Your Take: Country Music Tragedies

The biggest impact: it has to be Hank Williams. Who know what he could have achieved artistically given more time, given that the legacy he did leave makes him one of the lodestones of country music?

My first: Keith Whitley. It seemed like such a terible waste of talent, and a life.

It’s sad that both of these were basically self-inflicted.

I agree that Hank Williams’ death had the greatest effect on country music, but entirely not for the music he could have made. If anything, Hank has a larger presence in country music because he died young–and semi-mysteriously in the back of that Caddy–and in doing so created this legacy that still looms over country music today. For you bookish types, Colin Escott says it much better than I could in the HW biography, even going so far as to cite Housman’s “To An Athlete Dying Young.”

While I’m too young to actually remember any of these deaths, I think Hank Williams is certainly the biggest tragedy country music has seen. Keith Whitley’s similar demise is nearly as big a loss to the genre in my opinion.

Patsy Cline, Dottie West, and Oak Ridge Boy Steve Sanders deaths were also untimely.

The plane crash that claimed the lives of seven members of Reba McEntire’s band, her tour manager, the pilot, and co-pilot also cast a cloud over the country music community – but made way for one of the greatest albums ever, For My Broken Heart.

I would have to say Gram Parsons because of the impact he was starting to make and the impact he might have made later.

I don’t think any of the ones I listed had a big impact on the genre.

I was only 7 when Conway Twitty died. But I remember after he died when my parents would tuck me in at night and say my prayers I would always add that God take care of Conway Twitty too.

I agree that the biggest impact on the genre was the death of Hank Williams. The one that I actually first remember, though, was the murder of Stringbean and his wife. I watched Hee Haw weekly as a child. Around that same time (or maybe a little earlier), Johnny Cash did a “History of Country Music” on his show and he showed old film clips of deceased artists (which was not common at the time – remember, no YouTube). I remember that seeing Patsy Cline alive and singing actually haunted me for a time!

Like Juli said, from everything I’ve read, Hank’s enormous presence in country is largely [i]because[/i] of his untimely death.

Another person that comes to mind for me, although he’s not strictly country, is John Denver. My dad was a huge fan of his, so that news had a big impact for me.

SW–Absolutely love your Conway story. My mom ran into him in an airport once, and he kissed her on the cheek. That has become a legendary story in our family.

I remember when Waylon died. I hadn’t really gotten into his music at that point, but my dad was a huge fan. We were at Myrtle Beach, SC, for the weekend, and I remember coming up to the condo we were in and seeing him about a foot from the TV watching the breaking story on CNN. They were talking about his son Shooter, which is the first time I’d ever heard of him. I remember Dad saying what a loss that would be to country music. I didn’t know much about Waylon’s music then, but now I would give anything to have seen him in concert.

I think that week in March 1963 when Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, and Cowboy Copas died in a plane crash, followed a few days later by the death of Jack Anglin, has got to be one of the darkest, if not THE darkest week in country music history.

For deaths that occurred during my lifetime, the death of Keith Whitley has to be the most tragic, due to his young age and the senselessness of it. A co-worker and fellow country music enthusiast told me about it and I felt like I’d been punched in the gut.

Then, on June 5, 1993, my family was planning a surprise 50th birthday party for my dad. I was on my way to the 7-11 to buy a bag of ice when the word came over the radio that Conway Twitty had died. A wave of sadness just passed over me.

And then there was that night in April 1998 when I was getting ready to go to bed. I’ve always listened to the radio when I go to bed. I turned the radio on, right in the middle of “Stand By Your Man” and just knew instinctively that something bad had happened, because it was rare to hear the classics on country radio in the late 90s. When the song ended, the DJ came on and announced that it was “Stand By Your Man” by “the late Tammy Wynette.” I experienced the same feeling of loss that I’d felt with Conway’s passing. I’d grown up listening to both of them, and thought of country music without them was inconceivable. I still miss them.

As far as a death impacting the genre, rather than the impact of an artist who happened to have died, I’d say it has to go to Gram.

Hank and Patsy made clear and distinct contributions to the genre and though they would have continued to make amazing music, I can’t imagine that qualitatively it would have changed their impact much. Plus, Hank would have suffered the indignity of being left behind like many of his contemporaries were.

Meanwhile Gram was just hitting his stride, and though his musical precense still resonates (especially in Southern California), I think that given time he could have made an incredibly powerful impact on mainstream country music (which doesn’t really acknowledge him as a contributor). Who knows, if he’d have lived maybe we wouldn’t be talking about how big of an influence The Eagles had on country, maybe the influence would have been Country-Rock of the Parsons variety.

Emmylou Harris.

“Emmylou Harris.” ??????

She’s still with us.

Here’s some lesser known country tragedies that I remember:

Johnny Horton, best known for “The Battle of New Orleans” was killed instantly in a head-on collision with a drunk driver in Texas on Nov 5, 1960.

Jim Reeves, with hits like “He’ll Have to Go,” & “Four Walls” died when the small aircraft he was piloting crashed during a thunderstorm near Nashville, Tennessee in 1964.

““Emmylou Harris.” ??????

She’s still with us.”

She wasn’t being named as a dead country artist, she was being named as an answer to the question, “what changed in country music because of [Gram Parsons]?” It’s a good answer, but it’s also pretty much the only one, and that’s an indication of how modest his direct impact was.

I’m surprised and disappointed that no one’s mentioned the early death of Jimmie Rodgers with respect to impact on country music.

I would have to say the country music death that most affected my life would have to be Chris Ledoux. Coming from a family of rodeo cowboys, I have many a fond memory of the cab of a truck, with Chris Ledouxs music playing in the background. Ill never forget sitting in my dorm room and my brother calling me and breaking the news.

I don’t see it; he wasn’t a country artist at all, IMO. He was a rocker.

“If turning Harris on to country music was Parsons’s contribution to the genre, then his early death made no difference”

That’s a fair point – but you could argue that it was his death that released Emmylou to have her solo career, which was definitely influential in country music in many ways. I presume they would have stayed collaborators at least for a while, and maybe Emmylou never would have emerged as a solo act to be reckoned with.

Well, there are people–some possibly already mentioned above–for whom death was a terrific career move. I won’t speculate out loud as to what artists might have had larger reputations (or myths) if they’d checked out at points a lot earlier than they did, but you know that it would have happened for some. I think when we’re young all deaths same like huge tragedies–a little later, like inevitabilities, a piece of the cycle. Country music understands that, by the way–no matter how much it sentimentalizes the dead–which can be a lot.

I know this isnt a thread to discuss Gram Parsons to death, but my two cents is that he would have continued to do things half way like he always did. His problem was that he didnt have to succeed to eat, so why try hard enough to make it into work?

Barry M, it is said that the executives of a battered RCA were in a meeting discussing how they were going to keep their company alive when news of Elvis’ death broke the airwaves, and they actually cheered…