Bobby Braddock - Country Musics Greatest Lines: Lyrics, Stories & Sketches from American Classics

Published by The History Press

Charleston, SC

www.historypress.com

Copyright 2020 by Bobby Braddock

All rights reserved

All illustrations for this book are by Carmen Beecher, including the one of legendary songwriter Harlan Howard on the cover.

All songs with lyrics featured in this book are published by Sony ATV Music Publishing. Till Im Too Old to Die Young is co-published by Jumping Cholla Music, and Southern Voice is co-published by Round Hill Works.

First published 2020

ISBN 978.1.43966.954.9

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020930494

Print Edition ISBN 978.1.46714.648.7

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

For my Nashville family: Lauren, Jim and Dock.

BOBBY BRADDOCK

For my daughter, Suzanne Gibbs, a true country music lover who enthusiastically encouraged me in bringing the songs to life.

CARMEN BEECHER

CONTENTS

WORDS

I have fond memories of long-ago lunches around Nashvilles Music Row with small groups of songwriters. Inevitably, someone would make a decent new pun or say something profoundly original. If the legendary Curly Putman was present, he would snap to attention and cock his head to the side with a gleam in his eye and a hint of a smile on his face as he pointed his finger at the one who had uttered the clever words. Many times I saw Curly react that way when a potential song idea surfaced in conversation. It was his way of saying, That sounds like it could be a song, and it often resulted in a co-writing appointment.

There are some very pretty melodies in country songs, but country music is best known for its lyrics. So while some country songwriters are tunesmiths, more country songwriters are wordsmithsand quite a few of us are both. As a decades-long inhabitant of Music Row, I know a lot of the stories behind the songs and have had the privilege and honor of stumbling into more than a few songwriting sessions where music history was being made. I often thought that those attention-getting lines that are an important part of country hits would be an interesting topic for a book, and eventually I decided to try to make it happen.

I envisioned opening that book and seeing a story behind the song on the left page, accompanied by a related picture on the right page. The books pictures would be lifelike drawings. I knew just who to approach: an old friend, world-class illustrator Carmen Beecher. I invited her to collaborate with me on this project, and it is my good fortune to have her on board to help bring these stories to life with pictures of the songs characters or writers or singers.

Because so many country songs have crossed over into other fields of music and become important parts of our culture, I think there are few people who are total strangers to the truly American art form of country music. By featuring songs and song lyrics that span the early days of country radio to present-day downloading and live-streaming on the Internet, hopefully theres a little something here for everyonean illustrated brief history of the words of country music and the songwriters who created those words and made them sing.

AUTHORS NOTES

I have previously written about my life in the music business. This book is about other songwriters, their great songs and some of my favorite lines from those songs. Although I often put myself into these stories as an eyewitness to music history, the focus here is on their works and not mine.

I want to thank the following first readers, listed alphabetically: Martin Bandier, Malcolm Gladwell, Chapin Hartford (my proofreader), Lauren Braddock Havey (my daughter), Tammy Jacobs, Michael Kosser, Kathy Locke, Suzanne MacKillop, Sharla McIver, Jay Orr, Don Schlitz, Carolyn Snider and Troy Tomlinson.

Because of copyright issues too complicated and boring to go into hereand also as a matter of conveniencefor the most part, Im featuring songs from the catalog of my music publisher, Sony/ATV (which in 1989 bought the catalog of my original song publisher, Tree International). There are so many great songs and song lyrics from other publishing companies (Long Black Veil, Good Old Boys Like Me, Girl CrushI could go on and on and on), but I thought the vast Sony repertoire would be sufficient because it includes the works of some of the best songwriters and most famous artists/writers of the past seventy-five years. The senior coordinator at the Sony music library in Nashville, Michael Worthley-Seldon, was an immense help in gathering information.

I mentioned my friend, superstar author/journalist/podcaster Malcolm Gladwell, as a first reader, and I owe him a further debt of gratitude for bringing Country Musics Greatest Lines to the attention of David Steinberger at Arcadia Publishing, who in turn brought it to the attention of its imprint company, The History Press. And I am very grateful for the help of acquisitions editor Artie Crisp and the History Press team in helping make this a book to be proud of.

Last but not leastactually most of allI want to thank my friend Carmen Beecher, who surely didnt know what she was signing on to when I asked her to be the illustrator of this book. I wanted someone to bring my picture ideas to life, and boy, did she ever! Carmen is an amazing talent and a tireless worker, and I cant imagine doing this book with anyone but her.

Finally, an apology to my friend Don Wayne (if hes paying attention from the other side) for not thinking to include his wonderful song Country Bumpkin in this collection. It just hit me this very day when I thought, Oh, no! How could I have forgotten that gem? But were already past deadline and need to move on.

BOBBY BRADDOCK

ILLUSTRATORS NOTES

To quote Kris Kristofferson, Why me, Lord? What have I ever done to deserve my fabulous husband, Hap, who kept things running smoothly and encouraged me while I labored over the eighty-one illustrations in this book? And to Bobby Braddock, who came up with a great idea for a different kind of book and chose me to illustrate his vision, I am eternally grateful. Bobby has written many of countrys greatest lines himself, although he is too modest to include them in the book. Even though he wrote I Wanna Talk About Mewhich does have some of countrys greatest lines, by the wayhe wont talk about himself, so I am doing it for him.

CARMEN BEECHER

CHAPTER 1

1940s AND 1950s

The silence of a falling star/Lights up a purple sky

IM SO LONESOME I COULD CRY

Written by Hank Williams

Recorded by Hank Williams for MGM

Hear that lonesome whippoorwill / He sounds too blue to fly / The midnight train is whining low / Im so lonesome I could cry. Sometimes called the Hillbilly Shakespeare, homely, skinny Hank Williams burst onto the scene at age twenty-two, and by age twenty-nine he was gone. Country musics first touring singer/writer superstar was, like many of the future country stars, a farm boy from the South who looked like a cowboy from the West. In fact, his bandmade up mostly of Alabamians like himselfwas called The Drifting Cowboys. So from this 1949 Hank Williams song, this imagery comes to mind: a lonesome cowboy sitting by the campfire, as a distant star, like Hanks star, shoots across the midnight sky and burns out. The silence of a falling star / Lights up a purple sky / And as I wonder where you are / Im so lonesome I could cry.