No one has ever done a Merle Haggard S&D? WTF (R.I.P. 2016)

rip

Indeed, sadly.

http://www.bakersfield.com/News/2016/04/06/Haggard-famed-songwriter-and-proud-Okie-from-Bakersfield-dies-at-78.html

just heard 'okie from muskogee' in a Peckinpah film last night, remembered the guy was still here

this year is brutal

RIP such a great songwriter and singer

RIP, what a year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4V3S7kGNjY

oh i love that video thank you for reminding me

RIP

I think I'll just stay here and drink

Rest In Power, Merle.

ughhhhhhhh

UGH

RIP. Has Bob Dylan weighed in yet?

please stop adding RIP to the titles of longtime threads, for Chrissakes.

especially quixotic and morbsian thing to get worked up about.

:(

Was our best living songwriter; I even dug his 2011 album.

I should've kept up with him; last one I heard was If Only I Could Fly, which I loved.

Django and Jimmie is supposed to be a good one, yeah?

From Bob Mehr (author of the recent Replacements bio) on FB:

I saw Merle Haggard many times over the years. The first was during my senior year of high school, I was still probably 16 or maybe just turned 17. He was playing an arena in Tucson, opening for Wynonna Judd, who'd gone solo and was the biggest thing happening then. Being young and hotheaded, I took the fact that she was headlining over Merle as a disrespect to the Great Man, and I left in protest after his set, dragging my first girlfriend (who wanted to stay and watch Wynonna) with me. As we were exiting, I saw Merle standing by the bus down in a docking bay. I rushed to my car to get a pen and something for him to sign, but the only thing I had was a math textbook (from a class I was desperately trying not to fail so I could graduate).

I walked over and called to him. He nodded, summoned us down and couldn't have been nicer, entertaining all my queries for 15 minutes (I was a strange kid, absolutely, religiously fanatical about classic country music). I told him I was a Californian, too -- or at least an immigrant to the state, though my family had come from the Middle East, not Oklahoma like his. I'll never forget the sweet little smile he gave me when realized how his music had touched some foreign born kid, how far his songs had reached. Before parting, he took my textbook, signed it and chuckled: "I never did get much use out them things myself."

Upshot of the story is the girl broke up with me the very next week, breaking my heart, but giving me an even deeper appreciation for Merle's music.

Years later, in 2001, I interviewed Haggard for the New Times, and he was just as charming and wonderful. I looked up the piece not long ago, and thought his final answer was pretty great, and worth sharing:

New Times: It must have been impossible to imagine at the time, that all those things--your father's death, jail, everything--would shape your life the way it has.

Haggard: There's a scripture that says, "A good man's steps are ordered by the Lord." I believe in predestination. Looking back on it now, my life's been laid out like it was meant to be exactly the way it is. Those things happened so that I would have the experience and knowledge to see firsthand the things that I ended up writing about and maybe bring to the public a sort of news. In some ways, I'm a news broadcaster, a newsman. There's things going on in this world that they're not gonna tell you on CNN. They're not going to say anything that's gonna offend one of the sponsors. So there's talk radio at night, and maybe a few old poets that get played on obscure radio stations--those are the only ways that you might hear what's really occurring in the world.

I grew up in this business not having any foresight. I'm just a guy who went into a little bar and got a job playing guitar--I wasn't even hired as a singer--in order to make a few extra bucks a week. I had no earthly idea that the thing would evolve into what it has. I always liked the word "evolve." Man, I evolved--with no idea that the Lord had all this in mind for me.

https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtp1/v/t1.0-9/12932906_10154064680199919_7053511455515708395_n.jpg?oh=b037d943f03cc378fd991e7b1706cc7e&oe=577DC9BB

There a long piece in the New Yorker from the 80's about him that's very worth reading

Here: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1990/02/12/ornery

I read David Cantwell's bio over the December holiday break and was so charmed.

when I was little my favorite song was "Silver Wings"

you must have had great parents and/or great radio

when i was big one of my favorite songs was "silver wings"

(and i didn't hear it from either my great parents or my great radio. i heard the knitters doing it.0

from Richard Bishop's FB page:

My mother was Merle's English teacher in High School in Bakersfield. I'd like to think that she had some influence on his writing, or at least on his arrest record. RIP Merle (more in comments)

That NYer piece is incredible

1994 and 1996 are both good, solid albums with quite the possibly the worst artwork in the history of major popular music. i'm not even sure it qualifies as artwork actually. it's more like his label couldn't even be bothered to come up with titles or art for his work anymore. one of the many, many things i loved about him is how he kept pushing forward with his art long after other people stopped caring.

