A Letter To Faron Young (MP3s)

Twelve years ago today the world of country music suffered a terrible loss when singer Faron Young, suffering from prostate problems and emphysema, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound at age 64.  Young's career got started in Shreveport, Louisiana where he rose to prominence on the famed Louisiana Hayride.  By the time he was drafted into the army in 1952, Young had signed a contract with Capitol Records and relocated to Nashville.  His debut effort for the label, Goin' Steady, went to #2 on the Billboard country charts, the first of almost 90 songs he eventually placed in the Top 100.

Young's pure country voice gave life to an amazing list of honky-tonk classics like I've Got Five Dollars And It's Saturday Night, Three Days, If You Ain't Lovin' You Ain't Livin', A Place For Girls Like You, Hello Walls, Sweet Dreams, Your Times Comin', and Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young to name but a handful.

Today's Faron Young salute starts off with a late 60s goofball tribute 45 by Rod Harris, who writes a letter to Faron begging for a slot in Faron's band.  That's followed up with a couple of my personal favorites recorded by Faron himself.  First up is Face To The Wall (1959) and that's followed by a number that defines the term "honky-tonk" as well as any song I can think of, Wine Me Up, released in 1969.

Rod Harris  -  A Letter To Faron Young  (2:06)

Faron Young  -  Face To The Wall  (2:23)

Faron Young  -  Wine Me Up  (2:30)

Thanks to YouTuber m900mwk for posting the Faron Young clip, I Just Came To Get My Baby Out Of Here, from the program Billy Walker's Country Carnival.  That's Jimmy Crawford on the pedal steel guitar.  And dig that sensational twin fiddle sound, too!

And here are five fine Faron photos from the LIFE magazine archive:  #1, #2, #3, #4, and  #5. Thanks go to Don Julio Blanco for pointing these out, along with scores of other music-related pictures in the archive.

Comments

[myreccollection]

A lot of us who grew our musical knowledge during the '80s first learned of Faron Young via the English band Prefab Sprout:

[Krys O.]

Phil Ochs idolized Faron Young.

[King Daevid MacKenzie]

...in fact, there's a photo in one (more?) of those Ochs biographies of Phil and Faron, each grinning their respective asses off, in seats on Faron's tour bus sometime circa '73...

[R. Stevie Moron]

GREAT POSTING! my country ass *always* cherished the sheriff. doncha know that happiness is a warum gunn...

[cover letter samples]

thanks for the nice youtube video. It is really incredible.