Everitt Corbin's Editorial

[Robert Leaman]

The following is an editorial that I rcvd from Everitt Corbin and I am thankful that he has given me permission to send it out to everyone. Everitt has the insight as to where country music once was and where it is going at this time. He has written a superb explanation of the problems of our music which have not just start taking place, as you can read from his article, they started a long, long time ago, and I guess me for one, just could not open my eyes to the reality that we would be in this darkened time of country music. All the Awards Shows with all of the politicians and rockers trying to get camera time for the waning careers, only slaps real country music in the face again. My personal congrats to Everitt for a great article that really hits home.

My Impossible Dream Comes True The Glory Days Of Country Music As I lived It...
By Everett Corbin

THE TEARING DOWN of COUNTRY MUSIC in Nashville began long before 1966, when I became editor of MUSIC CITY NEWS.

To put it in proper perspective, perhaps I can best recount these sad happenings by taking a few lines from my book:

STORM OVER NASHVILLE: A Case Against Modern Country Music (1980)

In fact, let's begin with paragraph 1 , chapter 1:

A CONSPIRACY TO KILL COUNTRY MUSIC?

"This could be Nashville's epitaph: Here lies what was once known as the Country Music Capitol of the World:

"Once upon a time, a beautiful city stood on the banks of the Cumberland River in Middle Tennessee. Known as 'The Athens of the South,' it gradually acquired a new name: COUNTRY MUSIC CAPITOL OF THE WORLD! Then something happened to shatter that tranquil and peaceful setting. The singers, musicians, songwriters and others involved in the
music industry DREAMED of immortality. They would CREATE a 'new music' which would appeal to ALL THE PEOPLE! No longer would it be called hillbilly, folk, country-western, or even 'modern' country music. It would be identified simply as:

"MUSIC"

But helping this all along was the attitude of the elite in Nashville, who disdained the music, not wanting anything to do with the early traditional country music as ushered in by George D. Hay and the original Grand Ole Opry. In other words, the atristocrats of both the Old and the New South reveled in the Glory of a city more attuned to The Parthenon, Vanderbilt and those big sounding names than the simplicity inherent in the country music of the times. The name "hillbilly" was foreign to their
ears, and, if they could root it out, so much the better.

And so, from day one, the rich and powerful in Nashville fought country music tooth and nail. Some cases in point: As long as country music was growing, some large conglomerate would surely embrace it for a spell, as long as there was money to be made in the process. Remember THE GLORY DAYS OF COUNTRY MUSIC, in its heyday, with Hank Williams' music making such an impact upon popular music of the times, as Tony Bennet took Hank's COLD, COLD
HEART to the top of the charts? Ditto for Hank's other great hits: Frankie Laine and Jo Stafford
with HEY, GOOD LOOKIN', and Jo Stafford alone with: JAMBALYA!? And don't forget Patti Page and that giant, smash hit of ALL times: THE TENNESSEE WALTZ!

Or: The Everly Brothers with a slew of hits as written by Boudleaux and Felice Bryant, including:
WAKE UP, LITTLE SUSIE!

These were all published by Acuff-Rose Publications, at the time located at 2510 Franklin Rd., the same address I gravitated to in 1951 upon graduating from high school, and heading for Nashville in trying my wings on the musical stage of life. Of course most of us know that Acuff-Rose was co-owned by Roy Acuff and Fred Rose, and Fred Rose was the first great mentor for Hank Williams.

But before Roy Acuff died, he went looking for someone in the music industry who just might salvage the Acuff-Rose musical empire, and so deemed it expedient to sell to Gaylord Entertainment, if I have my facts correct here. At least we DO KNOW for a fact that Gaylord build the new Grand Ole Opry House, and then:

OPRYLAND, USA...only to later, yes:

TEAR IT DOWN!!!

Not only that, but also ALMOST tore down the old Ryman Auditorium, earlier the home of The Grand
Ole Opry. One of the great names in popular music, Dinah Shore (from the Nashville area, incidentally)
was MOST instrumental in fighting to save that great building and institution, while others in the country music industry itself remained silent!

And so we see from all of these diviting facts, that the country music industry in Nashville, itself, only fought for GREATER profits, with little fight to save our precious heritage of country music.

Surely the rich and powerful in Nashville must still be laughing with glee until this very day, as they
witness the destruction and TEARING DOWN OF COUNTRY MUSIC IN NASHVILLE. With the GREAT stars of country music dead and dying, and virtually NO ONE to help save this precious heritage, the stars who were left drifted away, being called to a new home, such as Branson, Mo., where the crowds still gathering in abundance, wanting something of the past which still had merit and some semblance of the GLORY that once existed in Nashville.

Today, the Opry still exists, but has lost its glitter. Those now coming to Nashvlle, especially from lands across the sea, still seek out the Opry, only to be disappointed in hearing the trash now up on that once coveted stage. And so they return home in sadness, telling their friends about their great leddown. And so less and less of the former fans wish to come to America, and especially to Nashville, where they are given a sad taste of the descreation of the music.

But, in all of this, I , too, continue on in great sadness, as I can only recall:

THE GLORY DAYS OF COUNTRY MUSIC (As I Lived It) from afar. Will its TRUE "glory" ever be revived? Only time will tell. Yet, again, as Hank Williams might have sung:

THEY'LL NEVER NEVER TAKE HER LOVE (That Love) FROM ME!

[Ben Elder]

http://www.nashvilleportraits.com/2007/ ... TNING.html

[Stephen Gambrell]

Ben, is that a print for sale? I can't get the URL to work, and I'd love to have a copy of that photo.
Thanks!

[Stephen Gambrell]

Never mind---I typed in the URL, found Jim's website, and I can't afford a copy. Still a beautiful shot, though.

[Ben Elder]

I know what you mean, Stephen. (Although it's very shaky logic to say I can't afford a print, given what I've spent on instruments of late.)

For those of you just discovering this thread, I fixed the html problem that was keeping Stephen from going right to Senor McGuire's Nashvile Portraits and website. Link should work now.