I could explain to you why the core of Jamaica Reggae is country music but that's another blog, which I promise I will write soon. If you want to see the roots of reggae and gospel forget Aretha Franklin and the Staple Singers and reach for the Waylon Jennings, Jim Reeves, Tennessee Ernie Ford, Marty Robbins' Gunfighter ballads and The Louvin Brothers. The Louvin Brothers especially managed to mesmerize and influence reggae and gospel artists, who still sing "Satan is Real" in church.
This must be one of those ironies that gives God a good chuckle because the Louvin Brothers were two of the virulent racists ever to strum a guitar and they would have been horrified to know that just near the equator hundreds of negroes were loving their music. Ira Louvin died in a car crash and Charlie has kept on going, becoming something of a mini-legend, to country artists and alternative artists who still struggle for authenticity because well, rock and roll is just a little too plastic. Mind you, Charlie is so authentic that up
to a few years ago he was still giving the coons, jigaboos and niggers lots of hate.
So Elvis Costello, Jeff Tweedy, Will Oldham, Tom T. Hall, Tift Merritt, Marty Stuart, David Kilgour, members of Bright Eyes, Lambchop, Clem Snide, Superchunk and more have all guested on Charlie's new album. No doubt they wetted themselves on being in the same room as a man who walked they way they talked. But I wonder. Would the sessions have gone so smoothly had Cowboy Troy showed up? What about Charlie Pride? Did any of these guests care that had they brought their black friends along that would have caused problems? Or maybe these artists don't have black friends. I could take a cheap shot at Elvis Costello, who should have known better given his past, but I'll leave that for somebody else. The irony about this is that there are Jamaicans who will sing along to "Satan is Real" and in the same breath call Elvis Presley racist.
But this I know. Elvis never said "The only thing Negroes can do for me is shine my shoes and buy my records." Some claim he said it in Boston but Elvis had never been to Boston. Some claim to have heard him say it behind the scenes of CBS's Person to Person. But Elvis never appeared on the show because CBS wouldn't pay a fee. Elvis has always given credit to black musicians, never deluded himself about where rock and roll came from and went to a black church for most of his life. Hell, the man wasn't even homophobic.
This I also know. Elvis worshipped the Louvin Brothers. Elvis worshiped them so much that he asked them to tour with him in the fifties. The Louvin Brothers with typical Louvin class turned him down. As they eloquently put it, they would never tour with a 'niggerlover.' But hey, if George Wallace can change, so can Charlie Louvin, right?
Right?
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