Looks like George Jones has set another trend. George's appearance driving a riding lawn mower in Hank Williams Jr.'s "All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight" video was inspiried by a real-life incident. Home with all his vehicles out, he rode his Cub Cadet into town to get his drink on.
"... What people forget about golf carts is there're not toys; they are vehicles under Georgia law and they're very dangerous ..."
Peachtree City, Georgia, an Atlanta suburb, has an abundance of golf carts. Apparently, they also have an abundance of drinking among drivers of those carts.
"... Stop signs and reckless driving, all those kind of things, all those things apply, especially DUI when you're more impaired ..."
Since the start of 2010, police in the small city have made 17 DUI arrests involving golf carts. That's one a month
A previously unreleased collection of Johnny Cash songs will soon be available. "American VI: Ain't No Grave" the final collaberation between Johnny Cash and Rick Rubin, hits the stores on February 26. It would have been Johnny's 78th birthday.
"...The implied agency of this Reuters headline is amusing: Johnny Cash releasing another posthumous album. Someone’s releasing the album, but I’m pretty sure it’s not Johnny... “Ain’t No Grave” is heavy on acoustic covers, including Sheryl Crow’s Redemption Day and Kristofferson’s For The Good Times, as well as A Satisfied Mind, the opening track on Dylan’s unloved 1980 album Saved. Cash also covered Tom Paxton’s Can’t Help But Wonder Where I’m Bound, Bob Nolan’s Cool Water, and dusted off Ed McCurdy’s anti-war Last Night I had the Strangest Dream, which also appears on his 1969 concert recording At Madison Square Garden..."
Eight Johhny Cash songs including "Folsom Prison Blues" and "I Walk the Line," are now offered for download to Rock Band 3. Probably more so than anyone else, Johnny Cash defined country music... real country music, not the glittered pop-tinged soft rock with a twang that oozes up from Music Row too often. His rags-to-riches story, complete with a flawed hero who chased away his demons but never fully shed the scars they left on his soul, may even define America.
After being turned out by Columbia records in the mid-80s, he eventually paired with indie rock producer Rick Rubin. Johnny was comfortable from the start. "I'm just going to roll some (recording) tape," Rubin told Cash, "and you just do whatever you feel like."
"Son," said Cash,"the only other person who ever said that to me was Sam Phillips. We're going to get along just fine." And so they did, winning the accolades of critics and fans, and piling up awards despite still receiving the cold shoulder from Nashville. (Of course, I had to include the in-yer-face "finger" ad that Rubin arranged to have published in the music industry trade journals after Johnny's Grammy win for "Unchained".)
His work with Rubin in the finals years of his life, hitting its zeinth with his cover of Trent Reznor's "Hurt," garnered Johnny a whole new generation of fans. No surprise, really. Cash always had one ear to the youth of America. Even on "The Johnny Cash Show," recorded at the Ryman Auditorium, then home to the Grand Ol' Opry, he provided a platform for musicians like Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Eric Clapton, even The Monkees.
The tunes selected for Rock band 3 are Cry, Cry, Cry, Don’t Take Your Guns to Town, Five Feet High and Rising, Folsom Prison Blues, I Got Stripes, I Walk the Line, Tennessee Flat Top Box, and The Ballad of Ira Hayes. The songs are available on Xbox 360, Wii, and PlayStation 3.
Dinosaur warning: There are getting to be fewer and fewer of us who vividly remember cigarette commercials. I mentioned on the air tonight that some of my co-workers were discussing the different advertising strategies used to market the various brands. Some were shocked that once upon a time, people had been encouraged to give cartons of cigarettes as Christmas gifts.
I remember my own daughter, born several years after cigarette ads were banned from TV and radio, freaking out at the sight of Fred Flintstone and Barney Rubble sneaking out back for a smoke. So, strictly from a historical and sales perspective, here is a sampling of some TV cigarette commercials.
DISCLAIMER: It's not my intent to open a debate on smoking. As for me, I smoked for years. (I quit in 2000.) But I grew up on a family farm where we raised, among other things, tobacco. Everyone grew tobacco. All my family members and friends had a tobacco patch, except for those who lived in town. And when it came time to set tobacco, or to chop it and hang it in the barn, you can be sure they were called on to help.
As I said, this is not done to encourage smoking, nor to publicize the product. If you don't want to see cigarette ads, don't watch. As someone whose salary is financed through advertising, I'm simply making an historical note of a commercial genre which ceased to exist in America in 1971. If you want to scream about secondhand smoke, or smokers' rights, there are plenty of places to do so. This ain't one of 'em. My barn, my rules, so play nice or don't play. Thanks and blessings.
