Two musical endings last week left me feeling sad. #1:Merle Haggard left us, forever - but he did leave behind so much good country music that his voice will still be around - forever.
#2: American Idol left TV after its 15th season, with a splendid Farewell Show last Thursday evening,
I've loved Merle Haggard's songs, and his singing since I first heard his recordings in the late 1980s. My old post on Merle is HERE. Below is a trio of some of my favourites - heck, all his songs are my favourites really - but I've picked three which don't seem to come up often these days: Lonesome Fugitive - the first song of his I ever heard; Footlights - which tells how Merle dealt with his own ageing, and don't we all wish we could kick out metaphorical footlights at times? Lastly, Big City - the song I'd always put on my record player, full blast, back in the UK when we were about to leave on vacation.
'Bye Merle - and a thousand thanks for all the musical pleasures, past, present and future.
Here's a 7 minute clip from the American Idol farewell show last week - it features brief snips from well-known songs, sung by some of the best of Idol's singing finds over the years. I don't recall all the names, but one standout performance is in the last clip, of Jessica Sanchez singing The Prayer.
I was going to post a video of this season's winner, Trent Harmon, singing Sia's Chandelier, but videos at YouTube don't do his performance full justice; better quality is at second video in this article.
And so, it's 'bye 'bye to Idol - maybe not forever. The show has to have been quite a moneymaker for Fox, and we all know that they won't lose any chance to make more money!
I've followed American Idol every season since living in the USA, and before that I watched its original, parent show Pop Idol in the UK. I've always been a sucker for musical talent shows, watched any and all of them. Many people see this as kinda infra dig...so be it. I'm always up for a bit of infra dig!
I love to see ordinary people getting a chance to shine. I admit, though, that as the years passed the show became something it was never intended to be. The original was raw, honest, sweet, real. In these later years it became manipulated by producers, contestants were often not exactly amateur, and too much focus was trained on "celebrity" judges and their antics. It was past time to give the show a rest.
'Bye Idol - but I do suspect you'll return, one day, in some form or other.
It'll be Merle Haggard's birthday tomorrow. Here's an artist I hardly need to research - a favourite of mine for two decades. I was first introduced to his songs in 1989 by a British singer who sang them with an unashamedly London accent - I didn't care - they are wonderful songs in any accent. I bought his autobiography and every LP of his I could find, then lost them all in a fire in 1996; but by then I knew every song by heart, every note of every backing arrangement.
Merle Haggard has written about working men, men in prison, men on the run, drinking, some social comment - from both sides of the politcal divide, people in love, people longing for love, (he knows a lot about this - been married 5 times), unrequited love, about people struggling to get by, getting older, longing for freedom.....in fact, if its a life experience, Merle has written it into a song. Unlike some other wonderful song writers (Kristofferson, Dylan, Cohen) Merle Haggard, in his early years, had a voice deeply beautiful enough to do credit to his own words.
I've known for years that his natal Sun is in Aries, but only found out recently that his Moon is in Aquarius - so he has a mirror image of my Sun Aquarius/Moon Aries - is there any wonder that I was drawn first to his songs rather than to those any of the other great country stars of that era?
Merle's background is well known in the USA - he's a national treasure. Even Americans who have a general disdain for country music seem to retain a lot of respect for Merle Haggard....and rightly so! He has always been on the side of the worker, understands their sorrows and their joys so well, he writes from his own life, loves, joys and woes.
Haggard was born to a family of transplanted Oklahomans who were living in a converted boxcar in California. When he was nine, his father died of a brain tumor. He quit school in the eighth grade and hopped a freight train at age 14. Through the end of his teens, he mostly roamed the Southwest. Haggard had been in and out of reformatories — from which he frequently escaped — by the age of 14 for such petty crimes as car theft. A 20-year-old married father, he was arrested for breaking into a cafe (drunk, he thought the booming business was closed) and spent nearly three years in San Quentin. He was paroled in 1960. (In 1972 then–California governor Ronald Reagan expunged Haggard's criminal record, granting him a full pardon.)
