Buck 'Em

 

Excerpted from Buck 'Em: The Autobiography of Buck Owens with Randy Poe, ©2013:

Back in February of '64, while "Love's Gonna Live Here" was still sitting at the top of the country charts, the Beatles were having their first number one pop hit in America with "I want to hold your hand." Oh man, I can't tell you how angry some country artists got when the Beatles started having so much success. There were plenty of older country stars going all the way back to the '50s that thought rock & roll was the worst thing that ever happened. They said it was the Devil's music. They didn't just think that it was turning kids into juvenile delinquents-- they thought was turning kids away from country music. Which it was. And when the Beatles came along, you can bet that teenagers wanted to hear the Beatles a lot more than they wanted to hear Eddy Arnold or Ernest Tubb.

If you were a country singer, you weren't supposed to like rock & roll. But I never was one to follow other people's rules, and I never believed that you had to like one kind of music to the exclusion of all other kinds. I like Bill Monroe and Bob Wills and Lefty Frizzell and George Jones, but I like Little Richard and Elvis and Chuck Berry and the Beatles, too.

I like pretty much every genre of music. The key thing for me is that I want an emotional element-- I want to feel the love or the happiness, or the loss or frustration. I want to really connect with the song.

I remember watching American Bandstand all those years ago and the dancers would rate a song they had just danced to: "It has a really good beat, I give it a nine!" Without exception, I hated those songs.

(An aside: it is never terribly difficult to figure out what book I'm reading.)

AM

Excerpted from Buck 'Em:  The Autobiography of Buck Owens with Randy Poe, ©2013:

Speaking of the radio, the reason my Capitol records sounded the way they did-- real heavy on the treble-- was because I knew most people were going to be listening to 'em on their AM car radios.  In fact, in those days, even the radio in most people's houses was an AM radio.  And of course, those early transistor radios were all AM radios, too.

When I told Ken Nelson why I was going for that trebly sound, he didn't waste any time.  He had the tech guy at Capitol Studios install some little mono speakers in the control booth.  When we'd mix my singles, we'd always play 'em through those little speakers to make sure that sound really cut through loud and clear.

At the time, nobody else was doing anything like that, but it just seemed like common sense to me.  And it was one more reason that you knew it was a Buck Owens record as soon as it came on the radio-- because it just didn't sound like those other records that always came out sounding like the bass player was standing in front of the singer. 

There's an oldies AM radio station I listen to in my car because the songs sound the way they did when I heard them for the first time.

Midland

Midland in Nacogdoches, 27 April 2024
 

And then go stealing through the moonlit nights with your lover…

 

The Bellamy Brothers included a reggae version of "Let Your Love Flow" on their gospel album Jesus Is Coming.

It's pretty good.

Full lyrics HERE.

I'm almost out of cigarettes…

 Full lyrics HERE.

I've never cheated.  But this song still guts me, because there have been times in my life when I knew what the right thing was, wanted to do the right thing, and just… didn't.

"There is no disappointment we endure one-half so great as what we are to ourselves."  ~Philip James Bailey

Breathe

 

My favorite Willie Nelson song. Full lyrics HERE.

I'm Begging Of You Please

I first became aware of this cover when Dolly Parton tweeted how much she liked it:

 

Full lyrics HERE.

It wasn't just the music.

 

Well, a question ain't really a question
If you know the answer, too

This is one of the saddest songs ever written. He was aware of every little detail in the scenario.

Full lyrics HERE.

Fast Car

 

Full lyrics HERE.

There's a subtle change when you change the gender of the person telling the story.

It hits different.

What I'd Say

When We Two Parted
Lord Byron

When we two parted
   In silence and tears,
Half broken-hearted
   To sever for years,
Pale grew thy cheek and cold,
   Colder thy kiss;
Truly that hour foretold
   Sorrow to this.

The dew of the morning
   Sunk chill on my brow—
It felt like the warning
   Of what I feel now.
Thy vows are all broken,
   And light is thy fame;
I hear thy name spoken,
   And share in its shame.

They name thee before me,
   A knell to mine ear;
A shudder comes o'er me—
   Why wert thou so dear?
They know not I knew thee,
   Who knew thee too well—
Long, long shall I rue thee,
   Too deeply to tell.

In secret we met—
   In silence I grieve,
That thy heart could forget,
   Thy spirit deceive.
If I should meet thee
   After long years,
How should I greet thee?—
   With silence and tears.

And that reminded me of this:

Full lyrics HERE.

Those Williams Boys

 

I had a dream where I changed the line to "Hank and Tennessee, and Don." 

I told Mona about it, and she was confused. It turns out that she has misheard the lyrics all these years, and thought he was saying "Back in Tennessee." 

(Those of us of a certain age first heard these songs on a mono AM radio with a half-inch speaker. One of the first thing we used the internet for was to look up all the lyrics we couldn't make out.) 

Full lyrics HERE.

Gideon Tanner

 

Kenny Rogers - Gideon - Full Playlist

One of the best things about the 70s was "concept albums."  The album linked to above are twelve songs telling the life story of a cowboy named Gideon Tanner, and although some songs stand alone as nice singles, they all piece together beautifully to form a coherent whole.

When you have forty minutes to invest, give it a try.

Because he's never seen a single dream come true…

 

Kris Kristofferson is one of the most amazing songwriters of our lifetime.  His lyrics could stand alone as poetry.

Full lyrics HERE.

And by the way…

 

I love the way the story is really told by what is not said, and the final line-- where he's comparing the life he could have had to the one he has-- is a heart-breaker.

Full lyrics HERE.

Acceptance

Full lyrics HERE.

 

Full lyrics HERE.

 

It's rare to find a song about accepting a situation.

Usually a song is about action: finding someone new, getting good and drunk, winning the girl back.

I guess it's hard to write a song about something passive.

 

Wrong

 

Full lyrics HERE.

To Understand

 

And that goofy little image reminded me of this, one of the saddest songs I've ever heard:

Full lyrics HERE.

The Gift of an Open Heart

 Full lyrics HERE.

Live!

 

 

And that made me think of this:

 Full lyrics HERE.

And that made me think of this, which is actually more in line with the original quote:

 Full lyrics HERE.

Thanks a lot. Congratulations.

 

And that made me think of this:

 

Full lyrics for "Thanks a lot" available HERE.  Full lyrics for "Congratulations" available HERE.