TAMMY WYNETTE – “Stand By Your Man”
I only have a surface-skimming knowledge of country music, but it’s pretty obvious what’s great about it: songs about grown-up situations and emotions, with clear, well-turned lyrics, whose singers often have gorgeous, expressive voices – what’s to dislike? But stereotypes stick to the genre – particularly at an ocean’s distance: sentiment, traditionalism, religiosity, a willingness to be trite or didactic. These are big hurdles for a lot of listeners, though none of them is as true, as often as the people who utterly dismiss country might imagine. None of them are even a deal-breaker for me – something I like about country is that I can disagree with what’s in a song at the same time as I enjoy it.
Country is a near-total absence from British charts now: in the 1970s, though, there was a clear market for it and the big hits did extremely well – especially if, as in this case, they had year to build up demand before an eventual release. I didn’t know, coming to write this entry, that “Stand By Your Man” wasn’t a 1975 hit, and knowing that Wynette and George Jones divorced in the mid-70s I’d heard bitterness in its tears, and its lyrics that essentially present men as helpless, defective children. My Dad, who loves the song, used to chuckle over Wynette’s multiple real-life marriages, understanding that the pleasure in country lies partly in how it briefly, artfully paints a life and situation in a few minutes. Whether the singer lived the song didn’t seem to be the point.
I may enjoy country but ultimately I don’t share its sensibilities: the lachrymose wobbles and almost-cracks in the vocal do feel over-the-top to me, and the record can’t quite win freshness back from crushing over-familiarity. But the sardonic, wounded intensity of Wynette’s performance is a keeper whether it’s your first time hearing it or your thousandth.
6
Throughout my posts I have made a few references to country and have many fave artists that are deemed country. Lyle Lovett being one of them and, as cited above he does a fabulous cover of this song.
I like country for 2 reasons. Songwriting and musicianship.
I have always been drawn to well written songs and I find that country music places songwriting first. You may not agree with or like the subject matter but , usually, songs are well crafted. Here I am talking about Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakem , Hank WIlliams , Bob Dylan , Jessie WInchester,George Staight,and legions of others for whomn the song comes first.
In listening and seeing a good few country acts I have seen players and singers ( many unknown session players ) that could peel the frets off any guitar and would make the likes of Jimmy Page and Clapton pray for mercy.
In knowing the that the song is the thing the players of country music approach each song with a reverence not always afforded in rock or pop.
Of course , many will here definitions of New Country and Classic country but the 2 guiding principals seem always to be in in tact. good songs – played well.
I once had the pleasure to be in Fort Worth , Texas with a day off. I went to the Stockyards Festival ( where Billy Bob’s saloon is )and I saw about 10 acts that completely blew me away – none of which I knew at the time but the day was glorious, music direct and the playing more than accomplished. I wouldn’t trade that day for a day Glastonbury……
Does Bob Dylan really count as “country” apart from two albums in the late sixties?
Yes! He er “stars” in Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid = he will always be hopalong bob to me
Does Dylan fit into any category ?
Bah, Dylan is rogue popist element in Club Peckinpah.
he is the zero in every chart
Only if you consider the zero to be equivalent to the “O” in Ornette.
also: GOTH (“where black is the colour”)
why yes i do have something urgent to finish at work right now why do you ask?
GOTH < GOTW (i.e. “Go to the window” McKern to Ringo).
As this entry seems to have come to dead stop, thought I’d post this from todays Guardian……
What was the worst year in rock history? One contender is 1960, the middle of the dead zone between rock’n'roll’s decline and the Beatles’ rise. The late Tony Wilson always maintained it was 1975, telling interviewers that it was “almost impossible to remember how awful music was” in a year when the charts were variously topped by Billy Connolly, Telly Savalas and Typically Tropical’s Barbados, the latter featuring the ever-delightful sound of white British session musicians doing here-come-de-Lilt-man West Indian accents.
NO SPOILERS!! :)
Popular commenteers waiting for the next entry (tomorrow I hope) are advised to go vote in Europop 2008 – still up on the FT front page! Hotfish Porky needs your support (or hate).
Brian xpost:
To be perfectly honest I would much prefer to slice my ears off with a Woolworths chainsaw and eat the debris with arsenic sauce than have to read another word that execrable cacafuego writes.
