Merle Haggard

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Merle Haggard, 2010

Merle Ronald Haggard (born April 6, 1937 in Bakersfield , California - † April 6, 2016 in Palo Cedro , California) was an American country musician and songwriter . He was one of the most important representatives of the Bakersfield Sound and had 38 number one hits on the Billboard Country Charts between the 60s and 80s such as Okie from Muskogee , Mama Tried , If We Make It Through December or Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star. Haggard was considered one of the best lyric poets in American songwriting and was nicknamed “Working man's poet” because of his lifelike, honest lyrics.

Life

Childhood and youth

Merle Haggard was born in Bakersfield in 1937. At that time, the parents and two siblings lived in a converted freight car in Oildale . His father worked for the Santa Fe Railroad and brought home a steady income. The family had lived in Oklahoma until shortly before Merle was born . In the 1930s, the existence of many farmers was threatened by the Great Depression and the dust storms in the so-called Dust Bowl . When the family's farmhouse burned down, they decided, like many others, to emigrate to California to find work in agriculture.

When Haggard was nine years old, his father died. While his mother worked to support the family, Haggard was placed with relatives. He ran away from home for the first time when he was ten. It went north on a freight train. At the age of twelve he taught himself to play the guitar. He began by re-enacting pieces by Bob Wills 'and Hank Williams ' and later became enthusiastic about the music of Lefty Frizzell . For several years he played almost without exception Frizell's songs and gradually adapted his style.

His first paid appearances were in Modesto in 1951 . He and a friend played for five dollars that evening. During those years, Haggard regularly came into conflict with the law and was repeatedly sent to juvenile prisons and reformatory institutions. In between he got by with smaller jobs. Among other things, he was a cook and a truck driver, and he made music. 1953 gave his idol Lefty Frizzell a concert in Bakersfield. Merle managed to play him a few songs. Frizell was so impressed that Haggard was allowed to perform with him that evening.

In 1957 Haggard was caught in a burglary and spent the next three years in San Quentin Prison , where he met Caryl Chessman, who was waiting for his execution on death row . There he saw Johnny Cash live on stage on January 1, 1958, at a concert for the inmates of the prison - it was Cash's first ever prison concert. Impressed by Cash and his music, Haggard started his music career after his prison sentence.

The first successes

Paroled in 1960, Haggard joined the Bakersfield country scene, which had grown immensely during his imprisonment. The rising star was Buck Owens , who shaped the Bakersfield Sound . Haggard played as a substitute in the Lucky Spot Club. There he befriended Fuzzy Owen, who would later become his manager. Owen owned a small record company. Haggard recorded their own composition Skid Row , which was published on the B-side of Owens Singin 'My Heart out . A total of 200 singles were pressed.

In 1962, Haggard went to Las Vegas to see a performance by Wynn Stewart . He had the opportunity to perform a few songs, after which Stewart accepted him into his band. Shortly afterwards, Haggard asked Stewart to record his new composition Sing a Sad Song himself. It became Haggard's second single, again produced by Fuzzy Owen, and it became a top twenty hit that established Haggard on the Bakersfield country scene. More records followed, which sold increasingly better. In 1965 he put together his own band: The Strangers. A member of the band was guitarist Roy Nichols , who is considered one of the most important musicians of the Bakersfield sound. Haggard had his first number 1 hit in 1966 with The Fugitive . In 1967 he reached the top of the country charts four times in a row, and in 1968 he topped the country charts for four weeks with the autobiographical Mama Tried .

Okie from Muskogee

In 1969 Haggard wrote the song Okie from Muskogee . Legend has it that the band toured the small town of Muskogee , Oklahoma, and some jokes were cracked about the name. The result was a song in which an Okie , a rural, white, poor American from Oklahoma with little education, rattles on the long-haired hippies who consume hashish and LSD and contrasts them with the values ​​of the conservative South American . In the time of the anti-Vietnam protests and the social upheaval, Haggard hit the nerve of the conservatives by reproducing the feelings of people who did not identify with the current development, but were irritated or repelled by it.

Before the song was recorded in the studio, Merle and his band performed it in a concert in Fort Bragg. The GIs were raging with enthusiasm. Merle Haggard later said that at that moment he felt that this song was something special and that it was the first time that it really reached his audience.

The song polarized accordingly: While the liberals accused Haggard of treason, conservative circles were enthusiastic about the song, Richard Nixon allegedly became his fan overnight. Haggard said several times in interviews that the song was actually meant ironically. Okie from Muskogee became a hit, not least because of its catchy melody, and Merle Haggard became a household name beyond the country community. Kinky Friedman , who described Haggard as a "great American poet", later parodied the song: He had the same melody (I'm Proud to Be an) Asshole from El Paso .

Further career

Merle Haggard (2009)

The first single after Okie From Muskogee , The Fighting Side of Me , was lyrically the same as the previous song : In it he criticized the opponents of the Vietnam War and denied them patriotism . The song also made it to the top of the charts. The success lasted until the mid-80s. His biggest hits during this period were If We Make It Through December (1973) and his duet with Willie Nelson , in which they performed Townes Van Zandt's Pancho and Lefty in 1985 . In total, Haggard had 38 number 1 hits in his career - his last one in 1987: Twinkle, Twinkle Lucky Star . In 1994 he appeared on the country charts for the last time during his lifetime with In My Next Life . That same year he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame .

