Entertainment For Lively Minds
Hank Williams
Posted by Huw Williams on 22 September 2008 - 10:13pm.
I've just picked up in a charity shop a biography of Hank Williams called Lovesick Blues, by Paul Hemphill.I haven't read many music bios, and usually find them disappointing. Hank seems like a character worth finding out about, so if anyone knows this one, please tell me; is it worth reading?
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Not bad
I read this a while ago and enjoyed it. Not the best biography but not the worst either.There is a fantastic one I bought in America years ago. I'll search it out and tell you the title.
Thanks
very much
The best one...
...is by Chet Flippo. "Your Cheatin' Heart".
Agreed.
Chet Flippo ( great name! ) also wrote an infamous biog of McCartney which is out of print but worth a read if you can find it. It does for the doe-eyed cute one what Goldman did for Lennon.
That's the one I've got
And very good it is too.
But you've already bought yours, Huw. Might as well read it now, then let us know what you think.
The opening chapter...
...in the Hemphill is a fabulous piece of writing about the author & his father, which I read in a magazine some years back & always wanted to find again so I was delighted when it popped up here.
The rest of the book covers the ground pretty well, but not in much detail; easy to read though & entertaining.
I think the best one for detail is Colin Escott's "Hank Williams: A Biography" - very well done indeed.
Between these two you'll have a reason to go out & buy Hank's entire catalogue which, thanks to the miracle of copyright law, will now cost you about thruppence...
Also worth thinking about are Don Cusic's collected Hank lyrics, which really shows you what sparse masterpieces the songs are, & Escott's "Snapshots From The Lost Highway", a collection of marvellous photos & ephemera.
correct
That's the one.
Begging to Differ in the Chet Flippo Biog
It's entirely a matter of personal taste, but I didn't enjoy the Chet Flippo book. He adopted the style of presenting many supposed events in Hank's life as written dialogue between characters, when there was no way he could have been party to what was actually said. This extends to him putting country talk into the mouths of the characters, like
"Irene, where's Skeets at?"
"He run off, Mamma."
"He's gonna get a good hidin'. Go cut me a switch."
or
Lilly wiped a tear away and thought "Lord, those niggers can sing."
Finding it hard to believe that they really did speak in Grandpa Simpson-like ole-time cliches, I came to wonder, if he made up the dialogue, how much else did he make up?
For me at any rate, the unecessary adoption of this narrative style undermined the credibility of the material as a whole. I don't need facts to be dressed up as cheap fiction to maintain my interest.
I'll Save You Some Time..
Bloke Sings Songs.
Bloke Dies.