Man I love Merle Haggard. His best songs are as good as anybody's.

2016 is already one of the worst years for music deaths ever, and it's still early April.

xxxpost My dad had an 8-Track player in our motor home, but only maybe six 8-Track tapes and Songs I'll Always Sing was one of them. We'd take a three week meandering-around-the-country trip every summer and I heard that Merle comp hundreds of times.

Songs I'll Always Sing

that was the second country album i ever owned, after 24 of hank williams' greatest hits, and one of the most important albums in my life.

I don't know a lot about Merle Haggard, but there's one song I revere: "Sing Me Back Home." Especially the way it's used in Don Shebib's Goin' Down the Road. Wish I could link to it (can't even find a still): a couple of old winos are trying to scrounge up a drink in Toronto's Regent Park area, and after they drop and break the wine bottle they're working on, a street busker plays the Haggard song. Incredible scene.

Man, I evolved--with no idea that the Lord had all this in mind for me.

sounds like he's describing intelligent design :)

i own about 30 merle haggard albums and wouldn't get rid of a single one; he wrote more good songs than bob dylan IMO

Footlights is all time song for me

Tribute tonight at 8 on WFMU from Mrs. Fine Wine

1996 has the killer Iris Dement cover.

not much to say except goddamn and he will be missed, RIP

xpost, Hag's cover of No Time to Cry is so good. Iris Dement returned the favor with a killer cover of Big City.

digging through my merle records

holy fuck did he write a lot of songs

a ton of great ones, too

it's almost superhuman

did not know he was a Giants fan. this warms my heart much more than I thought it would.

Kaleb Horton killing it with this piece

http://www.mtv.com/news/2863329/merle-haggard-son-of-bakersfield/

This one also top notch

http://pitchfork.com/thepitch/1089-why-merle-haggard-was-a-country-game-changer/

Paul Schrader w/ a good Merle story on FB:

In 1977, post Taxi-Driver, I'd researched and written a script for Warner Bros on "Eight Scenes from the Life of Hank Williams." I wanted to interest Merle in playing the lead so I got Warners to arrange a meeting. I drove up to Bakersfield and after waiting was ushered into a spartan office ("spartan" in terms of the Hollywood offices I had come to expect). Apart from Haggard gold records there were two inexpensive framed photos on the wall. Another wait, then Merle arrived. Didn't sit, didn't say a word. After a beat, he pointed to the photos, "Do you know who this is?" I looked, replied: "That's Jimmy Rodgers and the other, I believe, is a very early photo of Bob Wills." Haggard nodded, sat down, waited another beat, then said, "What's on your mind?" I'd passed the Hollywood screenwriter admittance quiz. We talked Hank for a bit and I left him with the script. Later he contacted me, saying if it were Rodgers or Wills he'd be tempted, but "Hank just doesn't feel right for me." In the end the script was never made because Wesley Rose (brother of Fred), holder of the song rights, felt the script was too "dark."

huh! did anything ever come of that schrader script?
anyway, RIP! an amazing songwriter, obviously. kind of blows me away how much is packed into the three minutes of "sing me back home" without it seeming the least bit labored or self conscious. just perfect.

felt the script was too "dark."

"so i just changed a few names and it became the screenplay to patty hearst."

I'm finding the various reactions to his death oddly reassuring in their quiet reverence. No histrionics, no hyperbole, just deep, honest respect for a very rich body of work.

My neighbor just told me he went to the funeral.

met David Cantwell on Thursday. Sweet guy.

Oh yeah, you guys are all at EMP, iirc.