Jan 262011
Charlie Louvin, for a long time the surviving member of The Louvin Brothers, has died at 83 from complications from pancreatic cancer. Just last November Louvin released a new album, The Battle Rages On.
A Louvin Brothers greatest hits CD makes up a significant part of my tiny country collection.
I’ve somehow not heard of them until now. I’ll be checking them out soon. Thanks.
I’d never heard of them until about 15 years ago, when a friend gave me their collection on Razor & Tie, in the same batch with my first Don Covay collection (who I’d only known a few songs by and all the cool covers by ’60s rock bands) and another cool collection by a different sort of olde tyme artist I knew nothing about, Ivory Joe Hunter. If memory serves Charlie Louvin was on Terry Gross’ Fresh Air last fall. I recall it being a really good interview.
He was a great man. Dig this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWp7MGY3II4
Some of you will undoubtedly be familiar with the Louvin Brothers song “The Christian Life” which is on Sweetheart of the Rodeo. (Rather badly sung by McGuinn, who seems to regard it as pure hokum. The unused version sung by Parsons is much superior.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUJZwmgqAII
Thanks for the additional information and the bonus clip via BigSteve. That has to be Ernest Tubb in the background. Must have been his show I assume.
I’m lovin these guys. I will be getting my hands on the Razor & Tie release for sure. For my money, the guy has a perfect voice for country music. Then you add the harmonies. Very nice.
Your cut on McGuinn’s attitude just made my day. Thanks, man.
I like McGuinn, but he’s terrible on that song. The other songs where Parsons’ vocals got wiped and replaced (You Don’t Miss Your Water, One Hundred Years from Now) are also much inferior to the ones now available with Parsons’ vocals. There’s just no comparison. I’ve never fully understood the stated reason for this being done: something about Gram’s still being under contract to someone else? So it was ok for him to sing lead on other songs like You’re Still on My Mind, Life in Prison, and Hickory Wind? Or was it that the Byrds’ nominal leader didn’t want a record wherein he was a bit player? Inquiring minds, etc.
He was still under contract to Lee Hazlewood via the International Submarine Band. Gram was basically moonlighting, Lee threatened the Byrds, they panicked and erased some vocals, Gram sold the ISB name to Hazlewood as a settlement, and the remaining vocals were kept intact. At least that’s how I understand it. Gram was a big crybaby anyway, so the “bit player” whine rings true, but only with regard to the resulting album. He was fine as a Byrd until his recordings were eviscerated, as the story goes.
McGuinn has openly admitted that he sung “Christian Life” as a mock, and that it can be heard in the song…
The version I read in a GP bio was that the Lee Hazlewood story is basically a myth. he did pitch a fit at first, but it had no bearing on the replacement of Gram’s vocals on Sweethearts. That was all on McGuinn, who near the end of the recording sessions suddenly got concerned about how much Parsons had pretty much taken over the band. So he took a few lead vocals to reassert his authority.
Thanks, guys. I have definitely read the “official story” that you relate here. It never made sense to me: it was ok with Lee Haxlewood if Gram sang on some songs? It seems to me it would be a case of all or nothing. I don’t buy it.