Buck's song is gone but not forgotten.
Buck Owens died today. He was 76. I always had a hard time reconciling the genius behind the mind-blowing country hits with the goofy guy on television's Hee Haw. The two personas seemed worlds apart. While Owens' patented Bakersfield sound will live forever, I fear that his musical contributions will be oversimplified in the days ahead. Owens kept mixing it up. Some of his songs, like the psychedelic "Who's Gonna Mow Your Grass," would fit in nicely on the Byrds' Younger Than Yesterday. And his songwriting could be as odd as Roger Miller's, as on the "The Kansas City Song." How hip is this keyboard intro?
2 comments:
i remember being blown away by dwight yoakam and then realised that a lot of his stuff was influenced by buck owens and his bakersfield sound. sad to see such a big light go out...thanks for this post..i will go and look out a few tracks to play to his memory..
Then, of course, there's the million dollars or so that Buck loaned Dwight when times were tough, collateralized against Dwight's song publishing. Buck was also a brilliant businessman!
Post a Comment