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My Impossible Dream
Comes True
The Glory Days of Country
Music As I Lived It...
By Everett Corbin
I had hoped to continue my narration about Buck Trent, beginning in
this column; however,
with the death of Porter Wagoner, I think it only appropriate that
I deviate from plans and
give some insight into The Porter Wagoner Story, as I know it.
Just a few moments ago they concluded the memorial service for
Porter at The Grand Ole
Opry House over WSM-TV, which I taped, and Vince Gill, in comments
about remembering
the life of Porter Wagoner, recalled his early years in
listening to the Porter Wagoner show
over TV with his father. In asking his father to sing a Porter
Wagoner song, his father countered:
"I don't know any Porter Wagoner songs; I was looking at Dolly!"
And no matter how you slice the cake in talking about this amazing
singer, you'll inevitably
end up bringing Dolly Parton into the equation.
photo of Dolly Parton which I took on the day
of that interview in 1967 . |
In my opening column, I had mentioned that I had gotten on an old
Greyhound bus, in similar
fashion as did Dolly, in racing to Nashville in an attempt at not
only hearing the singers and
musicians, but also in hoping for the realization of my dream at
perhaps singing, and not
singing, then succeeding as a songwriter. That was June, 1951, upon
my graduation from
high school.
The interview that I did later with Dolly (she
was age 21 at the time) on June 7, 1967 ( I
also have that interview on cassette) was most revealing in and
through some of her statements,
namely:
1. " I don't want to sing any other kind of music
than country."
2. "I don't want to be a movie star."
3. BUT: "I want to have LOTS of children!"
And so those were Dolly Parton's dreams at that early age,
already blossoming into fruition.
Mine have yet to be fully realized, even though at this very
moment, the djs are continuing
to play my songs, such as the topical favorite:
THE LAST DAYS OF NEW ORLEANS
and:
THE FLAG HAS DISAPPEARED...which can be viewed in video format by
Vernon Oxford
on YouTube.
But what about Porter Wagoner? During the course of the program,
the station showed
a short segment of an interview done by WSM's Dan Miller
(years earlier) with Porter, in which he asked
The Wagonmaster:
"How did you get into country music?"
Although his answers were expected, I doubt that his dreams were as
strong and as powerful
as those of Dolly Parton, or of mine, in getting him "out of the
country" and into the mainstream
country music of the day.
Without reading his biography at the moment, I can't say that "He
was picking cotton and ploughing
an ole mule," like I was at the time, or shortly before, but I
surmise that a lot of the information fans
might be seeking now, can be found in a 433-page book on
Porter Wagoner, entitled: A SATISFIED
MIND: The Country Music Life of Porter Wagoner, written by Steve
Eng.
Steve visited my home before completing the book, and has a
few facts in there about the
Dolly Parton episode, that is, about our first
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