If a Butterfly Could Sing...

 

If A Butterfly Could Sing, It Would Sound Like Dolly Parton

 

Dolly Parton celebrates her 80^th birthday on January 19^th. I interviewed her fifty years ago for the Kingsport Times-News, only a couple of months after her 29^th birthday and barely a year after her break up with her longtime singing partner Porter Wagoner. She had just finished headlining a country music show (there were three other acts who preceded her) and then spent a good half hour signing autographs for everyone waiting in line. It was almost 1:00 in the morning when she boarded her bus for our interview. She was as cheerful as if she had just woken up. She answered my questions for almost an hour, never looking at her watch, never signaling to any of her entourage to rescue her from this inquisitive writer. The interview only ended after her bus driver came back and said, “Miss Parton, we have to go.”

Here is a story about the young Dolly Parton based on my notes from that March 14, 1975 interview. She was very much then like she is today, half a century later.

 

 

The blonde hair piled toward heaven frames a petite face distinguished by large Spider Lady eyelashes. A tight cowgirl pantsuit gets your attention.

She looks outlandish but in a pretty “more is more” kind of way.

Then she opens her Revlon lips to begin her part of the show. If a butterfly could sing, it would sound like Dolly Parton.

The near capacity crowd at the Dobyns-Bennett Dome had waited patiently for three hours, through three other acts (Hank Williams, Jr., Billy “Crash” Craddock, and Ronnie Milsap) and three interminable intermissions to see her. They'd cheered her every song. And when she finally finished her act, a hearty band of loyalists had kept her signing autographs until past 12:30 a.m.

Dolly Parton had come back home, to East Tennessee.

And on such an eventful day: just that morning, she'd learned that her latest single, "The Bargain Store," had climbed to the number one spot on the country charts, her fifth solo number one.

It was less than a year since the celebrated Dolly-Porter split, an amicable parting of the ways of Dolly Parton and Porter Wagoner after seven years of success. And it was a scant six months since she'd put together her new act - The Dolly Parton Show featuring the Traveling Family Band.

It was a chance she took, leaving the success and security of Porter 'n' Dolly for a solo career as a singer-songwriter. But the gamble seemed to be paying off.

 

Dolly Parton is country music's reigning sex symbol, an outlandishly dressed woman whose exterior belies a sensitive soul, a songwriter of restraint and taste. It is the heart of a poet trapped inside Mae West's body.

"All I ever wanted to be was a star," Dolly Parton told me about her childhood aspirations. To a girl growing up in a rundown house in the shadow of the Smoky Mountains, stardom had an image. Stars wore the finest clothes, drove the biggest cars, owned the nicest houses.

She became the Dale Evans of country music, the bright, sparkly partner of country music’s most flamboyantly dressed country boy, Porter Wagoner.

And by 1974, she was, as they say, doin' good.

A member of the Grand Ole Opry. On TV every week on the popular "Porter Wagoner Show." Every record they released in the Top 10. And acclaim as Female Vocalist of the Year by the Country Music Association.

There was even growing recognition as a songwriter. Merle Haggard was recording her composition "Kentucky Gambler" (it would later make it to No. 1 on the country charts). Maria Muldaur had included her "My Tennessee Mountain Home" on her million-selling "Midnight at the Oasis" album. Everyone from Linda Ronstadt to Mac Davis was singing Parton's praises. And songs.

At 28 in 1974, Dolly Parton was at the top of her profession.

That's why country music was shaken nearly to its cowboy boots when she and Wagoner announced they were splitting up. Amicable was the word they used at the time.

"We're still friends," Parton says. "We have a publishing company together, and we still record our duets. The break was as much his idea as mine. When Porter first asked me to join his show, I told him that some day I wanted to have my own show, and he understood that."

Even in 1975, it was clear that she just outgrew him. As long as she remained with him, she would just be the back half of Porter 'n' Dolly.

 

Dolly Rebecca Parton was born on a cold Saturday in January 1946 in Sevierville, Tenn., a tiny mountain town on the periphery of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Dolly was one of six daughters and six sons in the poor, but deeply religious Parton clan.

She grew up without a radio or television in the house so most of her early musical training came at church and in school.

"I was singing a lot before I heard anybody but my family and the people at church. We didn't have electricity until I was 9. Our first piano didn't even have any ivory on it. But it sure helped me write some songs.”

She told me she wrote her first songs at the age of five, a pair of ditties called "Little Tiny Tassel Top" about a corn cob doll and "Life Doesn't Mean Much To Me."

"Here I was all of 5 years old singing 'Life doesn't mean much to me,'" she says with a laugh.

Since then she estimates she has written thousands of songs. "I have boxes and trunks of songs that like a little bit being finished and others that are complete, but I haven't recorded because I keep writing new stuff. I write all the time."

By the time she was ten, she was a regular on Knoxville grocer Cas Walker’s programs, making twenty dollars a week for appearances on the morning "Farm and Home Hour" TV show, his noon radio show, and the Wednesday and Thursday night TV shows. In between school and the Cas Walker shows, Dolly appeared on the famous WNOX Midday Merry-Go-Round and sang in country music shows all over east Tennessee.

