Posted on 04/06/2016 10:42:04 AM PDT by BuckeyeTexan
Great video. It gave me a sniffle. Thanks for posting.
Is “I kissed my sweetie with my fist” a real song or a Family Guy joke?
But as someone who grew up loving and being forever affected by the true greats of country music, I simply have to offer up this plea to the Nashville country music industry to reclaim the identity and poetic greatness that once was our format. The well-written poetic word of the country song has disappeared.There appears to be not even the slightest attempt to “say” anything other than to repeat the tired, overused mantra of redneck party boy in his truck, partying in said truck, hoping to get lucky in the cab of said truck, and his greatest possible achievement in life is to continue to be physically and emotionally attached to the aforementioned truck as all things in life should and must take place in his, you guessed it...truck.
:)
Rest in peace Merle.
Well, a friend of mine named Steve Goodman wrote that song,
and he told me it was the perfect country and western song.
I wrote him back a letter and I told him it was not the
perfect country and western song because he hadn’t said
anything at all about momma, or trains, or trucks,
or prison or gettin’ drunk. Well, he sat down and
wrote another verse to this song and he sent it to me and
after reading it I realized that my friend had written the
perfect country and western song. And I felt obliged to include
it on this album. The last verse goes like this here:
Well, I was drunk the day my momma got out of prison,
And I went to pick her up in the rain.
But before I could get to the station in the pick-up truck,
She got runned over by a damned old train.
David Allan Coe - You Never Even Called Me By My Name
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sco_eBvXGTQ
One of the greatest of the great.
You can say that again. The Bakersfield Sound was country music before there was country music. God Bless Texas and God Bless Merle Haggard
Agreed. Gene payed tribute to Merle by playing “The Bottle Let Me down”.
Makes me sad, too.
And I cried the day George Jones died.
We waited too long! We had plans to see him this coming December in Oakland, CA. It’s a sad day in our home! He was a giant in the CM business!
RIP. I know his health was bad, but I was hoping he would keep going.
Buck Owens’ influence on Country and Pop music cannot be overstated.
No one. Even George couldn’t fill his shoes.
My reaction too. Such a performer. RIP
Had the privilege to see Merle Haggard in concert 3 times. The second time I saw him was before Bonnie Owens died. My wife and I thought we might be able to meet Merle if we got to his bus before the show began. We got there before the crowd arrived and went up to the bus and saw this little bitty woman, all dressed up in a cowgirl costume sitting on the outside of the bus. It was Bonnie Owens and we asked could we meet Merle. She apologized and said he was on the bus sleeping but if he woke up before we got though talking with her he would certainly talk to us. We talked to Bonnie for about 15 minutes. Never saw a more down-to-earth entertainer in my life. Back in the 60s she was married to Buck Owens before she married Merle, and was a fine singer in her own right. I gave her a song I had written and she said she would give it to Merle. Bonnie died about a few years ago. IMHO Merle Haggard was the greatest singer/songwriter of the past 50 years. Her was also a great impersonator and could sound just like a lot of the great country stars. All the great country singers are leaving us. I’ve got about 50 Merle Haggard albums. He and George Jones were my favorites, along with Lefty and Hank Williams. Rest in peace Mr. Merle Haggard. Your likes will not come this way again and you will live in our memories forever because your music will never die.
I actually knew Merle from the time I was a little girl. My mom owned a bar called the Blue Note in a small town outside of Bakersfield and hired him to play there when he first started playing around town. He got in a fight in the bar with some guy who was flirting with his first wife Leona and the local cops took him to jail. Mom had to go bail him out to finish the night. Lol
Mom was good friends with his first wife. They went to school together.
After he started recording he used to still come around to the local bars in Lamont and Weedpatch. By then I was old enough to drink and ran into him often. Later I started cocktails get and bar tending and he was friends with guys who owned some of the places I worked so saw him a lot. I had him thrown out of one of the places I worked because he was drunk and harassing my cocktail waitresses. He was shocked over that one.
About 6 years ago not too long before my mom passed away she was sitting in an Oildale bar called Trouts. He came in and sat down with her for about an hour.
That’s the last I heard anything about him being in town other than doing a few concerts at the Crystal Palace. He had moved up north many years ago but would stop in various places if he was passing through.
Ahhhhhh memories.
JIm, this probably best personnifies Merle Haggard:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KPN0rvTo8E
Just An Old Country Singer, Yes he was! Sorry he’s gone!
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