Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Cryin’ Time
Excuse Me (I Think I’ve Got a Heartache)
I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail
Waitin’ in Your Welfare Line
Together Again
Alvis Edgar Owens, Jr. was born the son of a sharecropper along the Red River in Texas on 8/12/1929. The family had an old mule named Buck and one day at the age of 3 or 4 Alvis walked into the house and announced his name was now Buck. He has been Buck Owens since that day. Buck’s family moved to West during the depression in 1937 when he was eight. The trailer hitch broke in Mesa outside of Phoenix and there the family stayed. They did farm work there to survive and sometimes migrated to the San Joaquin where they worked crops around Bakersfield. Buck decided he didn’t want to be poor when he grew up; he learned to play the guitar and at 16 was on a radio show in Mesa. At 21 he moved to Bakersfield, CA where he got some work playing songs and driving truck. Buck was a pioneering founder of the Bakersfield sound (AKA California Honky Tonk), a gritty blend of honky tonk, rockabilly and hard scrabble songs which arose to compete with Nashville. Buck worked with such early country music collaborators as Wanda Jackson, Wynn Steward, Ferlin Husky, Tommy Collins, Merle Haggard, Sonny James, Del Reeves, Faron Young and Lefty Frizzel.
In 1953 the song “Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (and Loud Loud Music)” later popularized by the Flying Burrito Brothers was inspired by some of Buck’s early gigs. Buck received national attention with his first top ten recording of “Under Your Spell Again” in the fall of 1959. He followed this with “Excuse Me (I Think I’ve Got a Heartache)” in the fall of 1960 which peaked at #2 on country charts. In 1961 he recorded “Above and Beyond” and “Foolin’ Around” which hit #1. He followed with a string of 20 #1 hits during the sixties including standards such as “Act Naturally” (later recorded as a critical success by the Beatles, they had all Buck’s albums and he collected all theirs!), “My Heart Skips a Beat” and “Love’s Gonna Live Here”. Ringo and Buck recorded Act Naturally and made a music video together in 1989.
Buck played San Francisco’s Fillmore Auditorium in 1968, not normally a country venue, to an enthusiastic crowd of young hip music lovers. Credence Clearwater gave Buck a nod with the line “listening to Buck Owens” in the song “Lookin’ Out My Back Door” and the Grateful Dead claimed Buck as an important influence in their work. Rolling Stone magazine wrote a country piece prominently featuring Buck along with several other country stars which was later expanded into a book by John Grissim, Jr. titled Country Music: White Man’s Blues. In 1969, Buck premiered on “Hee Haw” as a summer replacement for the “Smother’s Brothers Show”. In 1971 Buck released “Ruby”, an album which introduced a whole new generation to the bluegrass sound with traditional tunes, like “Rollin’ in My Sweet Baby’s Arms”, “Ashes of Love”, “Salty Dog”, and “I Know Your Married (but I Love You Still)”.
During the 70’s and 80’s there was a revival of the Bakersfield sound and Dwight Yoakam, Emmy Lou Harris, Gram Parsons first with the Byrds and later with The Flying Burrito Brother’s, Chris Hillman, Ricky Van Shelton, Randy Travis and Ricky Skaggs all recorded some Owens songs and other Bakersfield sounds as the public grew weary of the syrupy pop sound coming out of Nashville. This move paralleled the rise of the Outlaw Movement and the development of the current Texas Sound. In 1988 Dwight Yoakam convinced Buck to come out of retirement and re-record Buck’s “Streets of Bakersfield” with the line “I came here to find something I couldn’t find anywhere else”. This line is a true tribute to Buck Owens and the sound that doesn’t exist anywhere but Bakersfield. Buck Owens passed on March 25, 2006.
To paraphrase a Gram Parsons song, Tonight the Angels in Heaven Rejoiced. RIP Buck!
Excuse Me (I Think I’ve Got a Heartache)
I’ve Got a Tiger by the Tail
Waitin’ in Your Welfare Line
Together Again
Alvis Edgar Owens, Jr. was born the son of a sharecropper along the Red River in Texas on 8/12/1929. The family had an old mule named Buck and one day at the age of 3 or 4 Alvis walked into the house and announced his name was now Buck. He has been Buck Owens since that day. Buck’s family moved to West during the depression in 1937 when he was eight. The trailer hitch broke in Mesa outside of Phoenix and there the family stayed. They did farm work there to survive and sometimes migrated to the San Joaquin where they worked crops around Bakersfield. Buck decided he didn’t want to be poor when he grew up; he learned to play the guitar and at 16 was on a radio show in Mesa. At 21 he moved to Bakersfield, CA where he got some work playing songs and driving truck. Buck was a pioneering founder of the Bakersfield sound (AKA California Honky Tonk), a gritty blend of honky tonk, rockabilly and hard scrabble songs which arose to compete with Nashville. Buck worked with such early country music collaborators as Wanda Jackson, Wynn Steward, Ferlin Husky, Tommy Collins, Merle Haggard, Sonny James, Del Reeves, Faron Young and Lefty Frizzel.
In 1953 the song “Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (and Loud Loud Music)” later popularized by the Flying Burrito Brothers was inspired by some of Buck’s early gigs. Buck received national attention with his first top ten recording of “Under Your Spell Again” in the fall of 1959. He followed this with “Excuse Me (I Think I’ve Got a Heartache)” in the fall of 1960 which peaked at #2 on country charts. In 1961 he recorded “Above and Beyond” and “Foolin’ Around” which hit #1. He followed with a string of 20 #1 hits during the sixties including standards such as “Act Naturally” (later recorded as a critical success by the Beatles, they had all Buck’s albums and he collected all theirs!), “My Heart Skips a Beat” and “Love’s Gonna Live Here”. Ringo and Buck recorded Act Naturally and made a music video together in 1989.
Buck played San Francisco’s Fillmore Auditorium in 1968, not normally a country venue, to an enthusiastic crowd of young hip music lovers. Credence Clearwater gave Buck a nod with the line “listening to Buck Owens” in the song “Lookin’ Out My Back Door” and the Grateful Dead claimed Buck as an important influence in their work. Rolling Stone magazine wrote a country piece prominently featuring Buck along with several other country stars which was later expanded into a book by John Grissim, Jr. titled Country Music: White Man’s Blues. In 1969, Buck premiered on “Hee Haw” as a summer replacement for the “Smother’s Brothers Show”. In 1971 Buck released “Ruby”, an album which introduced a whole new generation to the bluegrass sound with traditional tunes, like “Rollin’ in My Sweet Baby’s Arms”, “Ashes of Love”, “Salty Dog”, and “I Know Your Married (but I Love You Still)”.
During the 70’s and 80’s there was a revival of the Bakersfield sound and Dwight Yoakam, Emmy Lou Harris, Gram Parsons first with the Byrds and later with The Flying Burrito Brother’s, Chris Hillman, Ricky Van Shelton, Randy Travis and Ricky Skaggs all recorded some Owens songs and other Bakersfield sounds as the public grew weary of the syrupy pop sound coming out of Nashville. This move paralleled the rise of the Outlaw Movement and the development of the current Texas Sound. In 1988 Dwight Yoakam convinced Buck to come out of retirement and re-record Buck’s “Streets of Bakersfield” with the line “I came here to find something I couldn’t find anywhere else”. This line is a true tribute to Buck Owens and the sound that doesn’t exist anywhere but Bakersfield. Buck Owens passed on March 25, 2006.
To paraphrase a Gram Parsons song, Tonight the Angels in Heaven Rejoiced. RIP Buck!