At Sevier County High School, she was a member of the Future Homemakers of America and a snare drummer in the marching band.

Dolly as a senior in high school.

She picked up her high school diploma and her bus ticket to Nashville the same day. When she arrived in Music City that hot summer day in 1964, it was like a Hollywood movie. She met future husband Carl Dean in the Wishy Washy Laundromat the first day in town. And within two weeks, she had signed a contract with Monument Records.

The next three years were for laying the groundwork. She started putting out records, some of which climbed onto the lower echelons of the country charts.

All the while she was pursuing her songwriting career, writing when she could, and collaborating with her uncle Bill Owens on other songs. (She lived with her uncle Bill and aunt Christina when she first moved to Nashville.)

In 1967 Porter Wagoner caught Parton on one of those nameless country music shows that populate Saturday afternoon TV. He was searching for someone to replace his longtime partner, Norma Jean, and he thought Parton would be perfect. Her signature on a contract sealed it, and for the next seven years, Porter 'n' Dolly were as synonymous as George 'n' Tammy and Conway 'n' Loretta.

Then in 1974 came the announcement that shook the country music world: Porter and Dolly were breaking up. Their fans were dismayed - what had gone wrong? Could they no longer get along?

"'Course we've had business problems,” she told me. “Anybody who works together does. Like somebody said the other day, if two people are in business and they don't have no trouble, one of them ain't doing their job. If you don't have an opinion, you ain't much of a partner.”

Her first backup group, the aptly-named Traveling Family Band, was composed of Dolly's brother, Randy, two cousins, Dwight Puckett and Sydney Spiva, and a no-relation guitar player named Bill Reary.

 

Performing is one thing. But to Dolly songwriting is special. “Writing is such a part of me. It's such a natural thing for me to rhyme words. It's just a God-given talent: I've never had any trouble rhyming words. There are certain situations that remind me of things and I start putting words together into a song. Every writer writes different. For me the words and the music just seem to come together. I can't ever remember writing one without the other."

Her favorite song that she has written is "Coat of Many Colors," a ballad about a patchwork coat that her mother made for her when she was a little girl. "It's a true song and a personal song. It means a lot to me because I know how much I put into it."

She says she has a new song coming out that deeply affected her when she wrote it. "It's a sacred song and I got this strange feeling when I was writing it. I cried and that's something I'd never done after writing a song. But the words just started coming and I had it written in a few minutes. When I got through writing, I felt unburdened."

That song, “The Seeker,” was released on May 19, 1975 – two months after my interview - on RCA Victor.

Dolly Parton's records have changed in the past year or two and her music is being played on more than just country radio stations. In fact, her summer 1974 hit, "Love is Like a Butterfly," made the complete crossover and was played on a number of so-called Top 40 stations, even climbing onto the pop charts for a time. But Dolly says it isn't a reflection of any changing style within her, merely that she's braver now and willing to try newer variations on her records. "My writing hasn't changed much over the years, but record styles have changed and I'm getting to do more things now. Music is venturing out in new areas. Used to if they thought you were hard country and you did something a little uptown, they thought you were trying to get out of the category. But now a lot of people are trying new things."

Not that she’s happy about all those new ways. "I like a lot of the things that are being done in country music today, but I hope there will always be true country. Like Hank Williams and Porter Wagoner and Ernest Tubbs. I'd hate to see that die away. I hope there will always be a market for it."

She likes the new contemporary country rock sound, particularly the music of the Charlie Daniels Band, Goose Creek Symphony, Barefoot Jerry and Willie Nelson. Especially Willie Nelson.

"I loved Willie Nelson when he was just plain country. When I first moved to Nashville, he was on Monument Records and I was too. I remember I used to set on the floor of the studio over there for hours and listen to him sing and play. He didn't have much going record-wise then - you couldn't give him away because of his odd phrasings - but I just loved it. He was way ahead of his time and I'm real glad to see him getting the recognition now."

Country music is a traveling road show. Dolly Parton and her group play 120 nights a year, mostly on weekends, in all parts of the country, from Portland, Oregon to Miami, Florida. After her post- midnight interview with me in Kingsport, Dolly's bus headed out for an all-night ride to Raleigh, North Carolina where she would be performing on Saturday night. In Raleigh it would be much the same thing - last on the bill, an after-concert autograph session, and another all-night bus ride, this time to Norfolk, Virginia for a Sunday show. From Norfolk, the Dolly Parton bus would head back to Nashville for a few days of rest before heading out on the road again the next weekend. All total, Dolly and her crew will travel 200,000 miles this year, most of it via bus.

The hours on the road are long, slow ones. Often Dolly will travel eight hours. just to give a one-hour show. What does she do to entertain herself on the road? “We play a lot of games, like Password. And I'll listen to tapes and do a lot of the paperwork concerning the band. Sometimes I write songs."

It used to be the Porter 'n' Dolly Show.

