Showing posts with label dottie west. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dottie west. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

The CMA Awards - What's New In 1982!

I don't like to prejudice you right off the bat, but welcome to one of the most boring awards years ever!

Yes, 1982. I think people were feeling kind of apathetic. "Oh, just pick someone. We don't really care."

And, in scanning the news events of the year, it appears that nothing really happened.

Even in pop culture, things looked bleak. The most popular TV shows were horrid - empty calories, to be sure: Dynasty, Dallas, Falcon Crest, The Love Boat, Magnum, PI, The A Team:



Popular music? Ish. Here are some of the hit songs: Ebony and Ivory, Abracadabra (I wanna reach out and grab ya), I Can't Go For That (oh no - no can do!), I Love Rock and Roll (which is basically the title repeated over and over).

The movies were atrocious. If it hadn't been for E.T., I think everyone would have just stayed home and watched The Love Boat.

So, that kind of tells you what's coming, in the world of the CMA awards.

To start things off, CHET ATKINS was named INSTRUMENTALIST OF THE YEAR for the thousandth time. Again, who doesn't love Chet Atkins? But I'm thinkin' there were some other guys around, playing instruments, too.

The VOCAL DUO OF THE YEAR once again were DAVID FRIZZELL and SHELLY WEST. As I mentioned in my 1981 post, there are no videos available of David and Shelly performing. Now, seeing as how one can find pretty much anything they could ever dream of on YouTube, I just have this nagging suspicion that there's some kind of legal stuff involved with the "no videos" situation.

But, two can play at that game.

If we can't have David and Shelly, then let's go with the relatives. First, here's Mom:



Despite the hair, this is still one of the best country songs ever (and Dottie wrote it).

And now - David's brother:



Wow, one of Merle Haggard's heroes - can you tell? I never realized just HOW similar their voices are. Hearing this (and not seeing it), I would be hard-pressed to tell if it was Lefty or Merle.

So, the lack of David/Shelly videos actually opened up an opportunity for me to post some superior performances. Ha ha! I win again!

The INSTRUMENTAL GROUP OF THE YEAR and VOCAL GROUP OF THE YEAR were once again ALABAMA. The introduction to this video states 1983, but this song was released in 1982 - I looked it up. With introductions by two of my all-time faves, Tammy Wynette and Ray Stevens, here's Mountain Music:



Some great fiddling by Jeff Cook!

FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR was awarded to someone new this time - JANIE FRICKE.

An interesting fact about Janie is that she began her career as a background singer in Nashville. During that period, she recorded an uncredited vocal part for a single released by Johnny Duncan, "Stranger" (written by Kris Kristofferson). Nobody knew who the female singer was, and there was a bunch of speculation about who it could be. (Hers was, to me, the best part of the recording). This event led to Janie's solo recording career. Again, there is no video of this song, but here's a nice picture of a radio to look at while you listen to it:



And here's the actual Janie, in person:



It's relatively easy to wrap up three categories at once; those being SINGLE OF THE YEAR, ALBUM OF THE YEAR, and SONG OF THE YEAR.

Ya gotta love Willie. He's just a likeable guy. Watching him perform, you just feel relaxed (as is Willie from......well, you know).

So, Willie scored big at the 1982 awards, as did writers Wayne Carson, Johnny Christopher, and Mark James, with:

ALWAYS ON MY MIND - Single of the Year, Song of the Year, Album of the Year

(How many writers does it take to write a hit song? Insert your own punch line here.)



Kind of an interesting development in 1982 was that the person who won the HORIZON AWARD (for best newcomer) also won the MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR award. I guess his career was on a fast track!

Well, this guy has had quite a career, and to think it all started with the Horizon Award. Ricky is a bluegrass artist at heart, but he managed to co-mingle bluegrass and country and shake up country music a bit.

MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR - RICKY SKAGGS

(This is one of them new-fangled "music videos". Sorry I couldn't find any older live performances by Ricky, so this'll have to do.)



That leads us, of course, to the big event of the evening, ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR.

I'll just say right now, I blew it by posting their "better" song already above, but since I want to stay chronologically correct, here's a song that was released in 1981, just in time for the 1982 awards.

Don't worry - they had A BUNCH of other songs, and won A BUNCH of other awards in years to come, so there'll be more opportunities to watch:

ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR - ALABAMA


COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME

There were three inductees in 1982. I think the CMA figured they'd better start playing catch-up, and fast.

Roy Horton

This whole CMA blogging thing has given me an education in the roots of country music, since I am unfamiliar with some of these names. For example, Roy Horton.

