Posted on 03/27/2006 11:24:12 AM PST by 300magnum
Buck Owens was a different kind of country music star: He played Carnegie Hall, not the Grand Ole Opry; he lived for Bakersfield, not Nashville.
Owens, the "Act Naturally" singer-songwriter who made a music mecca of a central California farming town, and a weekly event of a cornpone TV variety show known as Hee Haw, died Saturday at his home, according to his Website, BuckOwens.com. He was 76.
And, yes, as if there were ever any doubt, Owens' home was in Bakersfield.
Bakersfield, California, is where the Texas-born Owens moved in 1951. And it was where he helped give rise in the 1950s and 1960s to the so-called "Bakersfield Sound," a twangier, harder-driving country. For evidence of the style, try almost any classic track by Waylon Jennings. Or Merle Haggard. Or Buck Owens.
As a Salon.com tribute to Owens observed in 1999, the man "was no poet...but [he] owned country in the '60s."
According to the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, of which Owens was an inductee, Bakersfield ties or no, Owens reeled off 15 straight number one records from 1963-67.
"Act Naturally" was among Owens' catchiest hits. Certainly, it caught the ears of the Beatles. The British band recorded it, with Ringo Starr on vocals, in 1965 for Help!. (For those more familiar with the bastardized U.S. versions of the early Beatles albums, the song was a cut off the collection known as Yesterday...and Today.)
From 1969-86, Owens hosted, along with Roy Clark, Hee Haw, a mix of comedy, music and girls in pre-Daisy Duke Daisy Dukes.
Developing story. More to come.
He was ahead of his time, in a weirdly retro way, if that makes any sense. Yoakam and Junior Brown sort of fill the same role today.
Goin to the big Hee Haw in the sky!
Oh man, some of my favorites, Buck Owens, Dwight Yoakum & Junior Brown.
RIP Buck!
He was one of my all time favorites.
Tiger by the Tail
Crying Time
Love's Gonna Live Here
And so many more. Rest in peace, Buck. You were great.
yeah, but now we'll have to put up with the all-star tributes from the likes of commie Faith "sleeping my way to the top" Hill (who never apparently met a producer she didn't like enough to sleep with) and the rest of the phoney "country stars"....ugh!
There was a CCR song with a Buck Owens reference - think it was called "Lookin' Out My Back Door."
It went something like, "Listenin' to Buck Owens, do, do, do, lookin' out my back door."
Some others:
Act naturally
Together Again
Tall Dark Stranger (means 'danger')
Ditto Buck.
I started listening to Buck Owens in college a few years ago. He is one of my favorite all time in country. I love "Act Naturally," and "Above and Beyond." God Bless Buck Owens!
B R 5 4 9
I'ma pickin'!
...and I'ma grinnin'!
Wel, I never cared for "Hee-Haw", nor was I a fan of his, but I am sorry to hear this. He wasn't like so many of these stars, full of himself and excrement. He was a nice, down-home, decent fella. And I wish him a peaceful rest.
Buck Ownes will definately be missed. I always loved watching Hee Haw with my grandpa. I was only a child in those days. The show was really funny, and played good music too.
Wow--that's exactly the same for me. Some of my earliest memories are of curling up on the livingroom couch with Grampa and watching Hee Haw. Never liked Owens much (sorry!) but I loved the show. If it came out on DVD, I'd buy the whole collection.
You can get reruns on DVD now. I saw a commercial for them a while back on CMT. But I couldn't tell you how to order them. You might could go to CMTs web site and find out from there.
Remember those goofy twin singers?
And "Gloom, despair and agony on me..."
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