AUGUST 20, 2011
BRUCE A. BRENNAN BLOG FROM THE WORLD AND MY MIND
The news as I see it and the views as I want them.
August 20 is … National Radio Day
No steel guitar, no fiddle for Jim Reeves. The man who turned country into pop-country, becoming the first big country-crossover artist, and possibly, the most popular, w as born on this day in 1923 in Galloway, Panola County, Texas.
In his short life (he died in a plane crash near Nashville in 1964), Jim Reeves played minor-league baseball hoping to pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals (that career was ended by an injury), was a radio announcer and an entertainer (Louisiana Hayride), and had more than forty top-ten country hits and over two dozen in the pop Hot 100.
His second release, Mexican Joe, was #1 and was quickly followed by the #2 hit, Bimbo. He wrote and performed the hits Yonder Comes a Sucker, Am I Losing You, and I’m Getting Better. A slew of #2 hits, including Losing Your Love, Adios Amigo, I’m Gonna Change Everything and Welcome to My World were only slightly overshadowed by the number ones, Billy Bayou, He’ll Have to Go, I Guess I’m Crazy and his biggest pop and country hit, Four Walls.
‘Gentleman’ Jim Reeves was elected posthumously to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1967, with his fans continuing to make his songs into #1 hits. From 1964 through 1967, there was This is It, Is It Really Over?, Distant Drums, Blue Side of Lonesome, I Won’t Come in While He’s There. Singers Deborah Allen and Patsy Cline did duets with Reeves through the magic of electronic recording. Deborah sang Take Me in Your Arms and Hold Me with Reeves for a 1980 hit, and Cline sang with Reeves’ voice in the 1981 hit, Have You Ever Been Lonely?
Tonight, if you watch TV, you’ll have a pretty good chance to buy a Jim Reeves record collection off a commercial selling Reeves on CD or cassette.
We lost you, Gentleman Jim, but we’ll never lose your music.
Deaths that occurred on August 20th; 1804 Charles Floyd only fatality of the Lewis & Clark Expedition.
Just a few quotes from Charles Manson over the years to reflect on over the week-end. They prove this guy is where he belongs although I would prefer he be on the other side of the grass;
I know more about the economy, more about money, more about the government than any ten presidents you got. you know, in other words, I've sit in solitary confinement and I've watched everything you guys do, and the truth is you're all lying to yourselves, you know. "
"I'm real with you. I don't pretend. I'm not bringing you a bunch of phony garbage. I'm not trying to tell you that I'm a good guy. I'm just myself, whatever that is. I believe in God and I do the best I can everyday by everybody I can, you know. When something bad comes up, I react bad to it, you know. I can fight. I can't read and write too good, but boy I can fight. You wouldn't believe how I could fight because I've been fighting ail my life to survive, and I live right on that edge of survival, you know. I just survive. I play a little music when I'm allowed to. I draw real good, but they took my pencils. Everything I do, if I can do it real good, they'll take it away from me. I used to do- make little dolls of strings, then he come took the string. So I'm not allowed to do anything. I don't have any clothes. I haven't combed my hair in two, three years, you know, I can't comb my hair. I can't do that."
"Remember the old movie where the piper - the pied piper, they said you play all the rats into the river and that they would pay you. And then the people never paid the piper so they always kept losing their children. Well, you've lost six generations of children to me, because you won't pay me what you owe me. Because I didn't break no law. I didn't kill nobody. I didn't tell nobody to get killed. "
"I influenced a lot of people, unbeknownst to my own understanding of it. I didn't understand the fears of the people outside. I didn't understand the insecurities of people outside. I didn't understand people outside. And a lot of things that I said and did effected a lot of people in a lot of different directions. It wasn't intentional and it definitely wasn't with malice or aforethought."
You've been using me ever since I was ten years old. You used to beat me with leather straps, you know. It's like, does anyone have any remorse that I've spent 23 years in a solitary cell and even on Devils Island, you didn't keep anyone over five years. You broke every record that they've ever set in the planet Earth. You only kept Christ on the cross three days.
Just a couple of thoughts I had and you should too or at least think about.
BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2011
VISIT ANY OF THE SITES LISTED FOR REVIEW, RESEARCH, ORDERING MY WRITING PRODUCTS OR TO CONTACT ME.
Email: brucebrennanlaw@aol.com
Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan. It is still a good time to purchase any of my books. The books are interesting and inexpensive reads. My third book should be available later this year, in late 2011. More information will be forthcoming.
www.ebookmall.com (Do search by my name or book Title)
www.barnesandnoble.com (do a quick search, Title, my name)
www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search.
Book Titles:
Holmes the Ripper
A Revengeful Mix of Short Fiction
"The short words are best, and the old words are the best of all." - Winston Churchill
