I was so busy visiting and attending parties during the first week or so of the new year that I did not post anything until January 12th. I was in no condition to post on January 1st, not because of anything I had done on December 31st, but because my lovely bride and I had miles and miles to go before we slept, as it were. One of the topics I intended to blog about was that Hank Williams left this life on January 1, 1953. Since I did not post on New Year's Day, I will post this today.
My love of Hank Williams and his songs did not start with any of the "fad" movies that come out every decade or so, and each time, garner a new generation of Hank Williams fans. Many of these fans like the "movie version" of Hank Williams, but when they hear actual recordings of Hank, they gulp and look around sheepishly, thinking to themselves "HE sounded like THAT?!" Next day they are not Hank Williams fans anymore.
I was about four or five years old when I consciously began liking Hank Williams and his style of country music. My dad was a country music singer and songwriter (you have never heard him on the radio, trust me) who had a huge collection of country vinyl. And a big part of the stack was Hank Williams. The very first song of Hank's that I really liked a lot was a song I thought was so funny. It was about a guy who had to stay out in the dog house with his "little dog" because the man's wife was a little upset with him. "She's changed the lock on my front door...my door key don't work no more..." Now, at that tender age I did not understand the true crux of the song, I just thought it was funny that Hank had to sleep out there with his dog, so "slide it on over...move it on over!" "move over little dog, 'cause a Big Dog's movin' in!" Such was the mind of this child!
As I got a little older and began to understand the meaning of the songs, I really loved his songs like "Cold, Cold Heart," "Your Cheatin' Heart," and "Ramblin' Man." To this day I still love all these songs, and many others, including "Hey Good Lookin'," "Kaw-liga," and "Settin' the Woods On Fire." There were so many good ones, like "I Saw The Light," "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," and "Half As Much As I Love You," just to name some of my favorites.
Hank Williams packed a lot of living into twenty-nine short years, a lot of loving, and lot of losing love. In the few years that he was a singer, he was able to influence country music so much that even in this new century Hank Williams is still larger than life. Singers that rose to heights before him, and singers that came after him, were touched and changed in some way by his music. And like many a singer, Hank Williams lived out the songs that he sang.
I confess that there was one of his songs that I did not like so much until recently, a song called "The Lost Highway." I am not sure why I did not relate to this particular song as a young man, when I liked most of his music so much. But there was something about this song and the way Hank sang it that made me shy away, to put the words out of my mind. That was a long time ago, when
"I was just a lad, nearly twenty two...
Neither good nor bad, just a kid like you..."
Three decades later, and I almost think Hank sang this song about me. The road I have taken through life has, in some ways, not been the road I would have preferred. There have been some bad decisions, some train wrecks, along the way. There has been a lot of hurt and pain that I caused. I had no intentions, but I started down that Lost Highway.
Listen to these words in your mind:
I'm a rollin' stone all alone and lost
For a life of sin I have paid the cost
When I pass by all the people say
Just another guy on the lost highway
Just a deck of cards and a jug of wine
And a woman's lies makes a life like mine
On the day we met, I went astray
I started rolling down that lost highway
I was just a lad, nearly twenty-two
Neither good nor bad, just a kid like you
And now I'm lost, too late to pray
Lord I paid the cost, on the lost highway
Now boys don't start to ramblin' round
On this road of sin or you're sorrow bound
Take my advice or you'll curse the day
You started rollin' down that lost highway
Hank Williams, in fact, did not write this song. Another country star, Leon Payne, wrote the song and released it in 1948. Leon was a great song-writer, but not that great of a singer. Possibly he wrote this song out of wisdom, or possibly he wrote it out of his own experience. But there is no doubt that it came along at just the right time to be picked up by Hank Williams. Hank released this song in 1950, and though he did not write it, he surely lived it. And he sincerely meant all the words he sang, especially the last verse.
When Hank Williams released his cover of "The Lost Highway," he had only two and a half years left on this earth. Did he somehow know his time was short? Had he learned somehow that he would not live to see his thirtieth birthday? I don't know, but his life was hard, mostly because of his own decisions. He chose to drink excessively, he chose to use drugs, and he chose to live a life that strained and broke his love's heart. Miss Audrie loved him but found it so hard to live with him.
Whether or not Hank had some sort of premonition about the end of his life, he made "The Lost Highway" his own, and it truly became the song that defined his life. This song defines the lives of many others as well. Now (as Hank Williams, Jr. once sang) I think I know what Hank meant when he sang about "Lost Highways." Both Hank Jr. and I outlived Hank Sr., but neither of us will outlive Hank's music. And if there is some advice I can offer to anyone who would be crazy enough to take it from me, it would include this:
Now boys don't start to ramblin' round
On this road of sin or you're sorrow bound
Take my advice or you'll curse the day
You started rollin' down that lost highway
So there you have it...my tribute to one of the greatest influences on country music. Hank Williams died on January 1, 1953, over sixty years ago, and several years before I was born. Yes, Hank...I think I know what you meant when you sang about lost highways...
