The Lonely Goatherd Blog And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats - Matthew 25:32
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Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
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All original content on MoreThings.com copyright 2008 Albert Barger or the respective authors
September 15, 2003
Roy Acuff's 100th birthday Roy Acuff was born 100 years ago today, September 15, 1903.
Roy Acuff helped to create the basic industry of commercial country music, but his import is somewhat obscure to many people today. He made some great music, but he was more important perhaps as a symbol or ambassador of country.
In some music polls in the 1940s, he was more popular than even prime teen idol Frank Sinatra. One reflected indication of his cultural significance: there were reports of Japanese troops charging American forces shouting "To hell with Roosevelt, to hell with Babe Ruth, and to hell with Roy Acuff."
He represented a kind of purity, total sincerity and devotion to straightforward conservative rural religious values. His main signature song was "The Great Speckle Bird," a charismatic Christian parable from his first recording sessions in 1936.
"Wabash Cannonball" was his other biggest hit. My personal pick of his career is "Wreck on the Highway," one of the purest displays of existential despair in popular music. There are few things in popular culture more sobering than the mournful mountain harmonies putting forth these words:
When I heard the crash on the highway
I knew what it was from the start
I went to the scene of destruction
And a picture was stamped on my heart.
There was whiskey and blood all together
Mixed with glass where they lay
Death laid her hand in destruction
But I didn't hear nobody pray
A couple of basic Acuff notes. He started out to become a professional baseball player. He played some minor league ball, and was being considered for the Yankees before a severe sunstroke in 1929 that left him largely bedridden for a couple of years.
He also twice ran unsuccessfully as the Republican candidate for governor of Tennesse.
He was also known for playing with yo-yos onstage. I remember seeing him circa age 11, sitting right at the foot of the stage. There were a couple of times there in the path where I would have had a bad day if the string had broke.
In retrospect, he made some outstanding music, but purely on the basis of record making he was not up with Jimmie Rodgers or the Carter family. Bottom line, you can reasonably get by with one good Roy Acuff hits album, unlike Rodgers or the Carters.
Acuff, however, was the top symbol of the music. He was the first living person inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. He spent a lot of time as goodwill ambassador, greeting the people at Opryland. He was probably the most beloved figure in country music at the time of his death in 1992.
He was also one of the richest. He was never a big songwriter personally, but he was co-owner of Acuff Rose Publishing, the biggest country music song publishers probably to this day. Among many thousands of titles, they control the publishing of Hank Williams' songs.