But now it's just the Dolly Parton Show. Dolly Parton has come to the front. Her solo career is booming. Appreciative audiences. Hit records. And finally, recognition as a top-notch songwriter.

Still, in her heart, past all the rouge and the mascara and the hairspray, Dolly is just a starry-eyed country girl.

What If Dolly Gave a Show in Kingsport and Nobody Came

 

The Night Only 200 People Showed Up to a Dolly Parton Concert

In the days immediately after her death, Dolly Parton was the subject of at least 19 separate stories in The New York Times. That’s the kind of coverage normally reserved for world leaders, which, in a way, Dolly was. Except she was more beloved.

Dolly Parton had been a performer since she was in grade school and a star since she was 21. In fact one of her last appearances, just as she was on the precipice of stardom, came at Kingsport’s Civic Auditorium, on Sept. 26, 1967, as co-headliner with Red Foley.

In a venue with an official seating capacity of 2,032, Dolly and Red drew only 200 people. And ticket prices were a reasonable $1.50 and $2, significantly less than the Porter Wagoner Show, staged a couple of months earlier in the same venue, that drew 1,800. (Tickets for that show were $2.50, $3 and $3.50.)

Even the Kingsport Times-News noticed the attendance discrepancy, calling the Dolly and Red show a “financial deficit.”

What happened?

How did it happen that Dolly gave a show and nobody came?

 

It had been a cool, rainy summer in Kingsport in 1967. All the excitement in town was directed to a piece of ground behind J. Fred Johnson Stadium, where the new Dobyns-Bennett High School building was going up.

But a lot had been going on at the other end of the stadium parking lot: the Civic Auditorium had been the scene of a series of concert by stars of the Grand Ole Opry, kicking off in May with a standing room only show by Porter Wagoner, followed quickly by well-attended concerts by Conway Twitty, Bill Anderson, Bobby Bare, Ernest Tubb, Tammy Wynette and Kitty Wells, easily outdrawing every other form of local entertainment, from symphony concerts to Audubon film travelogs to Theatre Guild productions. All this drew the attention of the Kingsport Times-News which assigned Arts Writer Margy Clark to investigate. In a lengthy Sunday story, she concluded, “Country and western entertainers, when presented at not too frequent intervals and made available at a realistic price, are still the most successful crowd pleasers in town.”

But there was one exception that stuck out to her: the Dolly and Red show.

Dolly had already played a successful show at the Civic Auditorium back in July. But she was the third billed – “Also” – behind headliner Merle Haggard and his frequent duet partner Bonnie Owens.

On September 26, 1967 she was the co-headliner with Red Foley in what was billed as “Kingsport’s First Country Western Gospel Variety Round-Up.”

Foley was a country and gospel legend but his peak years were in the forties and fifties.

And Dolly was only 21 years old with just two singles that had hit the music charts, “Dumb Blonde,” which had peaked at number 24 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles Chart, and “Something Fishy,” which had made it to number 17. She wasn’t yet a star.

There were things working against her September show.

All those summer country shows at the Civic Auditorium. School was back in session. High school football had started.

And the night before her show the new D-B Dome had opened with an exhibition basketball game between the NBA champion Philadelphia 76ers and the St. Louis Hawks that was attended by 4,000 fans.

And her show was on a Tuesday night.

But at least it wasn’t up against Wednesday night prayer meeting.

The sponsoring Colonial Heights Optimist Club had purchased five days of newspaper ads to promote the show.

Still only 200 people showed up.

That didn’t deter Dolly’s perpetually sunny outlook. She knew better days were ahead. Earlier that month she’d signed to replace Norma Jean as Porter Wagoner’s duet partner on his television show. She cut her first record with him two weeks later. And she was back in Kingsport two months later opening the show at the Civic Auditorium for Porter and the Wagon Masters. She was now an official member of Porter Wagoner’s traveling show.

She was going to be a star.

That was what she wanted to be. When I interviewed her eight years later, after a performance before a full house at the D-B Dome, she told me, “All I ever wanted to be was a star.”

She ended up being a superstar. 

 

You can read that 1975 story here:

https://vincestaten.blogspot.com/search?q=dolly

 

Budding superstars have a history of playing to sparse crowds in the Tri-Cities:

On September 22, 1955, 20-year-old Elvis Presley played in front of a crowd of 270 in that same Civic Auditorium. (He had not yet appeared on Ed Sullivan.)

And on April 20, 1976, 26-year-old Bruce Springsteen, who had just appeared simultaneously on the covers of Time and Newsweek, performed for only 898 fans in near-empty 8,000-seat Freedom Hall in Johnson City.

Who was Lavern Tripp. last billed on the Dolly-Foley show? Robert Lavern Tripp, who would replace Elmo Fagg in the well-known Southern gospel group The Blue Ridge Quartet the next year. 

Who were Bill Owens & the Kinfolks? Bill Owens was her kinfolk, as were the others in the group. Bill was her uncle, her mother's younger brother, and also her mentor and songwriting partner. The other band members were Louis Owens, Bill's brother and also Dolly's uncle; Dwight Puckett, Bill and Louis' nephew, and Dolly's first cousin; and Ralph Loveday, an Owens cousin. 

