Michael Blowhard writes:

Dear Blowhards --

A couple of vids for no reason other than the joy that I'm feelin' in posting them.

Brenda Lee (all 4 feet 7 seven inches of her) sets fire to some Hank Williams:

Talk about pipes; talk about lungs; talk about energy -- you can certainly see why they called her "Little Miss Dynamite"! Let's face it: Some people were just born to be performers. But why (in an evo-bio sense) should that even be so? Here's Brenda Lee's website.

Buck Owens and his buddy Don Rich do "Love's Gonna Live Here Again":

Though Buck is often said to be the pioneer of the Bakersfield Sound (think: masculine, outgoing, rhythmic -- a working guy's cut-to-the-action rebuke to sappy Nashville), he always credited Don Rich as his co-conspirator. Buck may have been the Buckaroos' front man, but Don was every bit the creative force Buck was. (Don's "chicken-pickin" guitar sound has made quite an impact.) You can see them as co-equals in the video, no? Not many vocalists share the mic in quite as welcoming a fashion as Buck does with Don. In fact, Buck and Don were in day-to-day life best friends. Don Rich's death -- at 32, in a motorcycle accident -- threw Buck into a deep depression, and Buck often said that music was never again as much fun for him. Here's a website devoted to the Bakersfield Sound.

With thanks once again to essential YouTube uploader Gatorrock786.

Best,

Michael

Brenda Lee singing "Break It To Me Gently" does it to me every time. And by "it," I mean shatters me into a trillion pieces.

Posted by: JMW on March 19, 2008 8:13 PM

I always cheered up when Brenda Lee came on the radio. Some people just have that effect. Odd how rarely such people get any critical respect, or even notice.

It kinda makes you wonder what the critics are looking for...!

Posted by: Friedrich von Blowhard on March 19, 2008 9:43 PM

Actually, this woman really drives me "crazy"...

http://tinyurl.com/2b9fdt

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3aNDT8wqZI

http://tinyurl.com/2v45y4

Posted by: Charlton Griffin on March 19, 2008 10:06 PM

Hank Williams always does it for me.

It's hard to believe he wrote "Take These Chains from My Heart," isn't it? That song became one of the great anthems of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s when Ray Charles covered it. I'll bet a lot of people think that Charles wrote it.

Hank's song are completely elastic. You can make anything out of them that you want. The simplicity and economy of his lyrics... well, that's what a songwriter is supposed to do.

Myrna was born to perform. I am less so. I think that the great performers are just people who want to be under the spotlight whether the result is people screaming insults or genuflecting to the performer's genius. All that's important to the great performer is that people are watching.

Public attention is a two sided sword. First comes the adulation. Then, comes the whipsaw of hatred and jealousy. Everybody likes the adulation. Very few want to remain in the game once they've experienced the wave of hatred and jealousy.

Posted by: Shouting Thomas on March 19, 2008 11:09 PM

Hey Michael,
Glad you enjoy the vids... feel free to embed anything you like. Great blog!

Posted by: Gatorrock786 on April 2, 2008 5:25 PM






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