After prison, Haggard went back to Bakersfield and worked for his brother digging ditches. He started playing lead guitar in a local country band, and by 1962, when he went to Las Vegas to back singer Wynn Stewart, Haggard had decided to make music his career.
Merle:I think its time we be honest and start lookin' for answers to a fuel that can be used without contaminating the air. Something that can grown in the soil and then be turned back over and be useful, as opposed to cuttin' down the rain forest and drillin' holes in the earth. You know, this earth spins just like a tire and if you take weights off the tire, the wobble's gonna change. And what the wobble changing might do to this planet is really a pretty good question. It could all possibly be solved with hemp. Before people laugh when they read this article, they need to investigate what they're laughing about.
Livewire: Become critical thinkers.
Merle: Oh yeah. We need to be creative with our thoughts. We need to save ourselves. We're a society that's about to go into, I think, a phase one of intelligence, or we'll wipe ourselves out - one of the two. I think it's happened in the past, I think we all know that. And here we are again, right on the verge of becoming either residents of the universe or another dead planet.
AMEN, Merle! And HAPPY BIRTHDAY tomorrow!
Born 6 April 1937 in Bakersfield, California at 1:30 am (Astrodatabank).
I'm not going to dissect his natal chart, just focus on just a couple of factors: 1) a pattern which I see as particularly significant: a Yod (finger of fate) which links the sextile between his Aries Sun and Aquarius Moon - essences of his "inner" and "outer" self both link by a rather uncomfortable quincunx aspect to Neptune, planet of creativity in Virgo. Translated that means the energetic, occasionally aggresive Aries drive from his Sun and the socially aware, humanistic drive from his Aquarius Moon, which might at times be conflicting, are directed and blended through the apex of the Yod, at Neptune, as imaginative creativity through his songs: the part of his life which most defines him.
2) His Capricorn ascendant reflects a rather serious outlook and image, and many very traditional attitudes, which conflict at times with that Aquarius Moon of his. This is why Merle can be seen as something of a contradiction, due to contrasting views expressed as social comment in his lyrics. At certain times these appear to support the conservative viewpoint, while at others a far more liberal attitude. From Rolling Stone biography linked above:
Despite seeming contradictions, Merle Haggard remains one of the most respected and influential American singer/songwriters, his work always looking to the feelings and experiences of the working-class.
The hardest part is choosing which YouTube video to post! After listening to most on offer I've chosen this - possibly not one of his best known songs: Are The Good Times Really Over? The sentiments expressed remain even more apt today than when Merle wrote the song, many years ago. It was Song of the Year in 1982, but could have been written yesterday!
I wish a buck was still silver. It was back when the country was strong. Back before Elvis; before the Vietnam war came along. Before The Beatles and "Yesterday", When a man could still work, and still would. Is the best of the free life behind us now? Are the good times really over for good? Are we rolling down hill like a snowball headed for hell? With no kind of chance for the Flag or the Liberty bell. Wish a Ford and a Chevy, Could still last ten years, like they should. Is the best of the free life behind us now? Are the good times really over for good?
I wish coke was still cola, And a joint was a bad place to be. And it was back before Nixon lied to us all on TV. Before microwave ovens, When a girl could still cook and still would. Is the best of the free life behind us now? Are the good times really over for good?
Are we rolling down hill like a snowball headed for hell? With no kind of chance for the Flag or the Liberty bell. Wish a Ford and a Chevy, Could still last ten years, like they should. Is the best of the free life behind us now? Are the good times really over for good?
Stop rolling down hill like a snowball headed for hell. Stand up for the Flag and let's all ring the Liberty bell. Let's make a Ford and a Chevy, Still last ten years, like they should. The best of the free life is still yet to come, The good times ain't over for good.
Merle Haggard
