Buck Owens

The most world-famous tune of them is Act Naturally , known for the rendition of Ringo Starr of the Beatles. This was titled in Japanese as it was pronounced in English, while Japan gave some of the Beatles tunes queer titles; for example, This Boy (it means the teller himself) was translated as "this fellow". The twisted lyrics were often found in country music saying, "We'll make a film about a man that's sad and lonely and all I have to do is act naturally", and were well suited to Ringo's character. Ringo didn't process the original so much and beat the drums hard and sang buoyantly. Buck Owens and his Buckaroos treated it right and well in their harmony and play. This song was their first No. 1 country hit, and the Bakersfield sound with lightly-picking clean and reverberated Telecaster swayed the world and exerted influence on the folks in Nashville like Waylon Jennings. On the compilations of hits like "21 #Hits" or "40 Greatest Hits" as the titles say, the Buckaroos spread light-hearted performances with steady technique. When they made their debut at Capitol in the late'50s, they had hits, such as Under Your Spell Again, under the influence of Ray Price's shuffle. And then they gradually put back acoustic guitar and push forth Telecaster's unique twang. The rivet of the Backaroos is Don Rich , fiddle player and lead guitarist. His high-tone chorus was well suited to Buck's familiar voice, and his guitar licks were done at once with well-harmonized chorus. That's why Buck gave him full confidence. After Act Naturally they marched in great force; from cheerful lyrics and music of Love's Gonna Live Here, I've Got a Tiger by the Tail, My Heart Skips a Beat, I Don't Care (Just As Long As You Love Me, through weepers of fiddle or steel guitar like Together Again, Only You (Can Break My Heart) to instrumentals like Buckaroo.

Buck Owens also cut many live albums. Since artists of those days seemed to be under a hard contract to record companies, Buck fulfilled the contract by over-releasing, but he left fine live works. Especially, Buck and his Backaroos often did 'contest with the audience in other genre'. If you listen to the live at the famous classical music hall "Carnegie Hall Concert", you should find their vigorous performance, because tickets were sold out against what they had estimated. There are then-unreleased tracks of mimicking playlet done after then country comedy shows, or of the Beatles' Twist and Shout. Particularly Twist and Shout performed with wigs on their heads is completely rock'n'roll. And at last Don Rich did so confused a thing as Jimi Hendrix should have turned pale in the face; shooting a thrown wig with a blank charge. The audience got silenced but Buck managed to let them feel at ease and finished the show with the last medley. Such a surplus trick might be scarcely accepted because after they did comedies and cheerful songs. The next live one "In Japan !" also spreads special and fruitful performances. Without any directions accepted only in America, they played mostly for listening. When you listen to the live at the Kosei Nenkin Hall in Tokyo, you can find Nippon Broadcasting System announcer, Tetsuo Otsuka, doing a master of ceremonies and interpreter work, and Buck Owens trying to communicate with the audience sincerely. I hear this far fresher than today's concerts, such as foregin artists speaking English without discretion and the audience pretending to know all what they say and yelling "Yeah". Buckaroos don't step so far from the limit of country music, however, they did a little rock'n'roll treatment on their performances of the London Palladium live, "In London". Their version of Johnny B. Goode of Chuck Berry was played in the spirit of rock. The live in Oslo of Norway "Live in Scandinavia", unreleased in America, presents us the Band's Up on Cripple Creek or The Night That They Drove Old Dixie Down played by the Backaroos. Rhythms are those of country music, not like the Band's stretched ones.

Buck Owens, who told himself a Beatle fan apparently not like many country singers, kept cutting Bakerfield sides such as Waitin' in Your Welfare Line , Open up Your Heart, Think of Me, Where Does the Good Times Go or Sam's Place . After he won a contract for perfect control upon his own music production without any interference from the record company, however, he gradually revealed the elements of non-country, rock or folk music. How Long Will My Baby be Gone is folk, and Who's Gonna Mow Your Grass has the sound of distorted guitar, and Tall Dark Stranger has the rock drums, and Bridge over Troubled Water recorded in his own studio is a sort of orchestral country rock, and Made in Japan is oriental as the title says. But after Don Rich, who supported his musical adventure, was killed in the motor-crash in '74, Buck suddenly lost his own creativity and got to be recognized as a country comedy showperson of "Hee Haw" and as a man of the past in the country music scene. Dwight Yoakam pulled him back from the retirement and have a duet Streets of Bakersfield in '88, and finally Buck got re-appreciated by young country singers. While country music is often only the favorite of Americans, folks who hear open-minded Buck Owens should find themselves unexpectedly in the wide world of interesting music, where they think of the fixed taste of the style as a boring one. (2009/10/13)