Petridis is the worst example of the self-satisfied UK broadsheet music writing corpus, viz. “I couldn’t hack it as a magazine editor/TV presenter so now I’m going to seep my smug spite into every pathetic little first grade level ‘analysis’ I write and spit fretloads of envy towards people whose writing I secretly wish to emulate while still pretending I’m in a tower far above them.”
If you read further down that piece, he can’t even get the year right – breakbeat garage and Elbow both came to prominence in 2001 and no doubt he’ll do his usual carping about anality but if you’re going to talk about worst years in music then you have to be year-exact. That’s when he’s not wasting his time trying to belittle me in GQ magazine without even having the guts to name me.
It’s that sort of thing which made me glad that I didn’t pursue a full-time writing career, since if that’s the kind of monster it would have turned me into then I had a narrow escape.
There is no such thing as a worst year in music, though there are times when things wane – but even then, there are always good things, you just have to look for them harder…it all depending, of course, on what you like in the first place. Such common understandings as this are not likely to cause much in the way of blog hits/comments though, so M. Petridis has no interest in peddling them – from the above comment I think he either doesn’t know or care about accuracy in general…I wonder how much of his writing is done on the fly…
And even if it was a let’s-just-say battle of bad years, 1975 isn’t (from my US perspective) a bad one at all. Just today I heard “Fly, Robin, Fly” and heard the ghost of New Pop to come, for instance. And there are songs to come this year that are (as I think I’ve said before!) almost indescribable…
When I think of this song, I am reminded of the fact that the women’s movement in the UK and in the US were running along similar lines chronologically, with the UK actually ahead in the 60s – though there is always a difference between what the government enables through law and the social world, the culture (nature?) of a country. “I Am Woman” famously made it to #1 as the 70s began, but was unknown in the UK – that is a song which has “yes, I am wise/but it’s wisdom born from pain/yes I’ve paid the price/but look how much I’ve gained – If I have to, I can do anything.” “Stand By Your Man” sings Tammy, close to breaking down, her own pain in her voice for all to hear, her own wisdom coming out of that pain. In some ways, the Helen Reddy anthem grows naturally out of Tammy’s song, but I am sure if in 1975 the women of the UK (I can’t imagine many men buying this, though I’m sure some did) were listening and nodding with their own wisdom. I’m glad Tammy finally left that relationship and I hope she found a better one – certainly with the KLF she got the respect she deserved, even if the crown she wore in the video was too heavy…
I think that at any given point in pop history there’s always something really exciting going on somewhere, and what fluctuates is how close the interesting stuff happens to the cultural mainstream. And you can’t have a better barometer of the cultural mainstream in pop than the best selling song!
I thought( in terms of mainstream/pop/chart music at least)2007 was pretty awful actually- in even the other supposed “lowpoints” -’60, 75 etc etc- u could (and i have done)at the very least knock together a great cd or comp tape of the best “big hits”of the year. But last year was a real struggle- am i just getting old or was i merely listening in the wrong places?
I commend those of you who are still seeking out “big hits of the year” in 2007 and 2008. Not so, me. If such music is not played by Bruce/Vine/Wright, it would simply not appear on my radar. Feedings via the Today programme (my wake-up staple) are also more than a tad rare.
Crag – I have no idea what age you are but you are never too old to pursue an interest in popular music. This certainly is no less a crime than those of us in early middle age doing exactly what we are doing here on this project and enjoying it.
Appreciate the comments Waldo (I’m 34 btw)-obviously i still love popular music(wouldnt be here if i didnt)and am continually discovering ‘new’ tracks- albiet usually ones recorded during the previous century! I do think the current pop scene is going thru a rather fallow patch at the mo but then again i’m sure plenty felt the same way in the mid-70s- little knowing what was round the corner…
IMO any real music lover should always keep an eye on the current charts to find out whats happening in the same way they should try to investigate as many different genres as poss- just to expand their knowledge and enjoyment of music in general. I may not enjoy Pussycat Dolls for example but at least i know enough about their music to have an opinion.