Let's Give a Cheer...for RNRJHS Teachers - 1961

(click on photo to enlarge)

If you went to Ross N. Robinson Junior High School, try to see how many of the teachers you recognize in this 1961 photo.

If you didn’t go to RNR, you still may recognize several faces. Some of these teachers also taught at D-B and at Sevier and before that at Junior High.

I could identify 17. And every one reminded me of a story.

The only teacher I didn’t recognize was Mr. Hicks (Sam Hicks), my seventh grade math teacher. That’s not how I remember him.

I still have a story about him. He told us that during the war (WWII) you would see cars in Kingsport driving backwards down the street. He said it was a way to beat wartime mileage rationing. Mr. Hicks was also famous for his wooden yardstick. He had mastered the technique of slapping the yardstick on a desk for maximum noise effect. It sounded like a gun going off next to your head. He knew how to get the class’s attention. (I sat behind Donna Davis in that class and she would jump every time.)

Check out the picture. Then look at the captions.

Mr. Scott (Jim Scott) gave me the photo in 2005. He was my eighth grade math teacher. I was in the first wave of advanced math students who took eighth grade math in the summer (a year-long course squeezed into half-day sessions over four weeks).

The captions are courtesy of Miss McCammon (Gerry McCammon Frazier).

My stories follow the captions.

Row 1(l to r)

Tommy Hill, Hazel Stewart, Johnnie Wray, Rowena Johnson, Maude Dishner, Mildred Kozsuch, Lucille Massengill, Shirley Garrett, Don Stevens, Delbert Webb (principal)

Row 2

Jack Campbell, Nancy Randall, Sarah McKee, Gerry McCammon (Frazier), Margaret Melton (Tunnell), Wanda Bledsoe, Lorena Hoover,  Hope King

Row 3

Oscar Dalton, Nell McLean, Bea Gilbert, Sarah Spracher, Mary Tuggle, Faye Neergaard, Madelyn Thomas, Ruth Sauer, Mary Riley, Wilma Snyder (Bunting), Dolly Wallen (behind Mr. Webb)

Row 4

Reba Robinette, Jim Scott, Jo Ann Emmert, Sam Hicks, Charles Flanary, Bob Shepherd, Don Little, David Wise

Mrs. Wray (Johnnie Wray) was married to the Sevier football coach. She introduced me to the word “underachiever.”

Sarah McKee, then Miss Gouge, was my ninth grade Civics teacher. She was famous for threatening miscreants with “20 lashes with a wet noodle.” She had taught at another school before signing on at RNR. She told us she had lunch room duty one day and a kid refused to finish his meal. She used a common admonition of the fifties, “Finish your lunch, children in Europe are starving.” She said he looked up at her and said, “Name one.”

Mrs. McLean taught Special Ed and was famous as the mother of Mike McLean, who was a year ahead of me. Mike and Ann Boyd ran for Student Council President in the spring of my 7^th grade year. Ann’s slogan was “Mike Might But Ann Can.” When they gave their speeches in the auditorium, Mike concluded his with, “Remember, Mike might.” Everyone roared with laughter and he won. He later became the weatherman at WBTV in Charlotte (which was on Kingsport’s cable system) and changed his name to Mike McKay because Charlotte already had a weatherman named Clyde McLean.

Miss Spracher (Sara) was my seventh grade Language Arts teacher, a wonderful woman and a wonderful teacher. She had a complete set of “Arizona Highways” magazines on the back table. None of us read them, we just looked at them for the spectacular photography.

Mrs Tuggle (Mary) was my 8^th grade homeroom teacher and Science teacher. She was the first divorced woman I ever knew. She was also a wonderful woman. I danced with her at a party at, I think, Gretel Case’s house. The record was “Poetry in Motion” by Johnny Tillotson. For several weeks – owing to Miss Spracher’s love of the poem “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer – I thought the lyrics were “Oh a tree in motion.”

Mrs. Thomas (Madelyn) replaced Mrs. Eason (Eleanor) teaching Algebra after Mrs. Eason’s heart attack. I don’t think Mrs. Eason ever returned to teaching, going into real estate, where she had a very successful career, Who would have thought real estate would be less stressful than teaching junior high students? Mrs. Thomas filled in without skipping a beat. I sat with her at a Lynn View reunion seven years ago – her husband was a long time teacher there. She passed away a year ago at age 88.

Mrs. Sauer (Ruth) taught 9^th grade Latin. “Italia est paeninsula.” She was a much better Latin teacher than I was a Latin student. Mrs. Sauer retired after her year with me. I don’t think I had anything to do with it. She turned 70. She died in 1978 at age 86.

Miss Riley (Mary Erim Riley) was a legend. She was my eighth grade Language Arts teacher – two periods a day, five days a week with her. She was a great teacher. She dressed every day as if it were a job interview: perfect hair, perfect makeup. She lived at the Kingsport Inn until they tore it down.

