closet Buck Owens fans

[pwdennis]

It seems to me we have some closet Buck Owens fans here in the forum. POORME currently has the following words in his signature:

Weeeeeeeelllllllll, I don't care if the sun don't shine
I don't care if the bells don't chime
Just as long as you love meeeee!

taken from Buck's 1964 hit I DON'T CARE

and someone, I can't remember who, had the words to Buck's 1963 hit ACT NATURALLY in their signature


Well come out of the closet - stand up for something worthwhile
the recorded musical legacy of the one and only Alvis Edgar "Buck" Owens

[trripleplay]

and I'm grinnin'

[johnny]

I LOVE Buck Owens!! (that was me with Act Naturally in my sig)
To me, he is what country music is all about. I was raised on stuff like Buck, Conway, Jim Reeves,etc. I have tried to share his music with friends, but they only like Made in Japan or Together Again.
I was glad to see Dwight Yoakam pay homage to him...maybe it gave him a few new fans.

It's all about the twang :)

[SmedIndy]

Hey, who's gonna mow yer grass????

[SmedIndy]

PS - The tall dark stranger spells danger (danger)....so don't let the stranger hang around....

[spitball]

Buck rocks.
I play hard country covers in my current band and want to do "Excuse Me"....
The Bakersfield Sound......sweet.
We'll have to make a pilgrimage to his club sometime.
Oh yeah.....I saw him a couple of years ago at the Santa Monica Pier......He covered " Play That Funky Music White Boy"......
Surreal...

Oh Yeah again!!
Country like The Bakersfield Sound is more punk than punk rock in my opinion.

[SmedIndy]

He must think that's "Country" because he always said he'd never play a song that wasn't "Country" and then explained away his version of "Johnny B. Goode" (which rocks by the way...)

Is that available somewhere, Spit? That'd definitely be worth a listen!

[spitball]

Originally posted by SmedIndy
He must think that's "Country" because he always said he'd never play a song that wasn't "Country" and then explained away his version of "Johnny B. Goode" (which rocks by the way...)

Is that available somewhere, Spit? That'd definitely be worth a listen!
Maybe one of the writers at work has a copy. There's a particular writer who's specialty is real country and R and B. He's heard Owens do it at his club. His drummer sings it and Buck kind of shimmies around and sings the chorus.

[pwdennis]

Actually Chuck Berry was simply a country artist who happened to be black. Ernest Tubb did a good version of "30 Days" and innumerable country acts played Chuck Berry's songs in their live sets

[trripleplay]

Any song sung by Buck Owens was country. It may not have started that way, but coming out of his mouth it became about as country as you kin git.

[poorme]

I'm not a closet Buck Owens fan, I'm a flaming Buck Owens fan.:hotdevil:

What a voice! (although my voice might sound good if I recorded two vocal tracks and put them on top of eachother).

[rcartman28]

I always thought of "Act Naturally" as being a Beatles song.....

[pwdennis]

Originally posted by poorme
I'm not a closet Buck Owens fan, I'm a flaming Buck Owens fan.:hotdevil:

What a voice! (although my voice might sound good if I recorded two vocal tracks and put them on top of eachother).


Actually it was Buck Owens (single track) with Don Rich singing the tenor harmony

[pwdennis]

Originally posted by spitball
Maybe one of the writers at work has a copy. There's a particular writer who's specialty is real country and R and B. He's heard Owens do it at his club. His drummer sings it and Buck kind of shimmies around and sings the chorus.

Johnny B. Goode was originally issued on BUCK OWENS IN LONDON, a live album issued in 1969. I was in that audience - perhaps the best live show I've ever seen.

The song is also in the boxed set issued a few years ago and perhaps on one of the various hits collections issued by Curb or Rhino

[poorme]

Originally posted by pwdennis
Actually it was Buck Owens (single track) with Don Rich singing the tenor harmony

are you sure about this? I know dwight yoakam does that. I figured he learned it from buck.

[SmedIndy]

Originally posted by pwdennis
Johnny B. Goode was originally issued on BUCK OWENS IN LONDON, a live album issued in 1969. I was in that audience - perhaps the best live show I've ever seen.

The song is also in the boxed set issued a few years ago and perhaps on one of the various hits collections issued by Curb or Rhino

It's on the Rhino Greatest Hits Volume 2...

I want those outfits the Buckaroos were wearing on the cover of Greatest Hits Volume 1!

[sweaver]

I much prefer Roy Clark.

[poorme]

Originally posted by sweaver
I much prefer Roy Clark.

I used to yesterday, when I was young.

[pwdennis]

Originally posted by sweaver
I much prefer Roy Clark.