Waldo, IIRC youv said in previous posts you are planning to “leave” us when we reach the 80s- please reconsider. I enjoy ur comments and besides, it may result in you discovering some great new music from a period you had previously ignored or dismissed.
Sorry, we’re getting a bit ahead of our ourselves…
Waldo, if you really do listen to Ken Bruce regularly then you are hearing what’s popular right now. Not the complete picture, sure, but more than a taste.
Between the ages of about 12 and 27 I knew almost everything that was going on in pop at the time, but – unless you’re a Simon Reynolds type miracle man – that does tend to fade as you realise that it takes an awful lot of effort, you’re interested in other things than popular music, and you get more and more interested in things that happened before your time.
Also, most of the sources of my routine for following pop have gone; Melody Maker, Smash Hits, John Peel, Top of the Pops!
I’m glad that I’ve had that youth of avidly following and investigating events and trends of the day, because its carried over into how I think about and respond to music later in life. But these days I tend to think that if anything exciting is going on, it’ll probably come to my attention at some later stage.
“Also, most of the sources of my routine for following pop have gone; Melody Maker, Smash Hits, John Peel, Top of the Pops!”
Excellent point, BS. I feel part of the problem is, while its easier than ever to hear new music(downloads, Youtube etc etc) its now much harder to get exposure to any new stuff by accident, in passing such as TV or radio. Music seems much less an intrinsic part of peoples everyday lifes than it was even 5 years ago.
The other problem is the fact that, since the inclusion of downloads, the top 40 has slowed down in terms of new entries, chart climbers and fallers and so on to such an extent that they seem to be in genuine danger of freezing altogether, with the same 40 tracks in the chart for months on end, swapping places occassionally.Mark Ronson’s “Valerie” celebrated its 25th week in the charts this week! No suprise u can get a little jaded…
Jeff – I accept that Ken Bruce does indeed lob in music from today, which is why I knew “Mercy”. I have to say that when I do listen to Radio 2, I tend to pick up the Bruce/Vine divide and then Wrighty if I’m in the car. But, of course, the amount of modern stuff played is microscopic in comparison to regulation pop stations.
Billy makes the other point perfectly. There comes a time (perhaps I should say that there came a time for me) that you garner interests in other area with a corresponding disinterest in music of the day. This is particularly true, as Billy says, when your sources vanish and the friends with whom you associate with following pop/rock move on also.
Crag – Thanks for your kind words. But I really will be ducking out after “Another Prick Has A Fall” (so appropriate for my departure), simply because 1979 saw the end of not only my official childhood but my innocence too and I feel that it is a good time to get out. Plenty of fun to be had before then, though. It’s still only 1975!
In one of the early editions of the Guinness Book of Hit Singles, Tim Rice made the very astute observation that after about the age of eighteen the sheep very distinctly get separated from the goats in terms of pop music; most relegate it to a background role in their lives but some of us continue to want to follow it and find out as much about it as possible as it is happening.
Then of course there is Danny Baker’s telling remark that “something bad always happens to music when you’re 26.”
With the downloads, the charts are actually settling back down to the way they used to be, when 30-40 week runs were not uncommon. I do like the sense of stability but what hasn’t returned with the new chart setup is the thrill of following the race, i.e. your favourite act entering at a low position (because even by 1975 standards, records very rarely made first-week top ten debuts) and then watching them strive to climb as high as possible, and if you’re exceptionally lucky even get to number one. Too often now, future number ones get telegraphed so far ahead that even Stevie Wonder could see them coming.
I hadn’t heard that Danny Baker quote before, but darn right something bad happened to music when I was 26. In my case (and Mike’s, since he’s outed himself age-wise as well) what happened was 1988. I caught Dale doing the 1988 top 20 yesterday (“you were all loving listening to Rick Astley”) and it wasn’t pretty.
Crikey, Marcello – when were 30-40 week chart runs “not uncommon”? Anything over 15 was very impressive, and 30 would have got you onto the Guinness Book’s “longest runners” list. No doubt the long runs now are due to the download factor, as witness the revival towards the end of the year of the year’s biggest hits as people downloaded them for parties I guess. I noticed one week Rihanna had three top 40 singles all going up in the same week. So can anyone who still monitors the chart week-by-week (as I stopped doing in 1988!) give us the week-by-week placings for the likes of “Umbrella”, “Valerie”, “Rockstar” and the other long stayers?