Miss Snyder (now Wilma Bunting) was my 9^th grade English teacher. She also taught Spanish. Remember the Spanish textbook: “El Camino Real?” The hoods at RNR penciled in a revised title: “Elvis’s Camino Is Unreal.” She and her husband won the lottery in the late nineties. Honest.

Mrs. Robinette (Reba) was the librarian. She kept a close eye on the reference books (think about who went to RNR – those hoods weren’t going to steal books) keeping them in a closet. You had to check them out. Her student helpers were none too swift. One day I went to check out a book. Joan, the helper asked, “What’s your name?” “Vincent.” “That’s too long. I’ll just make it Vic.”

Coach Shepard (Bob) was my 8^th grade gym teacher. He was a former Marine and he took no flack from the overage members of the class (we had guys who were 16 and driving to junior high). When he demonstrated pushups, he didn’t stop with 20 (in 20 seconds), he would then switch to one handed pushups (two handed were tough enough for weaklings like me) and then on to clap pushups (he would push up, then clap, and back down).

Missing from the photo: Mrs. Dempsey (study hall), Coach Boyer (coach), Mrs. Taylor (study hall, science). Mr. Buchanan (art), Miss Deck (Bible) and, I’m sure, others. Mrs. Goad was the office secretary.

French Pastry Mystery Solved!

The French Pastry was made by Dolly Madison Bakeries.

Thanks to readers Calvin Lucy and Jackie Barker (who found this 1956 ad for the French Pastry snack cake).

Ross N. Robinson Junior High School teachers in 1961

How many can you identify?
Here's an i.d. list as provided by Miss McCammon and Miss Melton:
Row 1(l to r)
Tommy Hill, Hazel Stewart, Johnnie Wray, Rowena Johnson, Maude Dishner, Mildred Kozsuch, Mrs. Massengill, (?)Shirley Garrett, Don Stevens, Delbert Webb(principal)

Row 2
Jack Campbell, (?)Nancy Randall, Sarah McKee, Gerry McCammon(Frazier), Margaret Melton(Tunnell), Wanda Bledsoe, Lorena Hoover, Hope King

Row 3
Oscar Dalton, Nell(Jack) McLean, Bea Gilbert, Sarah Spracher, Mary Tuggle, Faye Neergaard, Madeline Thomas, Mrs. Sauer, Mary Erim Riley, Wilma Snyder(Bunting), Dolly Wallen (behind Mr. Webb)

Row 4
Reba Robinette, Jim Scott, Jo Ann Emmert, Sam Hicks, Charles Flanary, Bob Shepherd, Don Little, David Wise

The Best Concert I Ever Attended -

What's Your Pick?

Jimmy Buffett in the mid-seventies

I was riding along with my son-in-law Ben Sharpe when Jimmy Buffett came on the radio.

“I saw him in concert in Johnson City back in the seventies,” I told him.

“Wow,” he said. “I’ve only been to three concerts in my life.”

He proceeded to name them.

I don’t think his generation was as into rock concerts as mine was.

I couldn’t begin to name all the concerts I’ve been to. It started with Al Hirt and Boots Randolph – not exactly “rock” - at the ETSU gym in 1965. And before that year was out, I had seen a half dozen concerts, including the Rolling Stones in Raleigh.

I’ve seen Elton John and Frank Sinatra, Ol’ Four Eyes and Ol’ Blue Eyes.

I saw Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young in Memphis and Elvis in Johnson City and Dayton, Ohio.

I could go on and on and on.

The best concert I’ve ever seen? I’ll tell you in a few paragraphs.

But about a year ago I got the idea to turn that idea – Best Concert – into a column and began polling my friends. My time as a columnist expired before I could finish my polling. But here’s what I got:

For Jo Zimmerman it was the Rolling Stones Nov. ’94 in Tampa.

David Miller couldn’t make a choice between two:  J. Geils Band and U-2 in 1981 at Alumni Gym in Knoxville or Stevie Ray Vaughn in ’86 at Freedom Hall in Johnson City.

Ron Worrell also had two picks: Elvis 1 And 2 in Knoxville in ’71 and the Eagles at Thompson Boling Arena in Knoxville in 2013.

For Margy Clark it was Tony Bennett in 2017 in Asheville.

Dick Cartwright selected the Tams show at AFG Lodge in the late  70s.

Susie Rutledge had no hesitation: Dolly Parton at Thompson Boling in 2014.

My wife Melanie also had no hesitation: Chicago in the late sixties in  Chicago.

My best friend since childhood Lance Harris said, “I am going with Alabama in Huntington, West Virginia, I’m thinking 1983.” His wife Jackie picked the Jackson 5 in Knoxville.

For me it was easy: Bruce Springsteen at the Fox Theatre in Atlanta in 1976.

I saw Springsteen three times that year. Every show was different but this was the best.

