Post by Garland on Oct 28, 2020 12:54:27 GMT -5
This just adds to it
The heart and soul of the songs and words of the American country music Outlaw movement has passed on. Billy Joe Shaver, with only three fingers on his left hand and an 8th grade education, left an indelible mark on country music that will never be worn down. From writing all but one of the songs on the landmark, breakout album from Waylon Jennings—1973’s Honky Tonk Heroes—to beating the wrap for shooing a man in the face (in self-defense) near Waco in 2010, Billy Joe Shaver was the full embodiment of the “Outlaw” country icon and hero.
Billy Joe Shaver died on Wednesday, October 28th after suffering a massive stroke on the morning of October 27th significantly affecting his brain stem. They placed Shaver on life support, but he did not make it. He was 81 years old.
Billy Joe Shaver died on Wednesday, October 28th after suffering a massive stroke on the morning of October 27th significantly affecting his brain stem. They placed Shaver on life support, but he did not make it. He was 81 years old.
snip
“He’s mad as hell. And there’s a bunch of hangers on and groupies and people like that all up and down the hall. It was a long hall and it was almost like a gunfight deal. He comes out of there and he’s got two bikers on each side, and he says, ‘Hoss, what do you want?’ And I says, ‘I’ll tell you what I want … If you don’t listen to these songs, at least listen to them, I’m going to whip your ass right here in front of God and everybody.”
The rest is history. Waylon listened to one song, and then another, and then another, and decided to cut a whole album of them. “His songs were of a piece, and the only way you could ever understand Billy Joe was to hear his whole body of work,” Waylon said in his biography. “Billy Joe talked the way a modern cowboy would speak, if he stepped out of the West and lived today.”
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As y'all know, I'm a fan of Waylon and Willie- Willie's recent video of We Are The Cowboys grabbed me the way some songs do, so I ventured to you tube and found the original, and BOOM- it is now in my repertoire-