I don’t monitor the charts every single week- simply for the reason i outlined above- the vast majority of the songs in the chart rundown i heard yesterday were also in the chart the last time i listened at the start of Feb!
I remember reading that one year in the mid 90s( cant recall which) was the first in chart history to have more than 1000 new chart entries. The top 40 in the 90s was a very fastmoving time- it seemed an achievement if a song hung around for more than a month and a half. It was at times frustrating and more than a little bewildering but it at least had the advantage that if you didnt like the tracks in the charts at the moment then dont worry, there would be another batch along in a minute or two.
Obviously the record companies must be lapping up the current chart climate- not only do they not have to spend cash physically manufacturing cds anymore but if people are going to keep buying the same music for 6 months at a time then theres no need for them to shell out on recording new stuff. The music itself will surely be the victim- the Beatles made the leap from Help! to Strawberry Fields in the space of 18 months- nowadays in that same timescale Duffy will probably manage to go from releasing the first single from her album to the third. A perhaps unfair comparison i know but still…
Ah, I’m glad you brought up the subject of yesterday’s Stalinist rewriting of history that was POTP March 1988 since unfortunately I have a major axe to grind about this.
For me the charts of that period had some bloody miraculous moments and Dale managed to miss out nearly all the best of them. I don’t see how Radio 2 can continue to bury its head in the demographic sand and pretend that dance music, hip hop, House, indie etc. didn’t happen. Eric B, Bomb the Bass, Coldcut, the Primitives, even Eddy Grant’s anti-apartheid anthem – where were they? Whereas the migraine-inducing likes of Bros, ballad Whitney, Taja Sevelle and white-bread Aswad were there in abundance, no doubt to the joy of all the Phil Collins and Rod Stewart fans who allegedly are the programme’s core listenership (given how often they are played).
There were moments of wonder – especially “I’m Not Scared” by Eighth Wonder which might be the eighth greatest pop single ever made – and also Kylie, Vanessa P and Belinda C, but the broadcast was a sham. Remember how the thrill of the Sunday chart rundown lay in the inherent conflict – in that you’d sit through dreary Dr Hook or Elkie Brooks ballads in the knowledge that there was an Ian Dury or a Buzzcocks coming up soon? Well, POTP is increasingly like a chart rundown where you just get the boring bits (or as old Roly Barthes called it, “studium”).
They also did a loveless, partial rundown of the March 1963 chart, the inadequacies of which were thrown into even starker relief when compared with Mike Sweeney’s broadcast of the same chart on Capital Gold the previous Sunday – Top 20 played in full, most of 21-30 also played and an Actual Person Who Was In The Chart in the studio (Joe Brown), and it really gave you a far truer feel of what that time must have felt like.
Also Capital Gold have ventured as far as 1988 before, and they apply the same policy; all hits are equal so you get your Glenn Medeiros and your Sinitta but also “Follow The Leader” and “Don’t Believe The Hype.”
March 1988 was a great time for me and I strongly resent my musical memories from that period being swept under the R2 bed as though they counted for nothing.
(oh, and one more thing; Dale made a big show yesterday about “Please Please Me” being the OFFICIAL number two but I’m with Rosie on this; it was number one on every other chart and Paul, Ringo and George Martin continue to regard it as their first chart topper so :-P to the BBC, basically)
*pause for breath, count to ten, etc.*
30+ week runs were a fairly common feature of the chart from their inception (and 20+ week runs even more so) and particularly in terms of the huge crossover MoR ballads of the sixties I think you’ll find several conspicuous long runs, not the least of which was the 122-week residency of Sinatra’s “My Way”; you don’t get very many in the seventies (though Boney M did 40 weeks with “Rivers Of Babylon/Brown Girl In The Ring” and so did Dawn with “Tie A Yellow Ribbon”) but in the early-mid eighties there’s a comeback with marathons like “Blue Monday,” “Relax,” “White Lines,” the Jennifer Rush “Power Of Love” and others. Even Gareth’s ghastly “Unchained Melody” did 30 weeks amidst the quick-change charts of 2002.