Walker, Hank pulled a gun on Faron and announced, "This is gonna be my girlfriend from now on." Hank also said Billie Jean would be the next Mrs. Hank Williams. He was prophetic. She became Mrs. Hank Williams, three times. They married secretly on October 18, 1952, and publicly, twice, the next day, at two, $2-a-person public ceremonies.
Less than three months later, Hank Williams, at age 29, died in the back seat of a Cadillac on the way to a New Year's Eve show in Canton, Ohio. He'd been dead for hours. Billie Jean remarked, "Hank was too young to die, but...he was in too much pain to live."
The same could have been said some 40 years later of her former boyfriend, Faron. He was too young to die.
"For four decades, Leonard Cohen has been one of the most important and influential songwriters of our time, a figure whose body of work achieves greater depths of mystery and meaning as time goes on. His songs have set a virtually unmatched standard in their seriousness and range. Sex, spirituality, religion, power – he has relentlessly examined the largest issues in human lives, always with a full appreciation of how elusive answers can be to the vexing questions he raises. But those questions, and the journey he has traveled in seeking to address them, are the ever-shifting substance of his work, as well as the reasons why his songs never lose their overwhelming emotional force."
Three of his masterworks... If It Be Your Will (with the sublime Webb Sisters) If it be your will That I speak no more And my voice be still As it was before I will speak no more I shall abide until I am spoken for If it be your will If it be your will That a voice be true From this broken hill I will sing to you From this broken hill All your praises they shall ring If it be your will To let me sing From this broken hill All your praises they shall ring If it be your will To let me sing If it be your will If there is a choice Let the rivers fill Let the hills rejoice Let your mercy spill On all these burning hearts in hell If it be your will To make us well And draw us near And bind us tight All your children here In their rags of light In our rags of light All dressed to kill And end this night If it be your will If it be your will.
A Thousand Kisses Deep(a poem) The ponies run, the girls are young, The odds are there to beat. You win a while, and then it’s done – Your little winning streak. And summoned now to deal With your invincible defeat, You live your life as if it’s real, A Thousand Kisses Deep. I’m turning tricks, I’m getting fixed, I’m back on Boogie Street. You lose your grip, and then you slipInto the Masterpiece. And maybe I had miles to drive, And promises to keep: You ditch it all to stay alive, A Thousand Kisses Deep. And sometimes when the night is slow, The wretched and the meek, We gather up our hearts and go, A Thousand Kisses Deep. Confined to sex, we pressed against The limits of the sea: I saw there were no oceans left For scavengers like me. I made it to the forward deck. I blessed our remnant fleet – And then consented to be wrecked, A Thousand Kisses Deep. I’m turning tricks, I’m getting fixed, I’m back on Boogie Street. I guess they won’t exchange the gifts That you were meant to keep. And quiet is the thought of you, The file on you complete, Except what we forgot to do, A Thousand Kisses Deep. And sometimes when the night is slow, The wretched and the meek, We gather up our hearts and go, A Thousand Kisses Deep. The ponies run, the girls are young, The odds are there to beat . . .
Tower Of Song(with U2)
Well my friends are gone and my hair is grey I ache in the places where I used to play And I'm crazy for love but I'm not coming on I'm just paying my rent every day Oh in the Tower of Song I said to Hank Williams: how lonely does it get? Hank Williams hasn't answered yet But I hear him coughing all night long A hundred floors above me In the Tower of Song I was born like this, I had no choice I was born with the gift of a golden voice And twenty-seven angels from the Great Beyond They tied me to this table right here In the Tower of Song So you can stick your little pins in that voodoo doll I'm very sorry, baby, doesn't look like me at all I'm standing by the window where the light is strong Ah they don't let a woman kill you Not in the Tower of Song Now you can say that I've grown bitter but of this you may be sure The rich have got their channels in the bedrooms of the poor And there's a mighty judgment coming, but I may be wrong You see, you hear these funny voices In the Tower of Song I see you standing on the other side I don't know how the river got so wide I loved you baby, way back when And all the bridges are burning that we might have crossed But I feel so close to everything that we lost We'll never have to lose it again Now I bid you farewell, I don't know when I'll be back They're moving us tomorrow to that tower down the track But you'll be hearing from me baby, long after I'm gone I'll be speaking to you sweetly From a window in the Tower of Song Yeah my friends are gone and my hair is grey I ache in the places where I used to play And I'm crazy for love but I'm not coming on I'm just paying my rent every day Oh in the Tower of Song
Though largely forgotten, Don Gibson was one of our greatest songwriters, in my view. His song catalog is epic and includes: I Can't Stop Loving You; Sweet Dreams; Oh, Lonesome Me; Lonesome Number One; Sea Of Heartbreak and on and on. Gibson had many hits with these and other songs, but artists like Ray Charles (I Can't Stop Loving You), Patsy Cline (Sweet Dreams) and Ronnie Milsap (I'd Be A Legend In My Time) had monster hits on them. But I've always liked Gibson's interpretations best. Loneliness and being blue were constant themes throughout and supposedly he was quite lonely, as we all are from time to time. Unfortunately, his artistry was hard to decipher in most of his recordings, due to overproduction and oftentimes annoying background choruses. So I've chosen a cover of my favorite Gibson tune, Legend In My Time, by Johnny Cash, recorded near the end of his life when he was so beautifully exploring his inner being (words follow). There's also a clip of Gibson performing I Can't Stop Loving You. I've always felt Gibson was suffering inside and the way he dealt with it was through his words and melodies. What gifts he gave us.
Johnny Cash (audio)... Legend In My Time... (I'd Be A) Legend In My Time If heartaches brought fame, In love's crazy game, I'd be a legend in my time. If they gave gold statuettes, For tears and regret, I'd be a legend in my time. But they don't give awards, And there's no praise or fame. For hearts that are broken, or love that's in vain. If loneliness meant world acclaim, Everyone would know my name, I'd be a legend in my time. [Spoken:]If heartaches brought fame, In love's crazy game, I'd be a legend in my time. If they gave gold statuettes, For tears and regret, I'd be a legend in my time. [Sung:]But they don't give awards, And there's no praise or fame. For hearts that are broken, or love that's in vain. If lonliness meant world acclaim, Everyone would know my name, I'd be a legend in my time. I Can't Stop Loving You (Try to ignore the Jordanaires!)
