"The Texas Playboys are ooon the air!!"
Posted on 05/13/2006 3:36:08 PM PDT by fgoodwin
May 13, 1975: Fiddler Bob Wills dies
http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/daybyday/05-13-002.html
On this day in 1975, Texas swing musician James Robert (Bob) Wills died.
He was born in 1905, near Kosse, Limestone County, Texas. In 1913 his family moved to Hall County, where Wills learned to play the fiddle; in 1915 he played at his first dance. He played for ranch dances in West Texas for the next fourteen years, and his life and career were greatly influenced by that environment. During that time he brought together two streams of American folk music to produce western swing. He had learned frontier fiddle music from his father and grandfather, and blues from black playmates and coworkers in the cottonfields of East and West Texas.
In 1929 Wills moved to Fort Worth, where he performed on several radio stations, organized a band that became the Light Crust Doughboys, and worked for a future governor of Texas and United States senator, W. Lee O'Daniel. In 1934 Wills moved to Oklahoma, where he made radio and musical history with his broadcasts over Station KVOO. During his years in Tulsa (1934-43) he and his new group, the Texas Playboys, continued to develop the swinging western sound he had pioneered in West Texas, and his recording of his composition "New San Antonio Rose" (1940) made him a national figure in popular music.
By the time of his death in 1975, he had received numerous honors, including a Grammy Award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences.
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May 13, 1975 The inventor of western swing dies
http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?category=oldwest&month=10272957&day=10272978 http://tinyurl.com/rskwf
Bob Wills, one of the most influential musicians in the history of country-western music, is born on a small farm near Kosse, Texas.
Born James Robert Wills in 1905, he was trained to be a musician from an early age. His father was a champion fiddle player, and he began giving Wills lessons as soon as the boy could hold the instrument. By the time he was 10, Wills was a skilled fiddler and a competent guitar and mandolin player.
Wills left home at 16 and worked various jobs, like picking cotton and preaching. He eventually joined a traveling medicine show, where he played fiddle and met Herman Arnspiger, a Texas farm boy who had learned to play guitar from a Sears catalog guitar book. The pair began playing at dances and parties around Fort Worth, and after adding a singer, won a regular radio gig performing as the Light Crust Doughboys.
In 1933, the group separated and Wills formed the band that would make him famous: Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. With the Playboys, Wills perfected his hard-driving country-western sound, which drew heavily on the rhythms of the popular jazz-swing bands of the era. Wills' fiddle playing sounded nothing like the traditional folk music he had heard as a child. By using strong beats and syncopation, he produced a sound that seemed to cry out for dancing.
Wills eventually added drums, brass, and woodwinds to the Texas Playboys, making himself into a country-western bandleader in the style of Benny Goodman or Artie Shaw. Several of his bands were as large as 22 pieces, and Wills worked with more than 600 musicians in his long career. In 1940, Wills took some of the Playboys to Hollywood, where the band appeared in a number of western movies that won them a nationwide following. Among their many hits were highly danceable tunes like, "Take Me Back to Tulsa," "Bubbles in My Beer," and the ever popular "San Antonio Rose." All told, Wills has sold more than 20 million records to date
Many critics have argued Wills and the Texas Playboys had a greater influence on the sounds of country-western music than any other performer or group. In recognition of his achievements, Wills was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1968. He believed his chances of winning were so slim he was backstage chatting with friends when the award was announced. When he was finally tracked down and brought on stage, he said, "I don't usually take my hat off to nobody. But I sure do to you folks."
Stricken by a series of severe strokes, he died seven years later at the age of 70.
I got news for the headline writer, Bob Wills was MUCH more than a "fiddler".
That's like saying Edward Teller played with atoms for a hobby.
Amen! My dad loved him. I grew up with Texas Playboy records playing in our house. Always have loved "Texas Swing". I read where he wasn't a very nice guy, but I still loved his music.
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I learned to play fiddle from Bob Wills records, and have been doing so for over 50 years. I wish I could have met him in person.
Ahh Ha.
Bob Wills is still the king!!!!
One of my cousins was a whale of a "fiddler" who played with the Crazy Water Crystals band out of Mineral Wells, Tx. Bob Wills once offered him a job - at $75 per week. My cousin turned him down.
I used to listen every day to Will's Light Crust Doughboys over WBAP/WFAA Fort Worth/Dallas. W. Lee O'Daniel was their "Master of Ceremonies". Really enjoyed them.
A salute to the memory of Bob Wills who played the fiddle like no other. Lots of danceable music and enjoyable to listen to . "Take Me Back to Tulsa" is still a favorite of mine. "Liberty" is husbands fav.
The Playboys are still playing - without the King, of course, and another Mineral Wells boy is among them. My husband's nephew plays with them. They are still great.
Take it away, Leon...
"Roly Poly, daddy's little fatty..."
The music will live on forever.
"We're the Light Crust Doughboys ... from Burrus Mills."
Can't you hear him? Ah hah!!
And later, of course:
"We're the Texas Playboys ... from the Lone Star State!"
Or, coming to you from Cain's Ballroom, Tulsa, Oklahoma.
"The Texas Playboys are ooon the air!!"
A real jumpin' Bob Wills tune that I seldom hear is "Get With It", from the earlier days if I'm not mistaken.
Bob Wills is to music what Will Rogers is to Americana, and one musician and his band that has done a great deal to preserve Texas Swing is Ray Benson and Asleep at the Wheel.
Both Jim Robs, FR and Wills!
Not a mention of "Faded Love"? My favorite. His daddy wrote the tune ... then Jim Rob and his bro Billy Jack Wills wrote the melancholy words ...
"...I miss you, darlin', more and more ev'ry day ...
As heaven would miss the stars above ...
With ev'ry heartbeat, I still think of you ...
And remember our faded love.
The Pride of Turkey, Texas! They just had Bob Wills Day in Turkey a couple of weeks ago. I wonder how many Playboys are left now who can come to the Playboy Reunion. I haven't kept up.
"Deep Within My Heart Lies a Melody ..."
That's Jim Rob's epitaph. I was so fortunate to have met him several times in my youth and to have spent time with some Playboys - except my favorite, Leon McAuliffe - only got to be in the audience with him long ago - and help with some research for his widow's foundation - also long ago.
Ray Benson says that Western Swing didn't die with Bob Wills, it was just Asleep at the Wheel!
What about "Big Balls in Cowtown"? LOL. I loved "Cherokee Maiden".
"Why don't we take a trip back to that Cherokee Strip ... and I'll carry her away with me ... and ... straight as an eagle flies ... we'll ride to paradise ... my sweet little chickadee, my little Cherokee ... Maiden ... and me!"
Ah hah!
Yeah, over KVOO. Good old memories. Johnny Lee Wills was at Cains for a lot of years with Leon McAuliffe.
Johnny Lee had a boot store in Tulsa, if I recall correctly, but I think I read that he died recently.
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