C&W CHARTSTADTS Part 2 (1974-1975)

[eddiejinnj]

what is meant by "mo"? eddiejinnj

[the Scribe]

modus operandi - definition
noun [singular] formal /ˌməʊdəs ˌɒpəˈr©¡ndi¢°/

a way of behaving or doing something that is typical of a person or group

[Partridge]

I think the seating capacity in that venue was reported as 5500 to 6000. The crowd was bound to be restless because they sat through an overlong orchestral opening act and the show was advertised as a hits concert, not a Riddle repertoire, so the pop/rock fans were bored. This is from folks who emailed me-- some of them that were actually there said there was no melee as reported-- that was the conservative media set out to crucify Linda.

[the Scribe]

It sure brought a lot of attention to Michael Moore and his great film about the idiot Bush child who managed to steal a second election while everyone watched and did nothing.

[erik]

I think Bill Maher had a good term for it (and when doesn't he have a good term for anything?): "Fake outrage", the kind designed by the Right to distract people away from the real important things in life and country.

[Deleted]

May 10, 2012 11:28:59 GMT -5 sliderocker said:

May 9, 2012 20:36:46 GMT -5 erik said:

I think they still had this hang-up with rock and roll, in part because white artists like Elvis or Jerry Lee Lewis who might have ended up as country artists instead took elements of both country and R&B into their music; and the country audience, being largely white, conservative, and yes, racist, took umbrage. And when it came to the late 1960s, anyone who had hair longer than their shoulder was considered a "Commie" in Nashville...except to one Johnny Cash, who introduced Linda to the country music audience on his TV show on June 21, 1969.

Aside from everything else, their stand against anything that isn't "pure country" is, to put it mildly, duplicitous because it's impossible for any kind of music not to be influenced from outside sources. Linda certainly knew this, which is why she never claimed to be a country artist in the strictest sense of the term, and her image wasn't that of a Southern hick but a West Coast cowgirl.

Interesting thing about the Nashville establishment's dislike of rock and roll: many of the country singers there weren't above recording country versions of rock songs. I looked at such covers at the time with somewhat of a skeptical, cynical eye in that I didn't think the covers were a genuine indication of respect coming from the country to the rock artist, but more an attempt to look like they were hip or maybe felt it was their moral duty to show the rockers their tunes were not so far removed from their country roots.

That cynicism never applied to artists like Johnny Cash, Skeeter Davis (who covered an album's worth of Buddy Holly songs and recorded quite a few pop songs) or Buck Owens or to any country performer who didn't have an issue with rock and who respected rock musicians. Even Patsy Cline, in her very short life, respected rock and rollers. I think I read in a biography on her that she felt that she and Elvis were kindred spirits. Still, I guess the issue was the country artists who didn't have a problem with rock and rollers were in the minority and that the country artists who resented rock and rollers, hated long haired hippies were the majority. When it came to Linda, she might have had an easier time of it in Nashville than what a long haired guy would've had, and the establishment there might not have recognized that her kind of country wasn't their kind of country.

Nashville accepted "Gentleman" Jim Reeves, after he changed style from hillbilly singer to smooth crooner. Patsy Cline was never really a C&W artist, more like Connie Francis, a singer of ballads. 

[erik]

Quote by heartbreaker:

Nashville accepted "Gentleman" Jim Reeves, after he changed style from hillbilly singer to smooth crooner. Patsy Cline was never really a C&W artist, more like Connie Francis, a singer of ballads.

To be totally frank, Patsy was a genuine stylist, the smooth-voiced but still fairly brassy singer whom Linda modeled some of her approach after (and no more obvious with her covers of "I Fall To Pieces" and "Crazy"), with a bit of Elvis' vocal heft thrown in for good measure. As for Gentleman Jim--well, the smoother style fitted him quite well, given how huge his 1960 hit "He'll Have To Go" was on both sides of the pop/country fence, and how often that song was covered in the decades to come (by, among others, Sir Tom Jones in 1967).

It really took a lot of doing for Nashville to accept Linda's approach to country, simply because it was never strictly what that town had in mind, and more "left-of-center"; and by this, I mean she hewed to an approach that was both respectful to tradition and at the same time relevant to what was happening at that particular moment in time. Because of this, it shouldn't surprise too many people that so many women in country music during the 1990's, most especially Trisha Yearwood, considered her a big reason they got motivated to make singing their vocation.