Streets of Bakersfield
If you check my profile, you will notice that I listed “Southern Rock” under my favorite music. I’m talking about the Outlaws, Lynard Skynard and The Allman Brothers to a greater extent. Blackfoot, .38 Special, Molly Hatchet, and The Marshall Tucker Band to a lesser extent.
Still, somehow I don’t have an appreciation for Country music. When I hear them, I love Hank Sr, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, and one Jimmy Williams song in particular. I dug Alabama and Eddie Rabbit back in the 80’s when I heard them on the radio, but I have none of the above-mentioned Country artist’s albums nor did I buy them back in the day.
So when I say R.I.P. Buck Owens, it’s a telegram from dilettante land. I wasn’t a big “Hee-Haw” fan, those jokes were lame even for a pre-teen’s sense of humor. I guess I watched the show for the girls but in retrospect, I don’t know why because I’ve never been into women that wear false eyelashes and the wig-like hair. My Misty Rowe infatuation broke off around fiteen and damn if Tammy Faye Bakker didn’t just take that Hee-Haw Gal-look, and parlay it into a career.
But when Buck came on? I cranked it up because he and Roy Clark kicked ass when they played.
The one Country album I did have until I threw it out in December, was Dwight Yoakam’s Greatest Hits Volume One on cassette. Because Dwight is rock n’ roll, plain and simple. “Guitars, Etc...” and his take on Dave Alvin’s “Long White Cadillac” rocks in the same way that the Stray Cats and The Fabulous Thunderbirds do. The undiscovered gem on that album by the general public, is Yoakam’s remake of “Streets of Bakersfield” featuring Buck himself.
I never knew the Bakersfield sound and by the time I read about it, the musical press was calling it “Tejano,” though obviously it goes back to when the Germans settled in Mexico. It incorporates the polka and the mariachi sounds into a schnitzel-like chili.
The sign of every good or great Country song, is that it tells a story and “Streets of Bakersfield” is fairly straight forward. A down on his luck guy reaches the end of the line in Bakersfield, but not the end of his rope. I especially loved the chorus
You don’t know me but you don’t like me,
You say you care less how I feel
How many of you that sit and judge me
Ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?
That chorus is also true of everybody that struggles in Los Angeles or Las Vegas, or even Manhattan.
Someone might have five more dollars in their pocket than someone else, but does that make them a better person? More importantly, could they survive if they had to live the screwed-up life of the person that they look down upon?
Buck didn’t answer that question, he just wanted the glass house people to ponder it while they got nosebleeds from having their heads reared back so high.
Still, somehow I don’t have an appreciation for Country music. When I hear them, I love Hank Sr, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, and one Jimmy Williams song in particular. I dug Alabama and Eddie Rabbit back in the 80’s when I heard them on the radio, but I have none of the above-mentioned Country artist’s albums nor did I buy them back in the day.
So when I say R.I.P. Buck Owens, it’s a telegram from dilettante land. I wasn’t a big “Hee-Haw” fan, those jokes were lame even for a pre-teen’s sense of humor. I guess I watched the show for the girls but in retrospect, I don’t know why because I’ve never been into women that wear false eyelashes and the wig-like hair. My Misty Rowe infatuation broke off around fiteen and damn if Tammy Faye Bakker didn’t just take that Hee-Haw Gal-look, and parlay it into a career.
But when Buck came on? I cranked it up because he and Roy Clark kicked ass when they played.
The one Country album I did have until I threw it out in December, was Dwight Yoakam’s Greatest Hits Volume One on cassette. Because Dwight is rock n’ roll, plain and simple. “Guitars, Etc...” and his take on Dave Alvin’s “Long White Cadillac” rocks in the same way that the Stray Cats and The Fabulous Thunderbirds do. The undiscovered gem on that album by the general public, is Yoakam’s remake of “Streets of Bakersfield” featuring Buck himself.
I never knew the Bakersfield sound and by the time I read about it, the musical press was calling it “Tejano,” though obviously it goes back to when the Germans settled in Mexico. It incorporates the polka and the mariachi sounds into a schnitzel-like chili.
The sign of every good or great Country song, is that it tells a story and “Streets of Bakersfield” is fairly straight forward. A down on his luck guy reaches the end of the line in Bakersfield, but not the end of his rope. I especially loved the chorus
You don’t know me but you don’t like me,
You say you care less how I feel
How many of you that sit and judge me
Ever walked the streets of Bakersfield?
That chorus is also true of everybody that struggles in Los Angeles or Las Vegas, or even Manhattan.
Someone might have five more dollars in their pocket than someone else, but does that make them a better person? More importantly, could they survive if they had to live the screwed-up life of the person that they look down upon?
Buck didn’t answer that question, he just wanted the glass house people to ponder it while they got nosebleeds from having their heads reared back so high.
posted by Writeprocrastinator at 6:12 AM
2 Comments:
adios Buckaroo... when I had my cd store running one of my best customers was a major Buck Fan, I ordered in a 15 cd box set or something from Germany for him
Why do the Europeans and Japanese get the best CD compilations, along with all the rare tracks and outtakes?
Half of the CD singles that I buy for Procrastinator Junior come from Germany, Denmark or Japan. My "Concert - The Cure Live CD from Germany cost me some twenty-five dollars eight years ago because they refuse to release it Stateside.
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