Passed from COVID at 86 that he picked up at the Country Music Association’s presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award (Some were not wearing masks.) I didn't follow country music, In his heyday, I was a follower of urban blues, especially of Chicago. Early '80s I came to love Dollly Parton's voice and especially her famous song, "Jolene". (Funny, I heard it on the country station my boss had the radio on every day. Had no idea that song had been around a decade and was famous. Not much more of Ms Parton's physical assets. Just that voice that could take me places. Now I see her as one of the real class acts. A person who embodies the very simple principle of just "doing the right thing". Back to Charley Parker. I don't know his songs. Oh, I am sure I would recognize many but if I heard them, i couldn't put a name on the voice. But the little I've read and heard about him, another class act. Son of a sharecropper heard singing Hank Williams in a Montana bar while working as a smelter. Saw racism play out in the not playing of his songs on the radio. But many of his fellows on the circuit stood up for him. One told a radio station that if they didn't play Parker to take all of his songs off their playlist. Dolly Parton, "said on Saturday she was 'heartbroken that one of my dearest and oldest friends, Charley Pride, has passed away.'" NY Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/12/arts/music/charley-pride-dead.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20201212&instance_id=0&nl=breaking-news&ref=cta®i_id=119138258&segment_id=46772&user_id=a1d9a383c87e899abb6914a995b92637 And touching (same NY Times article): "Though Mr. Pride faced racism in the industry — the singer Loretta Lynn was instructed not to embrace him at an awards show in the 1970s should he win the award she was presenting — many of his white counterparts in country music welcomed him as the star he had become. (He did win the award, and Ms. Lynn not only hugged but kissed him.)" I hope Mr Parker was given the appropriate drugs to pass his final time in peace. Tough for me to wish on anyone as I believe our final moments should be a sacred time but death by waterboarding isn't something I would wish on my worst enemy. |