Launch.com
September 16, 2000
The month of September is a time of fond remembrance in country music, as this was the month when both Hank Williams (September 17) and Patsy Cline (September 8) were born. Although tragedy ended their lives early -- Williams died in 1953 at age 29 and Cline passed away in 1963 at age 30 -- they remain two of country's most enduring stars.
"Hank is our most active catalog artist," Mercury Records representative Kevin Lane reports. "His albums pretty much stay on the charts, with sales averaging about 250,000 units a year. In 1998, we released a 10-CD boxed set retailing for almost $200, and it sold 10,000 units the first week." A 1994 Life magazine article listing "The 100 Most Important People In Country Music" gave Williams the No. 1 spot. Kris Kristofferson, a country legend in his own right, has been known to put Hank next to Shakespeare when asked to name his writing heroes. And Bob McDill's song "Good Ole Boys Like Me" places Williams in the company of another well-known writer: "Those Williams boys still mean a lot to me -- Hank and Tennessee."
As for Cline, her Greatest Hits album has acquired platinum status times eight, while her classic song "Crazy" was named as the most popular jukebox song of all time in 1997 by the Amusement & Music Operators Association (AMOA). Even more interesting is the growing use of her music in beauty contests. Not long ago, a country song would not have been accepted in a state or national beauty pageant, but in recent years many contestants at both levels have won the talent category performing songs popularized by Cline. One Texas "opry" owner grew so weary of Cline imitators he reportedly posted a "No Patsy Cline Songs" notice backstage.
What accounts for the continuing appeal that Williams and Cline have to so many people today? Sam Atchely, producer of the annual AMOA Juke Box Awards and co-writer of "Coca Cola Cowboy," says, "The music business serves, or should serve, the emotional needs of the public. It's not about great arrangements, great productions, great voices, etc., although they are nice. It's about emotion, and their music reaches people on an emotional level."
Jay Warner, a six-time Grammy-winning music publisher and author who wrote the liner notes for Cline's Duets album, says that Patsy was "unique. What she did was audio art. She was a forerunner, a pioneer, of today's music. As a child she was hospitalized with rheumatic fever and she emerged from her illness with a voice that could knock down walls. She took it as a sign from God that this was a gift she'd been given and she was going to use it.
"In the case of a star who dies at an early age, sentiment sometimes causes interest but as George Hamilton [IV] has said, if Patsy had lived she would have been an even bigger star today than she is now."
Warner notes that Cline was ahead of her time musically, taking a small-market style of music and crossing over into the broader pop field. "New singers continue to emulate her and sing her songs because they want to be the next-generation Patsy Cline. That's the best compliment a performer can get."
Lisa Flood was not a fan of country music until she saw Sweet Dreams, the movie based on Cline's life. After that, Lisa became, in her words, "Patsified." She now maintains a website at www.patsified.com devoted to the artist.
"Patsy appeals to the teenage angst that lies within some of us long after our teenage years have gone," Flood says. "Her vocals sound bruised, loaded with pain and feeling. You listen to her and she's crying out all of your pain for you; she understands it because she lived it. It's raw, not processed the way so many of today's polished studio recordings are. And somehow, the hurt acts as a healer.... She gave herself so completely in her songs, she was always very accessible to her fans, and we Patsy fans cling to that memory and cherish it, even though 99 percent of us never had the chance to meet her or even to attend one of her concerts."
Radio personality Bill Mack is a staunch loyalist when it comes to traditional country music. He is one of the few DJs who still play Hank Williams's recordings. But this Country Music Hall Of Fame member, a.k.a. the Midnight Cowboy, faithful radio companion of truckers and other night workers for decades, once preferred the smooth pop sounds of singers like Bing Crosby. Then, at a vulnerable moment in his life, one song changed everything.
"Hank was my idol, my reason for getting into country music," Mack recalls. "I heard 'Mansion On The Hill' while driving home after a split with my girlfriend, and my taste in music did a complete change. Unfortunately, I never met Hank. Talked with him by phone -- woke him up at 4 a.m. one time and he informed me of his personal feeling pertaining to my call. I admired him so very much and still believe he set the standard pattern for our music."
Patsy Cline also played an important, though unusual, role in Mack's life. He wrote a song that he thought was right for her singing style, but she died before he had the chance to play it for her. Three decades later, "Blue," the song originally written for Cline, would help launch the career of LeAnn Rimes.
"Patsy was very special to me," Mack reminisces. "I saw her at the Nashville airport just a few weeks before her death in the plane crash. She was sitting alone, near a window, reading a newspaper. It was around 7 a.m. I said, 'Good morning, Patsy,' and she said, 'Good morning, Bill. What 'n hell are you doin' here this morning?' I asked her what she was doing and she said, 'Waitin' to catch another one of those damned old planes.'"
A lot of musical artists are just entertainers, and most of the time, that's good enough--you pay your money, have a few laughs, then go on your way. But there are some people who touch your heart and soul in a place that even your friends and family can't reach. Somehow their pain becomes your pain and yours becomes theirs, in a bond that transcends the boundaries of time, space, and culture. Both Patsy Cline and Hank Williams had the ability to do that. They still do.
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