Most of those who remember Buck only from his Hee-Haw days do tend to prefer Clark, who is more of a natural comedian. Clark, who can play anything with strings, is a great instrumentalist. Buck himself can wield a pretty mean guitar and he was a great bandleader. The mid-60s Buckaroos (Don Rich - fiddle & Guitar, Doyle Holly - bass, Willie Cantu - drums, Tom Brumley - steel) were as good a small combo as ever existed

In terms of their musical importance to the development of the form, there are only a few male country artists more important than Buck Owens - Jimmie Rodgers,Bob Wills, Hank Williams,Lefty Frizzell and maybe (just maybe) Jones, Haggard & Cash. Everyone else is merely a derivative

[pwdennis]

Originally posted by poorme
are you sure about this? I know dwight yoakam does that. I figured he learned it from buck.


Positive - I saw Buck and his Buckaroos live several times - they could easily produce the sound of their recordings. When Don Rich died in a motorcyle accident in 1974, the sound died with him - Buck was never quite able to get that same high harmony blend after that , whether with another singer (Jim Shaw, mostly, or with Doyle Singer) or by double tracking

[Skip]

Originally posted by poorme
I used to yesterday, when I was young. Very good.

[spitball]

Originally posted by poorme
are you sure about this? I know dwight yoakam does that. I figured he learned it from buck.
It's 2 part harmony poorme. Bucks voice is strong . He doesn't need doubling. He used reverb though.
George Jones doing songs like Tell Me Why and Treasure of Love are , to me good examples of George doing Buck.

[poorme]

Originally posted by pwdennis
In terms of their musical importance to the development of the form, there are only a few male country artists more important than Buck Owens - Jimmie Rodgers,Bob Wills, Hank Williams,Lefty Frizzell and maybe (just maybe) Jones, Haggard & Cash. Everyone else is merely a derivative

the problem is that country music hit it's pinnacle in the 60's - there were so many greats back then including owens. the talent was unbelievable. probably since about 1980, commercial country is absolutely horrible. you have work to actually find some good country music being played nowadays. joe ely, robert earl keen, steve earle - and I dont' even know if they count as country. mostly I keep my eyes open for positive reviews and might buy a CD without ever having heard the artist.

[poorme]

Originally posted by spitball
It's 2 part harmony poorme. Bucks voice is strong . He doesn't need doubling. He used reverb though.

aha. maybe that's what i'm hearing.

I know buck had throat cancer. does he still perform? I think he's still alive, right?

[pwdennis]

Originally posted by poorme
aha. maybe that's what i'm hearing.

I know buck had throat cancer. does he still perform? I think he's still alive, right?

I know buck had throat cancer. does he still perform? I think he's still alive, right? [/B][/QUOTE]


Buck is still alive, hasn't toured in many years - still performs now and then at a nightclub he owns in Bakersfield - I think it's called the Crystal Palace

[pwdennis]

Originally posted by spitball
It's 2 part harmony poorme. Bucks voice is strong . He doesn't need doubling. He used reverb though.
George Jones doing songs like Tell Me Why and Treasure of Love are , to me good examples of George doing Buck.

Actually George Jones pre-dates Buck as a recording artist by a few years. George's first hit was in 1954 with WHY BABY WHY (a bigger hit for Webb Pierce & Red Sovine that same year). Buck gets a little chart action in 1959 but the hits start around 1961, with the train really starting to roll in 1963.

[spitball]

I stand corrected... So does that mean Buck was doing George??
Who cares. It's all great.

[pwdennis]

Originally posted by spitball
I stand corrected... So does that mean Buck was doing George??
Who cares. It's all great.

probably not - Buck got his professional start in the Pacific Northwest whereas George started around Beaumont TX.

The George Jones of 1954 didn't sound too terribly much like the George Jones of the 1960s and beyond - too much uptempo stuff, not enough slow and mid-tempo ballads which are the possum's strength


Buck Owens has always been Buck Owens.

As an aside, while I generally haven't liked country singers doing pop/rock covers, Buck's version of "Bridge Over Troubled Waters" is far superior to the Simon & Garfunkel original, if only because Buck keeps it down to an acceptable length whereas the S&G version is draggy, flaccid and way too long.

[pwdennis]

Originally posted by poorme
the problem is that country music hit it's pinnacle in the 60's - there were so many greats back then including owens. the talent was unbelievable. probably since about 1980, commercial country is absolutely horrible. you have work to actually find some good country music being played nowadays. joe ely, robert earl keen, steve earle - and I dont' even know if they count as country. mostly I keep my eyes open for positive reviews and might buy a CD without ever having heard the artist.

