Weird Recollections
I was a DJ back about 22 years ago at a country music station. Most of the schlock I heard was truly horrible (if I ever hear Sylvia’s “Nobody” again, I will truly just throw the hell right up.) I actually spun records, campers.
But, there was some stuff I found there. It’s where Squirrel Queen and I met and became fast friends. I was introduced to Steve Goodman, whom is still the most awesomest songwriter ever. I learned that if you played Desperado that you would garner a minimum of about ten calls into the station with people telling you why they loved that song (sorry, I didn’t). George Jones, who I always thought was boring, really wasn’t that boring at all (One Woman Man rocks as does White Lightening). It was where I fell in love with Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. Man, I love me some Willie because he has such a great sense of humor as well as that he just kicks ass.
And then, I heard Don Williams. The man has the stage presence of a can of spam. I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. The man could really sing. His deep baratone was one of the grooviest things I’d ever heard. Warm and inviting, he reminded me of my grandfather for some reason although they look nothing alike. And there was something about this song, which touched deep. It was a man singing about the dreams of his youth, talking about Thomas Wolfe and Tennessee Williams in a country song, no less.
And it taught me that the country music I mocked had value. And now, although I’d just as soon listen to Coltrane or a bit of Mozart, I still remember this song. It reminds me of my time in radio when there were dreams busting in my head to the point I couldn’t sit still and I still believed in happy endings. When my parents were still heroes, when my sister was still a pain (and I was jealous of her a bit.) It reminds me of something I can’t explain in words.
It reminded me of hope a bit and that those very thoughts whirling through my head where shared with others.
[youtube=<object width="425" height="350"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/uzGx_XzxDeM"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/uzGx_XzxDeM" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="350"></embed></object>]
For Aunt B
Good to see your post mentioning your affection for the music of Steve Goodman. He often doesn’t get his due. Thought you might be interested in an eight-year project of mine that is coming to fruition — a biography of Goodman that will be published one week from today. Please e-mail me at ceals@comcast.net if you would like me to e-mail you a background sheet on the book. Or check my Internet site below for more info and how to pre-order, if you like. Just trying to spread the word. Feel free to do the same!
Clay Eals
1728 California Ave. S.W. #301
Seattle, WA 98116-1958
(206) 935-7515
ceals@comcast.net
http://www.clayeals.com
Didn’t Steve Goodman write the greatest country song in the history of earth, that most people think David Allen Coe wrote?
“I was drunk the day my mom got out of prison
And I went to pick her up in the rain
But before I could get to the station in my pick-up truck
She got run over by a damned old train . . .”
I sing that to my kid, complete with guitar accompiament. She calls it the “don’t call me darlin’” song.
Yes.
And you win ….
Forks.
I’ll bring them up next time I’m up.
Wish I had money but you know how that goes.
Umm, totally unrelated, I think, Is this any relation to Harold Ford? http://www.localnewsleader.com/olberlin/stories/index.php?action=fullnews&id=103132
NC, you don’t like the Dixie Chicks? Nickel Creek? JoDee Messina? Tanya Tucker?
hmmm, that about does it for my country tastes, I like punk. Specifically California punk. Homegrown boys like Blink182.
Polliticky,
My mother was a musician. I like all of it.
Sex Pistols, damn, I wore out two cassettes and two CDs.
Bodies, damn, that’s song is just friggin’ brilliant.
And to add, I like the Dixie Chicks. Not too fond of the new stuff. When I spun vinyl, man I sat some crappy shit.
I was a bit sneery about country music, too – until I became a DJ at a small town country music station. It was just for one summer, but it changed my life.
Argh! You should warn a girl before you put on a song that’s going to make her cry!
It makes me cry too.
Isn’t it amazing that a Don Williams ballad can tear one up?
[...] like the connections we make between Hank Williams and Tennessee Williams. It’s only when Don Williams (see?) sings them together that the connection is pulled tight, that we can feel the aesthetic tugs [...]
Don Williams could sing the Apples and Bananas song and make it sound prolific. Tasteful. Yeah, one of the more tasteful singers around . It’s all about deliverin’ with Don, isn’t it? The intro to “I Believe In Love” sends me into a tizzy.
He cut a Paul Kennerly song on an album in the 80’s that wasn’t a single for him, but, I think, one of the best deliveries of a song that’s ever been found…it was called “I’ll Be Faithful To You.”
In my perfect world, Don Williams and Lewis Grizzard and Dennis Haysbert would sit around and sing and talk to me all day.
Rrrrumble rrrumble rrrumble.
Sigh.