RIP, Hank Williams...
And may God Bless America
My love of Hank Williams and his songs did not start with any of the "fad" movies that come out every decade or so, and each time, garner a new generation of Hank Williams fans. Many of these fans like the "movie version" of Hank Williams, but when they hear actual recordings of Hank, they gulp and look around sheepishly, thinking to themselves "HE sounded like THAT?!" Next day they are not Hank Williams fans anymore.
I was about four or five years old when I consciously began liking Hank Williams and his style of country music. My dad was a country music singer and songwriter (you have never heard him on the radio, trust me) who had a huge collection of country vinyl. And a big part of the stack was Hank Williams. The very first song of Hank's that I really liked a lot was a song I thought was so funny. It was about a guy who had to stay out in the dog house with his "little dog" because the man's wife was a little upset with him. "She's changed the lock on my front door...my door key don't work no more..." Now, at that tender age I did not understand the true crux of the song, I just thought it was funny that Hank had to sleep out there with his dog, so "slide it on over...move it on over!" "move over little dog, 'cause a Big Dog's movin' in!" Such was the mind of this child!
As I got a little older and began to understand the meaning of the songs, I really loved his songs like "Cold, Cold Heart," "Your Cheatin' Heart," and "Ramblin' Man." To this day I still love all these songs, and many others, including "Hey Good Lookin'," "Kaw-liga," and "Settin' the Woods On Fire." There were so many good ones, like "I Saw The Light," "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry," and "Half As Much As I Love You," just to name some of my favorites.
Hank Williams packed a lot of living into twenty-nine short years, a lot of loving, and lot of losing love. In the few years that he was a singer, he was able to influence country music so much that even in this new century Hank Williams is still larger than life. Singers that rose to heights before him, and singers that came after him, were touched and changed in some way by his music. And like many a singer, Hank Williams lived out the songs that he sang.
I confess that there was one of his songs that I did not like so much until recently, a song called "The Lost Highway." I am not sure why I did not relate to this particular song as a young man, when I liked most of his music so much. But there was something about this song and the way Hank sang it that made me shy away, to put the words out of my mind. That was a long time ago, when
"I was just a lad, nearly twenty two...
Neither good nor bad, just a kid like you..."
Three decades later, and I almost think Hank sang this song about me. The road I have taken through life has, in some ways, not been the road I would have preferred. There have been some bad decisions, some train wrecks, along the way. There has been a lot of hurt and pain that I caused. I had no intentions, but I started down that Lost Highway.
Listen to these words in your mind:
I'm a rollin' stone all alone and lost
For a life of sin I have paid the cost
When I pass by all the people say
Just another guy on the lost highway
Just a deck of cards and a jug of wine
And a woman's lies makes a life like mine
On the day we met, I went astray
I started rolling down that lost highway
I was just a lad, nearly twenty-two
Neither good nor bad, just a kid like you
And now I'm lost, too late to pray
Lord I paid the cost, on the lost highway
Now boys don't start to ramblin' round
On this road of sin or you're sorrow bound
Take my advice or you'll curse the day
You started rollin' down that lost highway
Hank Williams, in fact, did not write this song. Another country star, Leon Payne, wrote the song and released it in 1948. Leon was a great song-writer, but not that great of a singer. Possibly he wrote this song out of wisdom, or possibly he wrote it out of his own experience. But there is no doubt that it came along at just the right time to be picked up by Hank Williams. Hank released this song in 1950, and though he did not write it, he surely lived it. And he sincerely meant all the words he sang, especially the last verse.
When Hank Williams released his cover of "The Lost Highway," he had only two and a half years left on this earth. Did he somehow know his time was short? Had he learned somehow that he would not live to see his thirtieth birthday? I don't know, but his life was hard, mostly because of his own decisions. He chose to drink excessively, he chose to use drugs, and he chose to live a life that strained and broke his love's heart. Miss Audrie loved him but found it so hard to live with him.
Whether or not Hank had some sort of premonition about the end of his life, he made "The Lost Highway" his own, and it truly became the song that defined his life. This song defines the lives of many others as well. Now (as Hank Williams, Jr. once sang) I think I know what Hank meant when he sang about "Lost Highways." Both Hank Jr. and I outlived Hank Sr., but neither of us will outlive Hank's music. And if there is some advice I can offer to anyone who would be crazy enough to take it from me, it would include this:
Now boys don't start to ramblin' round
On this road of sin or you're sorrow bound
Take my advice or you'll curse the day
You started rollin' down that lost highway
So there you have it...my tribute to one of the greatest influences on country music. Hank Williams died on January 1, 1953, over sixty years ago, and several years before I was born. Yes, Hank...I think I know what you meant when you sang about lost highways...
RIP, Hank Williams...
And may God Bless America
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