Thursday, June 22, 2006
WAYLON - An Autobiography
I just finished this interesting read. Three things jumped out at me. “Walking in high cotton”, “Entertainers shouldn’t be role models” and Waylon’s first date with Jessi, a road trip to Tuba City, Arizona to play for the Navajo people. Here’s my take.
A lot of folks in West Texas were poor sharecropper and any cash money they made was from growing and picking cotton. The Jennings family was dirt poor and picked their share of cotton. Johnny Cash once said huge swatches of the blues and country music came straight out of the cotton fields. Cotton grows low to the ground and picking it is back breaking work. You drag a nine foot sack and never stand up straight. It is easier when the cotton grows taller, thus the expression I’m walking in high cotton and the picking is easy! Here is an explanation I found on the web.
Ask Grandpa, “How are you?” and his answer would be, “I’m walking in high cotton.”
This was not just a pleasantry, but a philosophy of life well earned and recognized as such by the cotton farmers of Boot Heel, Missouri, back when King Cotton was the cash crop. If a newcomer seemed puzzled by the reply, Grandpa would explain:
“Well, it means you have a good piece of bottom land, the rain has been just right, no boll weevils, the cotton has grown waist high shading out weeds, can be picked without stooping over, and is selling for 55 cents a pound on the Memphis Exchange.” In today’s parlance: “It doesn’t get any better than this.”
Waylon had a lot of natural talent for guitar playing and singing, but he was never “walking in high cotton”. In fact, most of his career it seems he was trying to work with one arm tied behind his back and a ball and chain around his leg. His addiction to methamphetamines pretty much handicapped him as far as making anything easy. Waylon had a lot of success, but financial and personal relationships were always strained and neither he nor his musical partnerships really enjoyed their success as much as would have been possible without the ever present addiction. Reminds me of a Johnny Cash tune, “I Never Picked Cotton”, the upshot of the song was that even though he hadn’t picked cotton he was still handicapped by his heritage and it led to his downfall. Going through life with the handicap of an addiction isn’t pretty.
Entertainers, especially musicians seem to be plagued by addictions. Thus their lives aren’t really much of a positive role model for audiences and fans or anybody for that matter. This seems to be the case almost universally in the music business. Some of the angst of their lives is the material of their music, but the self destructive lifestyles go way beyond that. It destroys relationships and there is no real joy in their lives! I have experienced some self destructive behavior myself, but don’t feel I’ve ever lost anything since then on the creative side in twenty-six years of sobriety. In fact, what creativity I have has only been enhanced in my humble opinion. A saying in recovery is that addicts don’t feel and don’t share. Addiction pretty much stops any emotional growth or development of maturity. I am still learning about acknowledging and expressing feelings that should have occurred in my teens and twenties. It is unfortunate Waylon didn’t find a drug free life until after four marriages and the peak of his creative and performing years. Although Waylon and Johnny Cash were close friends for many years and roommates for a short time, Johnny was able to quit the pills in the ’60 and Waylon not until the ‘80’s. “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys” will never become “My Heroes Have Always Been Addicts (or Alcoholics)”. Sometimes we chose negative role models and our emotional development suffers.
Tuba City, Arizona was where Waylon had a gig to play before a packed house on the Navajo Reservation. Waylon noted that the Navajo have been some of his greatest fans ever since he recorded “Love of the Common People” in the late ‘60’s. Waylon adopted the back beat from early Rock ‘n Roll in his music being one of the first country acts to incorporate the use of a drummer. This created a lot of his controversy between Waylon and the Nashville music industry and their Countrypolitan image. No doubt Waylon’s musical development was influenced by his early touring with Buddy Holly. That same beat was prominent in early rock tunes by the likes of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Little Richard who claim to have invented the genre. That beat was later prominent in early Sun Record recordings by Elvis, Jerry Lee, Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash. The steady beat of rock as well as anything Johnny Cash sang has always been popular with our Native brothers and sisters. Perhaps it is the closest thing in modern music to the drum beat that is prevalent in traditional Native music. It is said the drumbeat is the beat of life, the heartbeat within each of us, the very heartbeat of Mother Earth, our creator and sustainer. Perhaps, this beat is what kept Waylon going through all those difficult years. Perhaps, it what keeps us all going and sustains life itself!