Smoke 'em if you got 'em.
B.H.
The classic "Show Us Your Lark" commercial. To this day, whenever I hear the William Tell Overture, my mind sings "Have a Lark, have a Lark, have a Lark today..."
Marlboro used the cowboy and the "Magnificent Seven" theme, but they also used sultry songstress Julie London.
The lucky smoker has Luckies under the tree.
More friends on your gift list? No problem, buy more cartons!
Even Santa got in on it
Please tell me how you smoke while WATER SKIING?
They must have been pretty bored in the 50's. They even had time to tear apart their cigarettes.
Tobacco companies had many different gimmicks to encourage sales. (Did you know that baseball cards were originally included in cigarettes, not candy?) Some brands even featured coupons redeemable for gifts.
In that era of television, in was common practice for the show's cast, usually in character, to appear in personalized commercials for the sponsor.
Here is a collection of customized spots from Winston cigarettes, which sponsored The Flintstones and The Beverly Hillbillies
The show open and close featuring the "brought to you by" sponsor identification, and the commercial where the boys duck out for a Winston.
Fred goes into the store to buy a pack.
Fred And Barney fix the record player, and have a smoke.
The Beverly Hillbillies are stil going strong, almost 50 years after they loaded up the truck and they moved to Bev-er-lee. In reruns, you never hear the last part of the theme song. You'll see why.
Mr. Drysdale shows Jed something new to him... A Winston filter cigarette.
Granny and Jed tell Cousin Pearl about their welcoming gifts, including cigarettes. Can Pearl really smoke through the phone?
While helping Jethro with his homework, Miss Jane learns something... about Winston.
On the cop show "Dragnet," Sgt. Joe Friday's catch phrase was "Just the facts, ma'am." And the fact is, they don't adversely affect your health. They said so on TV so it has to be true, right?"
Here's a curiosity. Chesterfield hired "professional smokers" to compare brands.
In the late sixties, as more became known of the connection between smoking and disease, health groups began to call for tighter controls on cigarettes. As the "ban cigarette ads" movement gained momentum, stations were required by law to air one anti-smoking ad for every three cigarette commercials.
Actor William Talman (District Attorney Hamilton Burger from "Perry Mason") was one of the first celebrities to record an anti-smoking ad. It's a powerful one.
This 1967 commercial from the American Heart Association emphasized the idea that kids imitate what they see their parents do.
Thanks for playing nice. If you came here from the WABX site, CLICK HERE to return to WABX.
A Loretta Lynn tribute album, called "Coal Miner's Daughter," is schuled for release in early November. Among those taking part are Alan Jackson, Sheryl Crow, Carrie Underwood, Kid Rock, Miranda Lambert, Martina McBride, Paramore, Reba McEntire, Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Gretchen Wilson, Allison Moorer, and Lee Ann Womack, along with Jack White, who produced Lynn's Grammy-winning 2005 album "Van Lear Rose."
Lynn says in a statement that she's happy that her fellow musicians wanted to cover her music. The tribute project is timed for release in November, and will mark 50 years since Lynn dropped her debut single, "I'm A Honky Tonk Girl."
By the way, if you've never heard the story behind how Jack White came to record with and produce Loretta, it's a great one. Click the link below.
"...I am so happy that these singers wanted to do this record...I love ‘em all, and it was so great to hear all the different ways they did my hits...I hope people like it as much as I do ..."
The great folks atSoundspike.com have some great pics up from the performers at the No Depression festival, including The Swell Season and Lucinda Williams.
The historic circular section of floor from the Ryman Auditorium, longtime home of the Grand Ole Opry, has been saved. The floor was sumberged under 46 inches of water during the May flood that damaged the Opry house. The wood proved to be sturdier than the modern Opry stage and workers have been sucessful in restoring it.
"...the Opry House's signature element, a six-foot circle of oak wood taken from the historic Ryman Auditorium when the show moved to the Grand Ole Opry House in 1974, was returned this morning to its home center stage at the Opry House...The country music treasure was placed in its rightful spot with assistance from Little Jimmy Dickens and Brad Paisley. The two Opry members then took to the circle behind an Opry microphone stand for an acoustic performance of the country classic 'Will the Circle be Unbroken.'..."That circle means the world to all of us who love country music" says Brad Paisley. "I've always said that the circle still contains the dust from Hank Williams' cowboy boots. Well now it contains that dust, but also the heart and soul of this town and all the people who have worked to rise above this spring's floods..."