This is certainly true of most of the major label product, but on the indy labels are treasures such as Tommy Alverson, Justin Trevino, Johnny Bush, Don Walser, Cornell Hurd, John Lincoln Wright, Pinto Bennett as well as such classics as Hank Thompson, Ray Price

There are some real country artists out there but what I see a lot of is major label artists who hide a real country track or two on their albums - tracks that don't get radio play. As much as I dislike the "Garth Brooks-ification" of the genre, every Garth Brooks album has one or two real good country cuts. Similarly the recent Craig Morgan album was the usual Nashville product except for a dynamite cut of a recent Bill Anderson song "When A Man Can't Get A Woman Off His Mind". That cut is so good I can forgive a lot of dreck

Getting back to Buck Owens, for a very strongly Buck-influenced band, give the Derailers a try, particularly their last album. Buck even gave them one of his famous red, white & blue guitars.

[spitball]

I know where the Possum is from as well as Buck. I was making a joke.

[BBapplepie]

Always been a CM fan, until the day I die.
Buck's big hits from years ago.
Together again
Love gonna live here
Tall dark stranger
Second Fiddle, Fooling around & Before you go
Also like Dwight Youkam, with Buck they did Streets
of Bakersfield and a few others.
Someone mention Ray Price, he was great one

[pwdennis]

Originally posted by BBapplepie
Someone mention Ray Price, he was great one

Wasn't he though:

Heartaches By The Numbers
Crazy Arms
Pride
Heart Over Mind
If You Ever Change Your Mind
I Won't Mention It Again
I'd Rather Be Sorry
For The Good Times
Sweetheart Of The Year
Don't Let The Stars Get In Your Eyes
Invitation To The Blues
City Lights
I'll Be There
Danny Boy
San Antonio Rose
Grazing In Greener Pastures
Night Life
Don't You Ever Get Tired Of Hurting Me
Under Your Spell Again (also a hit for Buck Owens)

[poorme]

pw, you're a real country music encyclopedia. how do you know all this stuff? you must have been a wee lad during the 60s.

ray price reminds me of charlie pride who had a handful of great songs, the names of which escape me now. Don Gibson is always forgotten. Faron Young too.

[pwdennis]

Originally posted by poorme
pw, you're a real country music encyclopedia. how do you know all this stuff? you must have been a wee lad during the 60s.

ray price reminds me of charlie pride who had a handful of great songs, the names of which escape me now. Don Gibson is always forgotten. Faron Young too.

I was a teenager during the 1960s - my dad never sang professionally but he was a good singer and played the guitar - he had Hank Snow & Gene Autry songbooks he played from. I love all this stuff and probably know a verse or two from a thousand or so country songs (I am a wretched singer so don't be looking for me to record anything - I do sing better than Bob Dylan, however)

" Country" Charley Pride:
Let The Chips Fall
I Know One
I Wonder Could I live There Anymore
I Can't Believe You've Stopped Loving Me
It's Gonna Take A Little Bit Longer
Kaw-Liga
All I have To Offer You Is Me
Kiss An Angel Good Morning
You're My Jamaica
Burgers & Fries
Does My Ring Hurt Your Finger
Is Anybody Goin' To San Antone
The Snakes Crawl At Night
You're Just Too Good To Be True
A Shoulder To Cry On
Someone Loves You Honey
Missing You
More And More
You Win Again
I'm Gonna Love You On The Radio
Burgers And Fries
Mountain Of Love

Don Gibson:
Country Green
Guess Away The Blues
Woman (Sensuous Woman)
Gonna Find A Perfect Mountain
It's A Long Long Way To Georgia
Funny Familiar Forgotten Feelings
Sea of Heartbreak
Blue Blue Day
Oh Lonesome Me
Lonesome #1
I Can't Stop Loving You
Far Far Away
Don't Tell Me Your Troubles

Faron Young:
Step Aside
Goin' Steady
Hello Walls
Four In The Morning
Leavin' And Sayin' Goodbye
Yellow Bandana
Three Days
If You Ain't Living, You Ain't Loving
I Miss You Already And You're Not Even Gone
Wine Me Up
Face To The Wall
She Went A Little Bit Farther

[KCBOOMER]

I really like the old country music. I can't stand the syrup they are passing off nowadays as country music. What I really love is traditional bluegrass.

I'm hungry for your love
and I'm waitin' in your welfare line
give me a hand out

[BBapplepie]

pwdennis, when Don Rich got killed, it just about killed
Buck also. He stay out of the lights for many years
afterward until Dwight talk him back to the studio.

[pwdennis]

Originally posted by BBapplepie
pwdennis, when Don Rich got killed, it just about killed
Buck also. He stay out of the lights for many years
afterward until Dwight talk him back to the studio.

