I have a feeling that we’ll be hearing some great female country singers this week. Last night we had Skeeter Davis, but for me the Queen of Country has always been Patsy Cline. In her tragically short life (1932-1963; she was killed in a plane crash), she had a tremendous influence on country music, with many of her songs appealing to people who weren’t country fans.
This one, “Crazy,” is one of her best. It was written by a very well-known “outlaw” musician. Guess who, and if you don’t know, go here.
I can’t resist adding this bit from her Wikipedia bio:
She cultivated a brash and gruff exterior that allowed her to be considered “one of the boys”. This allowed her to befriend male artists as well, including Roger Miller, Hank Cochran, Faron Young, Ferlin Husky, Harlan Howard and Carl Perkins all of whom she socialized with at famed Nashville establishment Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, next door to the Opry. [JAC: I visited Tootsie’s when I was in Nashville recently, and it’s still the same dive.] In the 1986 documentary The Real Patsy Cline, singer George Riddle said of her, “It wasn’t unusual for her to sit down and have a beer and tell a joke, and she’d never be offended at the guys’ jokes either, because most of the time she’d tell a joke dirtier than you! Patsy was full of life, as I remember.”
Cline used the term of endearment “Hoss” to refer to her friends, both male as well as female, and referred to herself as “The Cline”. Patsy met Elvis Presley in 1962 at a fundraiser for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and they exchanged phone numbers. Having seen him perform during a rare Grand Ole Opry appearances, she admired his music, called him The Big Hoss, and often recorded with his backup group, The Jordanaires.
By this time, Cline controlled her own career, making it clear to all involved that she could stand up to any man, verbally and professionally, and was ready to challenge their rules if they interfered with her. In a time when concert promoters often cheated stars by promising to pay them after the show but skipping out with the money before the concert ended, Cline demanded her money before she took the stage by proclaiming: “No dough, no show”, a practice that became the rule. According to friend Roy Drusky in the The Real Patsy Cline: “Before one concert, we hadn’t been paid. And we were talking about who was going to tell the audience that we couldn’t perform without pay. Patsy said, ‘I’ll tell ’em!’ And she did!” Friend Dottie West stated in amazement some 25 years later in an interview that “It was common knowledge around town that you didn’t mess with ‘The Cline!'”
And someone who can imitate her very well is k.d. lang.
We just saw her the other night at the Smith Center in Las Vegas!
Written by Willie Nelson! My mom will be so happy that I got to pop that in…
Glad to know you are a country music fan, Jerry!
And if you’re heading down to the Blue Ridge Valley of Virginia from the north (or out of it from the south, of course) via Winchester, you’ll likely wind up driving on the Patsy Cline Memorial Hwy (Rt 522).
I heard that she disliked the song “crazy” and rarely sang it outside the original studio recording.
My favorite Cline song is Sweet Dreams. Something about those first three chords…
I was lucky enough to live in Austin at the height of outlaw era; Willie & Waylon & the boys…Jerry Jeff Walker…good times.
She looks like she grew horns!
I suppose you will cover Kitty Wells?
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/07/17/arts/music/kitty-wells-country-singer-dies-at-92.html
“No dough, no show”, a practice that became the rule.
It still depends on the club and the draw of the band. It might have become the rule of the top-of-the-line acts, but it’s still a problem now.
I think the maestro of this method was (possibly still is) Chuck Berry.
I can’t say that I’ve ever been particularly attracted by “country” music (nor any other sort of music either, TBH), but you’ve got to admit that they’ve got a lead on the market for (literally, not figuratively) outstanding names.
My favorite trivia tidbit about this song is that Mr. Nelson originally wrote it as “Stupid.” “I’m stupid for feeling so lonely….” I think we can all agree that it would have been far less euphonious, if more direct, under that title.
Two other Patsy Cline favorites of mine: “I Fall to Pieces” and “Walkin’ After Midnight”.
Yes!
Another great female country singer with whom you might not be familiar is Connie Smith. She’s a favorite of George Jones and Dolly Parton, and that ought to tell you something!
You might take a look at this one: Merle Haggard and Connie Smith “Looking for a Place to Fall Apart.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_D7ooH9Fo0&feature=related
Into my living-room, a BBC4 Friday night producer has wandered erringly. She thinks to pick my addled cerebellum.
“Auntie is doing a show about the best obscure singers, sinister-wise,” she explains à la Billy Wilder, and, enamoured of her practised management-speak, creativity-free vacuity, continues, “We are producing a piece on Julie London; we’ve already got Sting, Elvis Costello and Bono on board for a few intellectually coherent and critically acute sound-bites; stock pictures of 50s America, Korean War, McCarthy hearings, Marilyn’s wavy white A-line, rain-swept NY night-shots of the Cotton Club, military-industrial complex, build-up to Vietnam, you get the drift. Would you care to record a vox-pop from an ordinary person like yourself?”
“Books!” (with the addition of 3 more consonants and 1 extra syllable), I harrumph, “What about Karen Dalton? If you want to hear a great, criminally abandoned vocalist, listen to this.” And with that, I link to:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-BIKjypNsE
“Karen Dalton was one of the greatest folk/blues/jazz singers there was. And before you start opining that she was some sort of ersatz middle-class girlie slumming in roots Americana, she was half-Cheyenne, half-Irish. Chuck out those old fakes, Sting et al. and get a real writer to speak to camera, about why she’s so good and how she sings the way she does. Read this:”
http://www.nodepression.com/profiles/blog/show?id=2342817%3ABlogPost%3A305155&commentId=2342817%3AComment%3A307161
“That’s how to discuss pop music and take it seriously. Bono, pshaw.”
Mind you, Patsy Cline’s pretty bostin’ as well.
h/t “No depression” for the link.
Sorry for embedding the video; meant to put quotation marks round the link. D’oh.
Thanks for this. It’s a long time since I heard anything by Dalton. Interesting article too. – “— she allows the listener to imagine the inconceivable, what it is like to be someone else— ”
Another singer – not so well known as she should be – is Nanci Griffiths. Listen to her singing “Tecumseh Valley”.
Yeah. That is how one sings.
This is a nice song:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl4Cm5ltAFc&feature=related
despite many unfortunate lyrics.
It starts well, though.
This kind of uncomplicated song is where I think she was at her best.
Yesterday Jon Lord has died. Now that’s worth a long article.
Here’s a nice version by The Kills:
“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JR4pz6OLxvo”