Faron Young

I just finished reading the biography of Faron Young, called, "Live Fast, Love Hard", and I'm so glad I did. There was a time, back in 1969 to 1971 or so, when Faron was THE MAN. In country music, I mean. I was so in love with some of his Mercury recordings, especially songs like "Step Aside", "Goin' Steady", and especially, "(If I Ever Fall In Love With) A Honky Tonk Girl". I wasn't familiar, at the time, with Faron's Capitol recordings, but I was a quick study, and I found out that I'd missed some stellar recordings, such as:


Hello Walls
(a Willie Nelson song, as we all know by now)

Probably the song that everyone associates with Faron is this one:


It's Four In The Morning


I remember listening to WSM, Ralph Emery's show, that came in very statically, way past midnight on a Saturday night, but hearing "(If I Ever Fall In Love With) A Honky Tonk Girl", and thinking, WOW, this is so good, I can hardly stand it. The twin fiddles. The VOICE. That voice, combined with those twin fiddles, created something that made my heart stand still.

Faron performed at the North Dakota State Fair, I wanna say it was 1971. I could be off by a year or so.

But anyway, I cajoled my dad into driving up there to see him. Whatever it took, I HAD to see Faron Young in concert.

After all, he was my ultimate FAVE at that time.

And my dad, of course, acquiesced, and drove me and my mom up there, 100 miles, to see Faron in concert.

Well, sad to say, I came home disappointed, because I thought the concert sort of sucked. I was somewhat disillusioned.

But now that I've read Faron's biography, I realize that he was probably drunk, which would explain his sub-par performance at the State Fair.

Regardless, I continued to love Faron's music. And I sort of associated Faron with my dad, because they both found themselves in similar situations.

And there will always be a special place in my heart for Faron's songs.

I'm sorry that things turned out badly for him. If he'd known how much joy he brought to people like me, maybe he'd have kept on keeping on.

But then again, maybe he did what he needed to do, and maybe he decided that it was time to call it quits.

Anyway, I am getting all sentimental here, but he did play a big part in my life, and I'm just glad that somebody chose not to forget him.