|
 Everybody likes the Beatles - but who did the Beatles like to listen to? I always find it interesting to learn who influenced musicians I enjoy, and wasn't surprised to read in more than a few places that they arranged to have the latest releases of Buck Owens and the Buckaroos sent to them. Buck Owens - what the heck? Wasn't he the doofus standing in the fake cornfield on Hee Haw, telling tired old jokes? If that's all you know about old Buck, it's time to do a little research on his life and work.
He was a huge star in the sixties, racking up something like 16 number one hits in a row. He was also known as a great studio guitarist, songwriter, businessman, and live entertainer. But what was so special about Buck's music?
You first have to look back to what was happening to country music in the fifties. The music industry, like much of American culture, was still quite segregated. Much like authentic black music was sold as "race" music or "rhythm and blues," and was difficult to obtain in mainstream music stores, the world of authentic country was divided into a few different camps, and virtually unknown to folks outside parts of theSouth and Midwest. There was folk, bluegrass, "hillbilly", cowboy, white gospel, and straight-ahead country like Hank Williams and Ernest Tubb. In the late forties, it was merged under the new, made-up term "country and western" - but was still marketed and sold outside the mainstream music establishment. Whitebread pop stars like Rosemary Clooney and Tony Bennett (who were actually excellent jazz artists but marketed as pop stars, that's another story) would make cover versions, much like Pat Boone making "safe" versions of Little Richard songs. And just like the case with black originators of rock and roll, the pop stars would sell millions of records, the record companies would get rich, and the original artists would get screwed.
Following in this noble tradition of screwing the artists, the mainstream record labels recognized there was a huge potential market for country music, but only on their terms. They started turning out "countrypolitan" sides, designed to appeal to what they perceived as the mass market. The greatest thing country had going for it was its honesty, and that scared the label execs. No more of what they perceived as banjos,whining nasal voices, and stories about ordinary folks. Nope, lets add strings, plenty of reverb, vocal background singers, and make sure the album covers don't show anybody in overalls. Chet Atkins, surely one of the finest instrumentalists of the period, somehow drank the Kool Aid, and was made RCA's vice president in charge of their Nashville studio. He worked long and hard to water down this great traditional music, and most of the soul it had went down the drain, setting the bar for the other studios. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check out Hank Williams and Strings some time, or what the once-great Ray Price devolved into. Barf.
But out on the west coast, a different cultural ethos was happening. During the Great Depression and Dust Bowl days, tens of thousands of decent, hardworking folks from Oklahoma, Texas, and other parts of the southwest were lured to California in search of work (read The Grapes of Wrath for the backstory on this). They were shunned by the native Californians, and the word "Okie" was considered quite a demeaning insult. These folks lived through very hard times and were forced to keep to themselves. But they still had their culture, and great music was part of it. Acts like Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, The Maddox Brothers and Rose, and Spade Cooley either migrated west or sprung up from the farms towns. The Central Valley became a great incubator of a new country sound, merging various country traditions with blues, conjunto, and swing styles.
Bakersfield was the center of this revolution. It had its share of rough and tumble honky tonks that were the proving gound. They were patronized by farm workers, oil field hands, railroad men, and other blue collar workers, men who worked hard and liked to play even harder. These were plain bars, with cheap drinks, fights, and a lively clientèle who loved to dance. In order to be heard above the din, the music was stripped down to its essentials and used electric instruments, usually the then-new guitars and basses Leo Fender was turning out in Fullerton.
The most famous of these honky tonks was the Blackboard, where Buck played in the house band led by Bill Woods. A lot of famous musicians on tour passed through Bakersfield, appearing on Cousin Herb Henson's TV show. And a lot of local talent made good too; acts like Merle Haggard, Bonnie Owens, Billy Mize, Ferlin Huskey, and Tommy Collins. Buck was also making the drive to Los Angeles, where he played a lot of studio gigs as guitarist for Tennessee Ernie Ford and other big stars. He eventually met up with the producer Ken Nelson at Capitol Records, who helped him create a distinctive studio sound. Instead of using studio musicians, he assembled a road band and used them on his records, hoping his touring gigs would sound more like his records. And it worked both ways; his records sounded like a real band. Buck and Ken found a distinctive sound, too. Realizing that most people would he hearing records through car radios and small speakers, they purposely toned down the bass, and looked for punchy high notes that could cut through. They were careful not to overproduce them with studio effects, and kept the instrumentation simple. This resulted in a very clear sound that communicated much better than the syrup Nashville was cranking out.
Buck assembled some great musicians, notably lead guitarist and co-vocalist Don Rich, and steel player Tom Brumley. The classic sound of the Buckaroos was a strong two-beat combination of rockabilly, mariachi, and Texas dance hall. This is what the Beatles dug; it was elemental, roots rock, during a period when most pop and country music was extremely overproduced and artificial. They even made a cover record of Buck's Act Naturally.
The great period of Buck's music was 1962-1968, where he turned out classic after classic. The best thing to do now is to listen to them, and enjoy their simplicity and brilliance. He refused to play the Nashville game, and succeeded on his own terms. His honesty and directness was a much-needed antidote to the way country music had been straying, much like the way the Punk movement brought some honesty back to rock.
Some more on Buck
My favorite songs of his
- My Heart Skips a Beat - dig the minimalist guitar intro and solo; it is the essence of the Telecaster
- A-11
- Foolin' Around
- Hello Trouble
- Together Again - Tom Brumley's steel makes you weep
- Close Up the Honky Tonks
Recommended listening
Trackback(0)
 |
TrackBack URI for this entry
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form