I even wrote about it a week later for the Kingsport Times News:

He walked out wearing quasi-pegged blue jeans, an ill-fitting white shirt with flap pockets, tennis shoes and oversized sunglasses. He strapped on his guitar, started plunking away in what sounded like a tuning session with the band, and then out of the disparate array of sounds emerged "Night," a workers' lament from his third album, "Born To Run."

Then, in order, Springsteen and the E Street Band (Roy Bittan on piano, Miami Steve Van Zandt on guitar,· Gary Tallent on bass, Max Weinberg on drums, Danny Federici on keyboards, and Clarence Clemons on sax) performed:

'"Fifth Avenue Freezeout," "Spirit in the Night," "It's My Life," "She's the One," "Born to Run," " Blinded by the Light," "Backstreets," "Jungleland," "Rosalita," "Sandy," and encore numbers, "Devil with the Blue Dress," "See See Rider," and “Quarter to Three." ·

Driving is the only word for the show. The driving sounds emanating from the speakers pushed out over the audience, rolling over the listeners, mesmerizing them into a sea of foot-tapping. No one looked at a watch to see what time it was. No one cared.

And driving around in your car was the metaphor for many of the songs.

Springsteen kept his crowd on a rock and roller coaster, slowly easing into songs like "Jungleland" and then exploding inside the song. If "Jungleland" wasn't the show's finest moment, then it must have been "It's My Life," the old Animals' tune resurrected and revitalized into the ultimate punk anthem. Springsteen started the song with a talking blues story about coming home late and being confronted by his father. As the argument heats up, the story leads gently into a song and before you realize where you are, Springsteen is thundering "It's my life and I'll do what I want." It's the most telling number of the evening, and one of only four which Springsteen didn't write. ·

Playing counter-point to Springsteen's rompin' stompin' jumpin' stage show was ice cream cool Clarence Clemons, in a white suit, white shirt and white hat, with a red carnation in his lapel. The giant saxophonist looked even larger next to the smallish Springsteen. When Springsteen and the rest of the band were sending out wave on wave of sound, it was Clemons and his cool sax that filled in the low spots with a soothing wail. ·

When the final notes from "Quarter to Three" faded out from the speakers, Springsteen flashed a grin, waved to the crowd, and retreated with  "See you next month."

The 70s were the Golden Age of Concerts at Johnson City’s Freedom Hall.

Ten years ago David Miller and I compiled a list of all those shows, using newspaper microfilm. We missed a few, but not many.

To see that list type “Freedom Hall” in the Search box in the upper left hand corner.

And if you want to tell me – and the world – your choice for Best Concert, you can post your pick by clicking Comments at the bottom right of this post.

Freedom Hall's Golden Age of Rock : The Seventies (Note this is Freedom Hall in Johnson City, Tennessee NOT Louisville, Ky.!!)

When it opened in the summer of 1974 Johnson City's Freedom Hall rocked.

Okay, the first act didn’t rock: that was comedian Bob Hope who opened Freedom Hall on July 5, 1974. But he was certainly a big name act. And by fall 1974 the place was jumping from all the rock and rollers rumbling through: Alice Cooper, KISS, Lynyrd Skynyrd, ZZ Top, Doobie Brothers, Bob Seger, Linda Ronstadt, REO Speedwagon, Charlie Daniels Band, Marshall Tucker Band. And that was just the first year!

The seventies were probably the golden age of rock and roll tours. And when Freedom Hall opened we finally got our own arena in upper east Tennessee. We no longer had to drive to Knoxville or Asheville or Charlotte to see big name acts. They came here: Elvis! The Eagles! Bruce Springsteen! The Beach Boys! Tom Jones! Engelbert Humperdinck!

You should have been here.

David Miller and I, who attended many, many of those shows, have been scouring old issues of the Times News to come up with this list of all the big name acts that played at Freedom Hall in the seventies. By our count there were 183 big time acts who played Freedom Hall in that five year period! I can’t promise it’s complete but it’s close. I have included ticket prices where we could find them.

(This post is about Freedom Hall in Johnson City, Tennessee not Freedom Hall in Louisville, Ky.)