True - there was a CD issued on the Sundazed label recently which focused on Don Rich's contributions to the Buckaroos (Country Pickin' - The Don Rich Anthology). Don Rich always claimed his favorite guitarist was jazz guitarist Howard Roberts, although I am not sure I hear the connection. I certainly can hear the Jimmie Bryant influence.

And I certainly can hear how important Don Rich was to the Buck Owens sound. He wasn't the songwriter Buck was, but he was a major talent.

[BBapplepie]

Also Buck and Merle Haggard did a little collaboration, I mean
their private life. In the fact they both marry the same women.
Buck's first wife Bonnie became Mrs Haggard.

[pwdennis]

Originally posted by BBapplepie
Also Buck and Merle Haggard did a little collaboration, I mean
their private life. In the fact they both marry the same women.
Buck's first wife Bonnie became Mrs Haggard.

true - and Merle gave Buck's band its name - before than it was Buck and the Boys

Haggard actually played briefly with Buck but does not appear on any of the recordings. Apparently Merle and Buck really don't like each other although they do respect each other. Each has recorded songs written by the other

[BBapplepie]

They are from totally different in background as far as their
up bringing goes. They may have written for each other,
this show their skills as writer from worlds apart. Am I right
to assume that. Also, what ever happen to Marty Haggard,
been kind of quiet lately.

[pwdennis]

Marty Haggard is estranged from his father - you can find his story elsewhere on the internet. He was involved in a terrible car wreck some years back that resulted in a significant memory loss and possibly a personality change.

Buck and Merle never specifically wrote songs for each other. Hag did record Buck's "Where Does The Good Times Go" on his 5th or 6th album (or after the split) and Buck has recorded some Hag songs

[pwdennis]

excerpt from Chet Flippo's column - available today on www.cmt.com

"Country music's got a problem I can fix -- namely the identity crisis that's been with it since the music began. While there are many wings of country music, there have always been two main audiences for it. One is the traditional fan -- historically rural -- who likes the music straight and simple, maybe with a little pop "sophistication." The other is the more uptown -- often urban -- listener who likes purist and retro sounds as well as more experimental fare. The rural/urban division is not so pronounced anymore, but a big split among fans remains nonetheless, and that's a big logistical headache for artists, record labels, radio and retail. Here's what to do about it: merely label and ship country music according to whether it's directed at Red America or Blue America.

Remember in the last presidential election, when the popular vote split almost evenly between what the television anchors termed Red America and Blue America? The red states signified the areas that voted Republican; blue states went to Democratic voters who favored Gore and that guy who ran with him. So Red pretty much means conservatives, upholders of traditional values, NRA members and beer drinkers. Blue is shorthand for liberals, tree-huggers, NPR listeners and wine sippers. These days, most country music is falling along those Red/Blue lines as well. Red Country is sleeveless and tattooed and boisterous and loud; Blue Country is buttoned-up and a little more proper and melodic and not so loud that it'll wake the baby."

This certainly does capsulize what seems to be happening within country music - I am in the "red camp" although there is some of the "blue" that I like.

[poorme]

what exactly is he suggesting?

the problem is caused by the consolidation of the radio business. you have about 5-6 radio stations trying to get as many listeners as possible. so the music is milquetoast, boring, inoffensive pap. a real snoozefest. and that goes for all the stations -rock, country, classical, jazz(if you can find one).

the radio giants pay congress to 1. limit the number of stations and 2. let them monopolize the available stations.

i'm hoping this XM radio thing works. I've heard that the big car makers are going to make them optional equipment in the next year or two. i'd get it myself, but i'm never in my car.

[pwdennis]

Originally posted by poorme
what exactly is he suggesting?

the problem is caused by the consolidation of the radio business. you have about 5-6 radio stations trying to get as many listeners as possible. so the music is milquetoast, boring, inoffensive pap. a real snoozefest. and that goes for all the stations -rock, country, classical, jazz(if you can find one).



I am not sure what Flippo was suggesting but I certainly agree with you on the state of radio, particularly FM radio.

AM radio is a different matter since there is much less consolidation in that market. Here in the Orlando area the AM band is a mixture of talk radio (two sport talk, several news-talk both left and right leaning), religious stations, a rap station, a reggae station, many stations broadcasting in Spanish, a classic country station (in nearby Eustis), classic (Sinatra, Martin) pop stations plus a few that defy description.

On the FM band only the college stations or public radio stations offer anything but the ususal pablum. WUCF is both college & NPR and features real jazz (no #%@% Kenny G types) except on Sunday when it goes Irish/Bluegrass/other stuff in the late after noon)

note to administrator - perhaps this post, poorme's last post, and my immediate prior post should be moved to a new thread

[SmedIndy]

Let's close it and start a new thread....