BUCK OWENS PASSES AWAY

One Bakersfield ^ | March 25th, 2006 | Kyle Brown

[demlosers]

Country-music great Buck Owens dies

Buck Owens, the flashy rhinestone cowboy who shaped the sound of country music with hits like "Act Naturally" and brought the genre to TV on the long-running "Hee Haw," died March 25, 2006. He was 76.

Owens died at his home in Bakersfield, said family spokesman Jim Shaw. The cause of death was not immediately known. Owens had undergone throat cancer surgery in 1993 and was hospitalized with pneumonia in 1997.

His career was one of the most phenomenal in country music, with a string of more than 20 No. 1 records, most released from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s. They were recorded with a honky-tonk twang that came to be known throughout California as the "Bakersfield Sound," named for the town 100 miles north of Los Angeles that Owens called home.



"I think the reason he was so well known and respected by a younger generation of country musicians was because he was an innovator and rebel," said Shaw, who played keyboards in Owens' band, the Buckaroos. "He did it out of the Nashville establishment. He had a raw edge."

Owens, elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996, was modest when describing his aspirations.

"I'd like to be remembered as a guy that came along and did his music, did his best and showed up on time, clean and ready to do the job, wrote a few songs and had a hell of a time," he said in 1992.

An indefatigable performer, Owens played a red, white and blue guitar with fireball fervor. He and the Buckaroos wore flashy rhinestone suits in an era when flash was as important to country music as fiddles.

Among his biggest hits were "Together Again" (also recorded by Emmylou Harris), "I've Got a Tiger by the Tail," "Love's Gonna Live Here," "My Heart Skips a Beat" and "Waitin' in Your Welfare Line."

And he was the answer to this music trivia question: What country star had a hit record that was later done by the Beatles?

"Those guys were phenomenal," Owens once said.

Ringo Starr recorded "Act Naturally" twice, singing lead on the Beatles' 1965 version and recording it as a duet with Owens in 1989. The song, by Johnny Russell and Voni Morrison, tells of a poor soul who foresees a movie career playing "a man who's sad and lonely, and all I gotta do is act naturally. ... Might win an Oscar, you can never tell."

In addition to music, Owens had a highly visible TV career as co-host of "Hee Haw" from 1969 to 1986. With guitarist Roy Clark, he led viewers through a potpourri of country music and hayseed humor.

"It's an honest show," Owens told The Associated Press in 1995. "There's no social message — no crusade. It's fun and simple."

Owens himself could be rebellious, choosing among other things to label what he did "American music" rather than country.

"I took a little heat," he once said. "People asked me, `Isn't country music good enough for you?' "

He also criticized the syrupy arrangements of some country singers, saying "assembly-line, robot music turns me off."

After his string of hits, Owens stayed away from the recording scene for a decade, returning in 1988 to record another No. 1 record, "Streets of Bakersfield," with Dwight Yoakam.



He spent much of his time away concentrating on his business interests, which included a Bakersfield TV station and radio stations in Bakersfield and Phoenix.

"I never wanted to hang around like the punch-drunk fighter," he told The Associated Press in 1992.

He had moved to Bakersfield in 1951, hoping to find work in the thriving juke joints of what in the years before suburban sprawl was a truck-stop town on Highway 99, between Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area.

"We played rhumbas and tangos and sambas, and we played Bob Wills music, lots of Bob Wills music," he said, referring to the bandleader who was the king of Western swing.

"And lots of rock 'n' roll," he added.

Owens started recording in the mid-1950s, but gained little success until 1963 with "Act Naturally," his first No. 1 single.

Alvis Edgar Owens Jr. was born in 1929 outside Sherman, Texas, the son of a sharecropper. With opportunities scarce during the Depression, the family moved to Arizona when he was 8.

He dropped out of school at age 13 to haul produce and harvest crops, and by 16 he was playing music in taverns.

He once told an audience, "When I was a little bitty kid, I used to dream about playing the guitar and singing like some of those great people that we had the old, thick records of."

Owens' first wife, Bonnie Owens, sometimes performed with him and went on to become a leading backup singer after their divorce in 1955. She had occasional solo hits in the '60s, as well as successful duets with her second husband, Merle Haggard.

One of her two sons with Owens also became a singer, using the name Buddy Alan. He had a Top 10 hit in 1968, "Let the World Keep on a-Turnin'," and recorded a number of duets with his father.

In addition to Buddy, he is survived by two other sons, Michael and John.

© Associated Press

[Recovering_Democrat]

A Buck Owens tune I've known since I was a kid:

"My heart skips a beat
When you walk down the street
I feel a-tremblin' in my knees
And just to know your mine
Until the end of time
Makes my heart skip a beat!"