Roy started his career around 1939, as a bass player. He backed up a guy called Red River Dave (not to be confused with my Red River Dave).

In the 1940's he became a promoter with Peer-Southern Music, and helped to promote the careers of artists such as Jimmie Rodgers, The Carter Family, Bill Monroe, among many others.

Here's some rare (and very cool) footage of Jimmy Rodgers (another of Merle's heroes, by the way), singing, "Waiting For A Train" :



Lefty Frizzell

I swear, I had no idea when I posted a video of Lefty above, that he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1982. Weird coincidence!

Lefty recorded many, many classic songs. For some reason, he's not well remembered, except by the likes of Merle Haggard. And I'm not sure why.

He obviously had a huge influence on other artists (notice in this video how George Jones apparently picked up a few style pointers).

I'm thoroughly enjoying watching videos of Lefty, and while this one is of really poor quality (from an early, early Porter Wagoner Show performance), it's still a lot of fun to see:



Here's one more:



Lefty died at the very young age of 47 in 1975, after a hard-lived life. That happens a lot to true artists. The ones who make it "to December" (like Merle), I think are basically just lucky.

Marty Robbins

Well, gee. I wrote a whole long blog post about Marty Robbins awhile back, because you can't write about Marty in a couple of sentences. If you want to read my post about Marty, click here (and then scroll up, because for whatever reason, the links always land you at the bottom of the post! It's aggravating.)

So, all I can really say is that when I watch videos of Marty, I realize once again what we lost when Marty passed away. He was only 57.

Marty was also a hero of Merle's, so somehow these posts tend to develop a continuity all their own.

Here's Marty, as only Marty can be:



So, there you go; 1982. If it hadn't been for the Hall of Fame inductees, it would have been a relatively boring year.

But we always manage to find something fun, and this time was no exception.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

CMA Awards - 1979

We've done it! We've gotten to the last of the seventies! I've never spent so much time reliving the seventies since.....since, well, when I was actually living the seventies.

Luckily (or unluckily, as the case may be), we've got a movie to reference as we stumble through the year that was 1979.

What movie, you ask? Oh, how easily we forget!



Yes, kids, 1979 was the year of Urban Cowboy! Yee-haw! And the CMA awards certainly bear that out!

(I'm using exclamation points because Urban Cowboy music was lame!)

But, to be fair, the Urban Cowboy Soundtrack had a lot of good music on it. After all, there were the Eagles, Bonnie Raitt, Joe Walsh (as a solo), Bob Seger, Boz Scaggs; a lot of good stuff. The problem was, all we ever got to hear on the radio was that damn "Looking For Love"! And it wasn't even a good song to begin with!

When I say that Urban Cowboy music was lame, I'm referring more to the whole mindset, rather than to the soundtrack itself.

But this guy coming up and his band are good; real good, so here we go..............

Let's start with the INSTRUMENTALIST and INSTRUMENTAL GROUP OF THE YEAR. Yes, this guy was on the Urban Cowboy Soundtrack!

He also had the SINGLE OF THE YEAR, and this was actually good!

So, three awards in 1979 for the Charlie Daniels Band!

Oh, before I forget to mention it, the single of the year was "The Devil Went Down To Georgia"!



Oh, and this guy was on the soundtrack, although not with his duet partner:

VOCAL DUO OF THE YEAR

Kenny Rogers & Dottie West
(again)



Not to mention that he also won MALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR, ALBUM OF THE YEAR, and he recorded the SONG OF THE YEAR (written by Don Schlitz). I think some of that old Urban Cowboy magic must have rubbed off on him!

The Gambler



I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, man, Kenny must be sick of singing that song! I agree! I think he got so sick of singing that song, that his eyes dropped out of his head, so therefore he had to have that weird cosmetic eye surgery, and now he looks like a space alien! All thanks to "The Gambler!"

Guess who won VOCAL GROUP OF THE YEAR! Not the Oak Ridge Boys! (Wow, their reign was rather short-lived!)

No, wrestling the statuette away from the ORB (they're wiry, but they're strong!) were the Statler Brothers!

Yes, they're back! Here's a cute song they released around this time, and, boy, is it a time capsule of the seventies or what! All the names they reference in this song were straight out of the 1970 - 1979 CMA's! Here's, "How To Be A Country Star":



FEMALE VOCALIST OF THE YEAR

Barbara Mandrell


Well, this is the first of (sigh) many, many awards for Barbara (just wait for the eighties!) I like Barbara! It's just that, well, she started winning over and over and over again, and she started getting really fakey and patronizing in her acceptance speeches.