Freedom Hall opened on July 5, 1974
July 5, 1974 - Bob Hope w/Karen Stanton and the Bowers Family - $10, $8, $6
Aug. 10, 1974 - Frankie Vali and the Four Seasons - $6, $5, $4
Sept. 28, 1974 – Earl Scruggs Review
Oct. 4, 1974 – Mac Davis - $6.50, $5.50, $4.50
Oct. 18, 1974 – J. Geils Band w/REO Speedwagon - $5
Nov. 8, 1974 – Mountain w/Atlanta Rhythm Section - $5
Nov. 26, 1974 – Black Oak Arkansas w/Foghat and The Stampeders - $6
Dec. 7, 1974 – Doobie Brothers
Jan. 4, 1975 – Bachman-Turner Overdrive w/Bob Seger
Feb. 17, 1975 – Joe Walsh w/Charlie Daniels Band - $5
March 8, 1975 – Marshall Tucker Band w/REO Speedwagon
March 11, 1975 – Guy Lombardo - $6, $5, $4
March 22, 1975 – Lynnrd Skynnrd w/Sensational Alex Harvey Band - $5
March 28, 1975 – Johnny Winter w/James Cotton Blues Band - $5
April 19, 1975 – ZZ Top w/Status Quo - $6
April 21, 1975 – Tommy Dorsey Orchestra
April 24, 1975 – KISS (3,000 attendance) w/Rush and Heavy Metal Kids
May 2, 1975 – Porter Waggoner w/Barbara Lea and Speck Rhodes - $5
May 10, 1975 – America w/Captain - $6
May 17, 1975 – Linda Ronstadt w/Al Stewart - $6
May 27, 1975 – Alice Cooper w/Suzi Quatro - $6
May 31, 1975 – John Prine
June 25, 1975 – Peter Frampton w/Montrose - $5
June 27, 1975 – Sonny Payne Trio - $4
July 4, 1975 – Merle Haggard w/Ronnie Reno and Leona Williams - $6, $5
July 15, 1975 – Electric Light Orchestra w/Slade and Pavlov’s Dog - $5
Aug. 4, 1975 – Eagles w/Poco
Aug. 21, 1975 – Jethro Tull w/Sensational Alex Harvey Band - $7
Aug. 30, 1975 – Uriah Heep w/Blue Oyster Cult
Sept. 19, 1975 – Marshall Tucker Band w/Wet Willie and Heartsfield - $5.50
Oct. 1, 1975 – Aerosmith w/Ted Nugent - $6.50
Oct. 10, 1975 – Four Seasons
Oct. 15, 1975 – Rod Stewart w/Faces
Oct. 22, 1975 – Black Oak Arkansas w/Foghat and Montrose - $5.50
Nov. 5, 1975 – Edgar Winter Group w/Rick Derringer, J. Geils Band and Climax Blues Band - $5.50
Nov. 9, 1975 – Lettermen - $6.50, $5,50
Dec. 6, 1975 – Black Sabbath w/Manfred Mann’s Earth Band and Ruby Starr & The Grey Ghost - $5.50
Dec. 27, 1975 – Charlie Daniels Band w/Atlanta Rhythm Section and Grinderswitch - $6.50
Jan. 10, 1976 – REO Speedwagon w/Bob Seger and Styx - $5.50
Jan. 29, 1976 – Vienna Boys’ Choir - $5
Jan. 31, 1975 – Deep Purple w/Ted Nugent and Nazareth - $5.50
Feb. 13, 1976 – Van Cliburn - $5
Feb. 28, 1976 – Bachman-Turner Overdrive w/REO Speedwagon and Trooper - $6.50
March 13, 1975 – Joe Cocker w/Ozark Mountain Daredevils and Point Blank - $6.50
March 18, 19 and 20, 1976 – Elvis - $12.50, $10 (sold out all 22,000 seats for the three shows)
April 2, 1976 – Neil Sedaka - $6.50
April 20, 1976 – Bruce Springsteen - $5.50
May 14, 1976 – President Gerald Ford – 9 a.m. - free
May 14, 1976 – Santana w/Ted Nugent and Star Castle - $5.50
May 31 – Yes w/Pousette Dart Band
June 22, 1976 - Nazareth w/Elvin Bishop & Ian Gillan - $5.50
July 19, 1976 – KISS w/Bob Seger Silver Bullet Band - $6
Aug. 16, 1976 – Doobie Brothers w/Heart - $6
Sept. 2, 1976 – Robin Trower w/Angel - $7
Oct. 10, 1976 – Donald Byrd & the Blackbyrds w/Dorothy Moore and Chocolate Milk - $7, $6
Oct. 13, 1975 – Aerosmith and Ted Nugent w/Rush - $5.50
Oct. 19, 1976 – Frank Zappa and the Mothers - $6
Oct. 15, 1976 – John Denver (Democratic fundraiser) - $100, $25, $10
Oct. 29, 1976 – Blue Oyster Cult w/Mothers Finest and The Ramones - $6
Nov. 9, 1976 – Seals and Croft - $6
Nov. 21, 1976 – Leon Russell w/Thunderbyrd starring Roger McGuinn - $6
Dec. 4, 1976 – Jerry Lee Lewis w/Jeanne Pruett and Ronnie Dove - $6, $5
Dec. 10, 1976 – Kansas w/Sea Level and Starcastle - $6
Jan. 15, 1977 – Charlie Daniels Band w/Elvin Bishop and Cate Bros. - $6
Jan. 29, 1977 – Marshall Tucker Band w/Pure Prairie League - $6