In 2001 he made a small comeback with the respectable success of Roots Vol. 1 . Here an attempt was made, with a marketing concept similar to that of Johnny Cash's American Recordings , not to target the mainstream country charts, but to reach a younger audience that is more oriented towards independent music. In 2007 he brought out the album Working Man's Journey , which contains six new tracks and six old but unreleased tracks.

In November 2008, a malignant tumor had to be removed from his lungs . In early 2010 Haggard signed a new record deal with Vanguard Records , where his last album, Working in Tennessee , was released in October 2011 . In 2014 Suzy Bogguss recorded the tribute album Lucky in his honor . Haggard's last great success was in spring 2015 with the album Django and Jimmie , recorded together with Willie Nelson , which reached number 7 on the US album charts and number 1 on the Billboard country charts.

Merle Haggard died on April 6, 2016, his 79th birthday, in Palo Cedro, Shasta County , California of complications from pneumonia.

reception

Haggard managed to address audiences and critics alike with his voice for decades. His sparingly orchestrated and arranged songs appear authentic and unaffected. The Rolling Stone wrote: "Merle Haggard's tougher and yet gentle baritone was in the 60's and 70's the epitome of country music."

The specialist journalist Walter Fuchs once said: “Merle Haggard is exactly the type you would expect to be behind Johnny Cash. But while the so hard and brutal looking Cash only spent one night in a prison, the almost tender and very sensitive looking Haggard was behind bars for a total of seven years. "

The Rolling Stone listed him 77th of the 100 best singers and 33rd of the 100 best songwriters of all time .

Awards

Discography (selection)

  • Strangers (1965)
  • Just Between the Two of Us (1966)
  • Swinging Doors / The Bottle Let Me Down (1966)
  • I'm a Lonesome Fugitive (1967)
  • Sing Me Back Home (1968)
  • Legend of Bonnie & Clyde (1968)
  • Mama Tried (1968)
  • Introducing My Friends, the Strangers (1970)
  • Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player (1970)
  • Hag (1971)
  • Someday We'll Look Back (1971)
  • Let Me Tell You About a Song (1972)
  • It's Not Love (But It's Not Bad) (1972)
  • If We Make It Through December (1974)
  • Merle Haggard Presents His 30th Album (1974)
  • My Farewell to Elvis (1977)
  • I'm Always on a Mountain When I Fall (1978)
  • Serving 190 Proof (1979)
  • Back to the Barrooms (1980)
  • Big City (1981)
  • Going Where the Lonely Go (1982)
  • A Taste of Yesterday's Wine (1982)
  • Pancho & Lefty (1983)
  • Chill Factor (1988)
  • 5:01 Blues (1981)
  • Blue Jungle (1990)
  • All Night Long (1991)
  • 1994 (1994)
  • 1996 (1996)
  • If I Could Only Fly (2000)
  • HAG - The Best Of Merle Haggard (2006)
  • Back to the Barrooms (2006)
  • Last Of The Breed (with Ray Price and Willie Nelson, 2007)
  • The Bluegrass Sessions (2007)
  • I Am What I Am (2010)
  • Working in Tennessee (2011)
  • Django and Jimmie (with Willie Nelson , 2015)

literature

  • Shestack, Melvin: The Country Music Encyclopaedia . Omnibus Press, London / New York / Sydney 1977, pp. 91–95.
  • Stambler, Irwin / Landon, Grelun: Encyclopedia Of Folk, Country And Western Music . St. Martin's Press, New York / London 1969, pp. 121f.
  • Dellar, Fred / Thompson, Roy: The Illustrated Encyclopedia Of Country Music . Foreword by Roy Acuff. 2nd edition, Salamander Books, London 1979, p. 103.
  • Fuchs, Walter: History of Country Music. Centers, styles, resumes . Gustav Lübbe Verlag, Bergisch Gladbach 1980, p. 266.
  • Jeier, Thomas: The new lexicon of country music , Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, Munich 1992, pp. 186-189.
  • Erlewine, Michael u. a. (Ed.): All Music Guide to Country Music. The experts guide to the best recordings in country music . San Francisco, Cal .: Miller Freeman Books, 1997, pp. 189–195 (biography and annotated discography)

Web links

Commons : Merle Haggard  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Report on Haggard on history.com
  2. ^ Roland, Tom: The Billboard Book of Number One Country Hits . New York, NY: Billboard Books, 1991, p. 12.
  3. ^ Concert review Friedman 2015
  4. ↑ Lyrics of Asshole From El Paso
  5. ↑ Merle Haggard signs new record deal
  6. ↑ https://www.allmusic.com/album/lucky-mw0002608222
  7. ↑ Merle Haggard dead on his 79th birthday. (No longer available online.) In: foxnews.com. April 6, 2016, archived from the original on April 6, 2016 ; accessed on April 6, 2016 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.foxnews.com
  8. ↑ About Merle Haggard (Rolling Stone, German edition)
  9. ↑ Quote from Walter Fuchs on bluewings-countrytime.de
  10. ↑ 100 Greatest Singers of All Time. Rolling Stone , December 2, 2010, accessed August 7, 2017 .
  11. ↑ The 100 Greatest Songwriters of All Time. Rolling Stone , August 2015, accessed August 7, 2017 .
personal data
SURNAME Haggard, Merle
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Haggard, Merle Ronald (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American country musician and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH April 6, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Bakersfield , California , United States
DATE OF DEATH April 6, 2016
Place of death Palo Cedro , Shasta County , California , United States