I just finished this interesting read. Three things jumped out at me. “Walking in high cotton”, “Entertainers shouldn’t be role models” and Waylon’s first date with Jessi, a road trip to Tuba City, Arizona to play for the Navajo people. Here’s my take.
A lot of folks in West Texas were poor sharecropper and any cash money they made was from growing and picking cotton. The Jennings family was dirt poor and picked their share of cotton. Johnny Cash once said huge swatches of the blues and country music came straight out of the cotton fields. Cotton grows low to the ground and picking it is back breaking work. You drag a nine foot sack and never stand up straight. It is easier when the cotton grows taller, thus the expression I’m walking in high cotton and the picking is easy! Here is an explanation I found on the web.
Ask Grandpa, “How are you?” and his answer would be, “I’m walking in high cotton.”
This was not just a pleasantry, but a philosophy of life well earned and recognized as such by the cotton farmers of Boot Heel, Missouri, back when King Cotton was the cash crop. If a newcomer seemed puzzled by the reply, Grandpa would explain:
“Well, it means you have a good piece of bottom land, the rain has been just right, no boll weevils, the cotton has grown waist high shading out weeds, can be picked without stooping over, and is selling for 55 cents a pound on the Memphis Exchange.” In today’s parlance: “It doesn’t get any better than this.”
Waylon had a lot of natural talent for guitar playing and singing, but he was never “walking in high cotton”. In fact, most of his career it seems he was trying to work with one arm tied behind his back and a ball and chain around his leg. His addiction to methamphetamines pretty much handicapped him as far as making anything easy. Waylon had a lot of success, but financial and personal relationships were always strained and neither he nor his musical partnerships really enjoyed their success as much as would have been possible without the ever present addiction. Reminds me of a Johnny Cash tune, “I Never Picked Cotton”, the upshot of the song was that even though he hadn’t picked cotton he was still handicapped by his heritage and it led to his downfall. Going through life with the handicap of an addiction isn’t pretty.
Entertainers, especially musicians seem to be plagued by addictions. Thus their lives aren’t really much of a positive role model for audiences and fans or anybody for that matter. This seems to be the case almost universally in the music business. Some of the angst of their lives is the material of their music, but the self destructive lifestyles go way beyond that. It destroys relationships and there is no real joy in their lives! I have experienced some self destructive behavior myself, but don’t feel I’ve ever lost anything since then on the creative side in twenty-six years of sobriety. In fact, what creativity I have has only been enhanced in my humble opinion. A saying in recovery is that addicts don’t feel and don’t share. Addiction pretty much stops any emotional growth or development of maturity. I am still learning about acknowledging and expressing feelings that should have occurred in my teens and twenties. It is unfortunate Waylon didn’t find a drug free life until after four marriages and the peak of his creative and performing years. Although Waylon and Johnny Cash were close friends for many years and roommates for a short time, Johnny was able to quit the pills in the ’60 and Waylon not until the ‘80’s. “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys” will never become “My Heroes Have Always Been Addicts (or Alcoholics)”. Sometimes we chose negative role models and our emotional development suffers.
Tuba City, Arizona was where Waylon had a gig to play before a packed house on the Navajo Reservation. Waylon noted that the Navajo have been some of his greatest fans ever since he recorded “Love of the Common People” in the late ‘60’s. Waylon adopted the back beat from early Rock ‘n Roll in his music being one of the first country acts to incorporate the use of a drummer. This created a lot of his controversy between Waylon and the Nashville music industry and their Countrypolitan image. No doubt Waylon’s musical development was influenced by his early touring with Buddy Holly. That same beat was prominent in early rock tunes by the likes of Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Little Richard who claim to have invented the genre. That beat was later prominent in early Sun Record recordings by Elvis, Jerry Lee, Roy Orbison and Johnny Cash. The steady beat of rock as well as anything Johnny Cash sang has always been popular with our Native brothers and sisters. Perhaps it is the closest thing in modern music to the drum beat that is prevalent in traditional Native music. It is said the drumbeat is the beat of life, the heartbeat within each of us, the very heartbeat of Mother Earth, our creator and sustainer. Perhaps, this beat is what kept Waylon going through all those difficult years. Perhaps, it what keeps us all going and sustains life itself!