Rest In Peace, Buck.

[prisoner6]

Awwwwww... (prisoner6 wipes a tear away)...Shucks.

Thanks, that was so bittersweet.

prisoner7

[prisoner6]

prisoner7 = prisoner6

Guess I was too teary eyed to type.

prisoner6

[latina4dubya]

It's sad that a lot of folks who watched the show were too young or too dumb to realize it at the time. Many just thought the show was corny and too unsophisticated for their more modern and snooty tastes.

we used to watch this show... i remember being around 9-10 years old, singing "Pfft You Was Gone" with my friends... in fact, just a few months ago, i taught my 5-year old son the words... he likes it as much as i did... and still do...

[umgud]

Buck was a Bakersfield icon. He built his Crystal Palace on Pierce Rd, which was later renamed Buck Owens Blvd. He bought one of the town's local landmarks, the famous arch over Union Ave. and had it placed over the road in front of his nightclub.

I wasn't a great fan of his music, but really enjoyed going to his club. He performed there regularily, even with a damaged voice from throat cancer. His club, the Crystal Palace puts to shame some of its rivals in Branson.

He'll be missed.

[umgud]

Crystal Palace

[TC Rider]

What happens when you play a
country song backwards?

Answer: The guy sobers up,
the dog comes home,
and he gets his job back.

So long Buck, we'll miss you!

[Revolting cat!]

What the heck is Ernest Borgnine doing in that picture?

Mebbe, it was taken before Ernie died? But then, who knows?

[NCC-1701]

RIP Buck. You've been included it The Great All Star Band in the Sky.

[Finny]

Buck was one of a kind. He'll be missed.

Speaking of Chet Atkins and Mark Knopfler, I have a tape of the two of them together, and it's so great ... kind of half-country, half-jazz (Chet was a monster jazz guitarist, and Knopfler is just plain brilliant), and all fun -- lots of chit-chat back-and-forth joking during singing. They had a blast recording together, you could tell.

[Fred Hayek]

HeeHaw" is just as funny now as it was 25 years ago

Having lived in Texas for 12 years, I found that C&W is pretty much intergenerational, and sticks around longer. At least away from the cities overrun with "hip-hop" and "mall-punk".

And this is from a headbanger.

[A.A. Cunningham]

I wouldn't worry. It's been over four hours and this is from a different source.

[DeFault User]

Ernest Borgnine is going to be very shocked to know that he's dead!

[deport]

Alvis Edgar Owens Jr.

A very good history and read of Buck is at the above link..... some 27 sections..

[GodBlessRonaldReagan]

Just damn! One of the all-time greats - "Act Naturally", "Sam's Place", "Tiger By the Tail", "Together Again" and too many more favorites to mention. And I loved his duet on "Streets of Bakersfield" with Dwight Yokum. You'll be missed, Buck.

And now for my all time fave Buck Owens tune, "Waitin' In Your Welfare Line"!

I got the hungrys for your love and I'm waitin' in your welfare line

Well I ain't got nothing but the shirt on my back and an old two button suit
I walked out on my job about a week ago and I'm sleepin' in a telephone booth
But I'm a gonna be the richest guy around the day you say you're mine
I got the hungrys for your love and I'm waitin' in your welfare line

When I first saw you babe you nearly made me wreck my old 49 Cadillac
I knew at a glance that it was you for me and I had to have your love by heck
I'm gonna follow you baby wherever you go I got nothing to lose but my time
I got the hungrys for your love and I'm waitin' in your welfare line

Well you made me the top dog on your hill and I was overjoyed
But it didn't take long till the thrill was gone I joined the ranks of the unemployd
Now I'm right back where that I started from but that ain't gonna change my mind
I got the hungrys for your love and I'm waitin' in your welfare line
Gimme a handout
Yes I'm waitin' in your welfare line

[Revolting cat!]

Marty still kicking? Who knew? Well, he certainly hasn't been seen in the recent all star WWII entertainment vehicles, like, you know, the ones he appeared in during the 60s with, oh, Paul Anka, Fabian, Telly Sevalas, Gina Lolobrigida, Horst Buchholtz and the almost dead Peter Lorre, to mention just a few walkins! Or was he in Schindler's List?

[A.A. Cunningham]

That's Marianne Gordon Rogers, Kenny Rogers' fourth wife.

Elvis was shacking up with Ginger Alden when he bought the farm.

[A.A. Cunningham]

[prisoner6]

Horst Buchholtz...

Did he do anything besides The MAgnificent 7? That's the only movie I can recall him in.

prisoner6