Sort of like, "If it wasn't for you, the dear, sweet fans out there, I couldn't have accomplished this remarkable feat. I'm very humbled....and proud.......yes, that's it. Humbled and proud. I promise to work very diligently this coming year, so that, the lord willing, I will have this wonderful, and may I say, surprising honor bestowed upon me once again. Let us pray."

I think the association members finally stopped voting for her because they just couldn't stand the sight of her anymore.

Be that as it may, I still like Barbara. And here's a cute performance from earlier in her career. (notice how the word "cute" pops up every time we talk about Barbara Mandrell?) Well, she was cute. Like a Barbie Doll.

Here's "Show Me":



That brings us to ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR.

Well, here's a guy that just keeps goin' and goin'. He's still out there doing his one-night stands. Still recording songs with every person, male or female, who ever, even one time in their lives, released a record. He's an interesting guy and a great songwriter and a perserverer. Who is it? Who else?

Willie Nelson



COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME

Hubert Long


Sure, you don't know who he is, do you? Well, I didn't either, although I'd heard his name before. Turns out Hubert Long was a talent promoter and a music publisher. He at one time worked for Decca Records, and later for RCA Victor. He promoted Eddy Arnold. He signed both Webb Pierce and Faron Young to management contracts. And he was a founding member of the Country Music Association, so you'd think it wouldn't have taken them so long to recognize him. But I guess they weren't playing favorites.

Hank Snow

Well, you do know who Hank Snow is, right? Man, this guy started recording in 1949 and continued through to 1980! That's a long career! Hank was from Canada, which may explain his unusual voice. And they say that Webb Pierce sang "nasally"! Admittedly, Hank's voice is an acquired taste, but he had some big hit records, and here's one of them (and take notes, Lynn Anderson!)



Here's the one he's most famous for (and in this video, he introduces it as a new song!)



So, there you have it! Not only 1979, but we've gotten through the seventies!

And I've used more exclamation points in this post than I've ever used in my life! I hate exclamation points!

I wonder what the eighties will bring. I never cheat and look ahead, but I'm optimistic!















Saturday, July 19, 2008

Blast From The Past - Top Country Hits Of 1973

Unlike most years that I pull out of thin air to write about, 1973 actually does have significance for me. That was the year I graduated from high school. Ahhh, 35 years ago. And yet, I'm so young! So, I thought I'd go back and take a look at the year 1973 in country music. And hope for the best.

Surprisingly, as I scan the list of top hits on my trusty Wikipedia site, I find that there are number one songs that I don't even recognize, and yet there are songs that were considered "major hits", but not number ones, that are clearly recognizable. Wonder why that is. And you don't need to tell me that people had bad taste back in 1973......I was there........I had the clothes to prove that.

So, I'm not just going to stick with number one songs, because frankly, there were a lot of better ones that didn't make that list.

Just for fun, I thought I would start out with a video from a 1973 performance by Barbara Mandrell, on the Wilburn Brothers Show.

I really like Barbara Mandrell. But is it just me, or does she seem unnaturally pale in this video? I mean, not only the platinum hair, but the white lipstick (yes, I used that shade as well, back then. It helped one achieve that "fashionable ghoul" look).

One common thread that seems to run through this review of the year 1973 is that all the female singers seem to be wedded to those "Little House On The Prairie" dresses. I don't know what the scoop is on that. I, for one, distinctly remember wearing dresses that were, if anything, too short, NOT too long.

Perhaps I was a bit behind the times, fashion-wise, but I swear, I NEVER wore a floor-length dress; well, except at my wedding.

BARBARA MANDRELL - MIDNIGHT OIL

In keeping with the prairie homesteader look, here's Nellie Olson -- I mean Tanya Tucker, again from 1973, performing on Hee Haw.

Remember Hee Haw? Trying to forget, you say? Back when there were only 3 channels to choose from, and this was the only place you could get any country music, except for those syndicated shows that ran on Saturday afternoons.

The thing about Hee Haw was, you had to sit through a bunch of stupid, unfunny "bits", mostly about how stupid country people were -- you know, chewing on a piece of straw, missing several teeth, illiterate -- you know, just your typical country person, before you could get to see some actual musical performances.

So, upon further deliberation, I guess Tanya's dress fits right in with the overall theme. Cuz, you know, when I lived in the country, I always put on my long go-to-meetin' dress (and my bonnet) on Saturday afternoons and jumped in that old horse-drawn carriage to drive on down to the general store.


