My wife has been watching the Ken Burns Country Music documentary. She stays up past my bedtime. Sunday afternoon we drove to Renton to see a friend’s directorial debut in community theatre. Peg just mentioned a few of the greats that had been discussed as the roots of Country Western.
She mentioned Jimmie Rogers, and Hank Williams of course and then she said, “Jean Shepard.” I launched immediately into the song “I’d Rather Die Young.”
“I’d rather die young than grow old without you
So don’t ever leave me whatever you do
To see someone’s picture where my picture hung
Believe me my darling I’d rather die young”
When we moved from our old house four doors down the block to our current home in 1978 I found an old 78 of Jean Shepard singing that song. What a tear-jerker. I thought this was the only time I had heard the song, but I was wrong. As a teenager I bought a portable stereo record player for Sarge’s Pawn Shop in Ponders Corner, which was located maybe fifty yards from my parent’s motel. I initially purchased a number of used 45s from a special sale at Sear’s garage in downtown Tacoma. I remember going through a table full of loose records where I found a Buddy Holly and the Crickets singing “Oh, Boy” and “Not Fade Away,” along with an Ivory Joe Hunter singing “Since I Met You Baby,” and a four song 45 by Johnny Cash.
As I looked up “I’d Rather Die Young” on Youtube I saw that it was recorded on the album “The Fabulous Johnny Cash,” which was one of the first record albums I purchased when my cousin Lindy and I joined the Columbia Record Club together in 1960. I prefer the Jean Shepard version.
After a little more research I found that Gisele Mackenzie also recorded the song. I may have heard her sing it in the early fifties. As a youngster I had the hots for Gisele from the TV show, “Your Hit Parade.” Even as a child of the fifties I recognized the relationship of country, rhythm & blues, and rock. One of my favorite movie lines is from The Blues Brothers when they are advised at a local bar that the bar offers “both kinds of music. Country AND Western.”
Fox News interviewed Ken Burns about his eight-part country music documentary. I like his explanation of country music, “Country music is about elemental human experience…it’s about the joy of birth, sadness of death, falling in love, losing love, being lonely, or screwing up.” – Ken Burns
Next to my baby grand piano in our living room, I have a collection of music books (four drawers full and a stack): Broadway musicals, various country hits, rock and roll classics, blues, jazz, torch songs, and traditional Americana. They all have a place . . . in my heart.
Although my mother has been gone for many years, Ken Burns placed her on the sofa next to me. Several of her favorite songsters were featured. I hadn’t heard their names or their music in forever! I hope that many others were given this special treat.
Although, I enjoyed all of the segments, my favorite is the one in which Hank Williams is featured. For some unknown reason, I have always felt a connection to him. My favorite men have forever been the “bad boys.” I guess he fits!
Jerri,
It’s always good to hear from you.
I didn’t mention in the article about my mother. She was my introduction to country western music. Before I could read, my mother would read to me the lyrics, like a poem, of the cowboy song, “When the Work’s All Done This Fall.”
A group of jolly cowboys discussing plans at ease
Said one I’ll tell you something, boys, if you will listen, please
I am an old cow puncher and here I’m dressed in rags
I used to be a tough one and go on great big jags
It was kind of rough and tumble and reminds me of Robert Service.
I can picture you and your mother on the sofa listening to the twang of Hank Williams, and singing silently along with “I Can’t Help It If I’m Still in Love with You.”
I know you miss your mother as I miss mine. Let’s pause and think about them when the work’s all done this fall . . .
I can still hear the reminder: “when making a decision, remember you ride for the brand.”
Thank you for sharing. I hope our souls will one day cross paths.
Peace out…this day is done.
Jerri,
Ah, yes . . . Louis L’Amour cowboy way . . . I never go somewhere without returning a different route. I don’t want to get bushwhacked.
Don
It has been a really good series and brings it all together. Music is the story of our lives and Country Western embodies that. Growing up in NYC in the 40s I heard songs I really liked and never knew they were Country since the NY crowd that controlled music issued cover records done by more main stream singers. It wasn’t until the mid 50s when I married and moved to Washington DC that I discover the real singers and their music.
I like most genres of music and have collections from Classical to Country for whatever mood I’m in, my favorites being the 70s through the 90s. Losing KMPS as a country station was a sad day.
Joan,
Thanks for sharing.
I like the story of Woody Guthrie returning to America from WWII. He was sitting in a bar in NYC sipping a beer and slowly realizing that the music playing on the jukebox was his recording . . . “Way down yonder in the Indian nation, I rode my pony on the reservation, in those Oklahoma hills where I was born . . .” Country is where you find it . . . and how it touches you.
Don
Malapropism time! Don or Ben — whoever wrote this headline: surely, you meant to say “heart-rending,” not “heart-rendering?”
Your headline suggested a malodorous rendering plant specializing in human hearts — not a pretty picture! I would rather wipe copious tears from heart-rending music any day.
Mary, my heart cries for you . . . thanks for pointing out the poor choice of words . . . but you know, there are so many of them!
Thanks for sharing.
Don
Well, at least you haven’t been rendered speechless! Keep on writing, Don!
Mary,
I encourage people to not only comment, but to read comments if they are available. That way, the articles usually end up with a little information to chew on or chuckle over.
Thanks for assisting with the humor over the past couple of days.
Don
The “rending” vs “rendering” was a great catch. Well done, Mary. Kind of like using blundering for blending.
Dennis,
I beg your pardon. Blundering is an effective way to discover new songs, artists, and recipes, while blending either pails or pales in comparison.
Don
Thanks! Words can be so entertaining.
Mary,
Mostly they are. If not, then they can still give you paws:-)
Don
Rendering too has a place in the world of country music.
I was raised up in a neighborhood bar, where customers used to play country music on a big, lit up, chrome jukebox, and where people used to sit around and talk at each other about everybody’s raisin’s, good ‘n bad. There was one regular, Chuck Warren, everybody knew to be a dead-on fan of Hank Williams. Everybody knew because Chuck would come in, order a beer, go over to the jukebox, and empty his pocket into it (nickle a play, five for a quarter) and punch L-9, “Good Night Irene” until his finger hurt. Then he’d go back to his stool at the bar and just sit and listen, over and over again, to that one song, a satisfied smile on his face. About the fifth time around half the whole house had emptied out. One time my mother, who usually had the patience of Job and could and did handle anything— she ran a bar, for god’s sake— took it as long as she could. She came out of her office blazing, walked straight to the jukebox, and janked its cord out of the socket so hard I thought she had snapped the wire. She went over to Chuck Warren and put her finger under his nose. “If you touch that cord, I’ll wrap it around your cuss-ed neck!” He looked at her, finished his beer, and said what we all said when faced with 5’ 7’s-worth of bone and steel: “Yes’m.” Looking back, I’m sure if Rosalie could have gotten her hands on Hank Williams right then, there would have been some country heart rendering on the spot.
Bill,
Thank you for your country bar story, but I think Buck Owens covered that tune, which he stole from Hank Williams himself with “Your Cheatin’ Rendering Heart.” I remember him singing that at Ezmerelda’s on lower Pacific in downtown Tacoma. I think I was eight at the time . . . and drinking a small beer.
Thanks for sharing.
Don
Sounds like this Hank Williams *was* rendered speechless!
Mary,
I doubt Bill is rendered speechless. He’s in my book group, so I hear him about once a month in person.
Don
And will again.