TANYA TUCKER - WHAT'S YOUR MAMA'S NAME



JEANNE PRUETT - SATIN SHEETS


Here's Jeanne Pruett, performing on one of those syndicated shows I mentioned earlier, That Good Ole Nashville Music.

Jeanne, while still technically wearing a long dress, at least has "glammed" things up a bit. And she apparently is not missing any teeth.

I like this song. It was a HUGE hit. Jeanne does a great job on it.

MARIE OSMOND - PAPER ROSES


Not to quibble, but isn't the subject matter of this song a bit too sophisticated for a flower girl at a wedding to be singing?

And I can't NOT mention the hairstyle. I think everyone I knew back then had this EXACT hairdo. I think even I had it at one time. I hope we weren't copying Marie Osmond. No offense.

BARBARA FAIRCHILD - THE TEDDY BEAR SONG


I can't begin to tell you how much I HATED this song, back in 1973. Watching this performance, however, was enjoyable! How can you beat a drunken Waylon Jennings trying to remember the words to the Teddy Bear Song? And everyone around him pretending that he's not really drunk. Excellent!

I love these group performances anyway. You get to see a bunch of people that you haven't seen for awhile; for example, BOBBY BARE! (I'm still waiting, Country Music Hall of Fame!) Gene Watson is here, along with BJ Thomas, RAY STEVENS! Glen Campbell, Crystal Gayle, trying not to scream as the others accidentally sit on her hair. And, of course, leave it to RAY STEVENS to change the words to, "I wish I was Bobby Bare". So, fun!

DOTTIE WEST - COUNTRY SUNSHINE




Hey! Wasn't this a Coca-Cola commercial?

I bet if Coca-Cola uses your song in a commercial, you can start counting your money. All she needed to do was change one line. Easy enough.

Dottie West was a great writer. Probably my favorite song that Dottie wrote is, "Here Comes My Baby", which was a big hit for Ray Price.

Toward the end of her career, Dottie sort of meandered off into something else. I can't really put my finger on it, but it was, I guess, commercial, so who am I to judge? I just personally prefer her earlier stuff.

And sadly, all her Coca-Cola earnings didn't help Dottie towards the end. I remember she had to have a garage sale or something to raise money to pay her back taxes.

If I remember correctly, Dottie was killed in a car crash while on her way to perform at the Opry. A sad, premature end to a life of great talent.


Okay, yes, I started out my review of 1973 with all female performances. I hadn't intended to do that, but I became fascinated with all the long dresses, so I kept looking to see if I could find one female performer wearing a "regular" dress or pants.

It's a quirky thing, yes. But it's a footnote in the world of country music, circa 1973.

And then. I found one!

OLIVIA NEWTON-JOHN - LET ME BE THERE

I always liked this song. Olivia got a lot of flack back then from the country music establishment. But I don't think she was trying to "horn in" on country music. I think she was just doing a song, and it caught on with the record-buying public; then all of a sudden, she was nominated for country music awards and stuff. And she was caught in this big backlash. Kind of unfair, really.

Fortunately, all was forgiven by 1978, when she co-starred with John Travolta in "Grease".


Yes. I always like to throw in a "Grease" reference whenever possible. This has nothing to do with 1973. I just like "Grease".



So, on to the men:

Now is the time to tell you that, unfortunately, there were a lot of GREAT hit songs by men in 1973, but I couldn't find videos of them.

The great songs include:

Ride Me Down Easy - Bobby Bare
Why Me Lord - Kris Kristofferson
Southern Lovin' - Jim Ed Brown
Whiskey River - Johnny Bush
Pass Me By - Johnny Rodriguez
If We Make It Through December - Merle Haggard
Everybody's Had The Blues - Merle Haggard
Lovin' On Back Streets - Mel Street

Among others.

Luckily, I could find a video of one of the songs that I happened to place in my Top Twenty of the Greatest Country Songs Of All Time:

CHARLIE RICH - BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

So, in essence, 1973 wasn't that bad, overall, country music-wise. There were a few great songs (not that I could find videos of them, but take my word for it).

And while my high school prom theme was this (really):


I was listening to country radio, and from time to time, some rock, like this, that I think you will agree, is FAR SUPERIOR to Precious And Few.

DOBIE GRAY - DRIFT AWAY

While I may have been out of the mainstream back in 1973, I believe my taste in music has triumphed in the end.

That's all I ask.

Just to be vindicated.