Feb. 12, 1977 – Waylon Jennings - $7, $6
Feb. 18, 1977 – Boston w/Atlanta Rhythm Section - $6
Feb. 19, 1977 – Elvis Presley - $15, $12.50
Feb. 26, 1977 – KISS w/Dictators - $6.50
March 11, 1977 – Willie Nelson w/Jerry Jeff Walker and Steve Young - $6.50, $5.50
March 19, 1977 – Dolly Parton w/Parker McGee - $7, $6
April 2, 1977 – Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band w/Starz - $7, $6
April 15, 1977 – ZZ Top - $7
April 22, 1977 – Jerry Reed & George Jones - $6.75, $5.75
May 4, 1977 – Tom Jones - $9, $8
May 6, 1977 – Gregg Allman - $7, $6
May 19, 1977 – Foghat w/Styx and Head East - $6
May 30, 1977 – Ted Nugent w/Nazareth and Michael Stanley Band - $6
June 18, 1977 – Dan Fogelberg w/Fools Gold - $7, $6
June 27, 1977 – Emerson, Lake & Palmer - $8
July 4, 1977 – Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons Farewell Tour - $7, $6
July 6, 1977 – REO Speedwagon w/Black Oak Arkansas and Judas Priest - $6
July 20, 1977 – Captain & Tenille w/Kip Addotta - $7.50, $6.50 – Cancelled
Aug. 19, 1977 – Bad Company w/Climax Blues Band - $6
Aug. 23, 1977 – Willie Nelson w/Emmylou Harris - $7, $6
Sept. 23, 1977 – Jimmy Buffet w/Jesse Winchester - $7, $6
Oct. 4, 1977 – Tom Jones - $9, $8
Oct. 8, 1977 – Heart w/Sanford Townsend Band - $6
Oct. 13, 1977 – Ferrante & Teicher - $7.50, $6.50
Oct. 21, 1977 – Kenny Rogers w/Stella Parton and T.G. Sheppard - $7, $6
Oct. 29, 1977 – Robin Trower w/Ram Jam and Crawler - $6
Nov. 11, 1977 – Beach Boys - $7
Nov. 12, 1977 – Tom T. Hall w/Jean Shepard and Jerry Clower - $7
Nov. 19, 1977 – England Dan and John Ford Coley - $7, $6
Nov. 24, 1977 – AC/DC w The Motors and UFO
Dec. 3, 1977 – Edgar Winter’s White Trash w/Charlie Daniel’s Band and Wet Willie
Dec. 8, 1977 – Ronnie McDowell - $5
Dec. 10, 1977 – Styx w/April Wine - $7
Jan. 27, 1978 – Bob Barker’s Fun and Games - $6
Feb. 4, 1978 – Charlie Pride w/Dave and Sugar - $7, $6, $5
Feb. 22, 1978 – Engelbert Humperdinck - $10, $9
March 10, 1978 – Emerson, Lake & Palmer - $7
March 11, 1978 – Waylon Jennings w/Jessi Colter - $7, $6
March 15, 1978 – The Lettermen - $7.50. $6.50
March 17, 1978 – Rush w/The Babys and Pat Travers - $6
March 18, 1978 – Conway Twitty and Loretta Lynn - $6.50, $5.50
April 1, 1978 – J.D. Sumner - $6, $5
April 7, 1978 – Blue Oyster Cult w/Angel and Godz - $7
April 14, 1978 – Willie Nelson w/Emmylou Harris - $8, $7
April 20, 1978 – Ronnie Milsap w/Eddie Rabbit - $7.50, $6.50
April 29, 1978 – Journey w/Montrose – $6
May 19, 1978 – Larry Gatlin - $7
June 3, 1978 – Foreigner w/Head East - $7
June 23, 1978 – REO Speedwagon w/Ritchie Blackmore’s Rainbow, Ronnie James Dio, Cozy Powell, Nantucket - $7
July 4, 1978 – B.J. Thomas - $7.50, $6.50
July 7, 1978 – Johnny Paycheck w/R.C. Cannon - $6, $5
July 12, 1978 – Kansas w/Dudek Finnegan Krueger Band - $7
August 18, 1978 – Seals & Croft w/Eddie Money - $7.50, $6.50
Sept. 1, 1978 – Doobie Brothers w/Wet Willie - $7
Sept. 9, 1978 – AC/DC w/Cheap Trick and The Dictators - $5
Oct. 13, 1978 – Harlem Globetrotters - $6, $5
Oct. 14, 1978 – Outlaws w/Pat Travers - $7
Oct. 21, 1978 – Ferrante & Teicher - $8, $7
November 2, 1978 – Kenny Rogers w/Eddie Rabbit and Dottie West - $7.50, $6.50
Oct. 28, 1978 – Bob Seger Silver Bullet Band
Nov. 3, 1978 – Charlie Daniels Band - $6
Nov. 9, 1978 – Chicago - $8.50
Dec. 2, 1978 – Statler Brothers w/Barbara Mandrell - $7.50, $6.50, $5.50
Dec. 26, 1978 – Atlanta Rhythm Section w/Ambrosia $6
Jan. 6, 1979 – Styx w/Cindy Bullens - $7
Jan. 24-25, 1979 – Red Skelton - $12, $10
Jan. 27, 1979 – Boston w/Sammy Hagar - $7
Feb. 2, 1979 – Heart w/Firefall - $7
Feb. 10, 1979 – Merle Haggard w/Marty Robbins - $8, $7
March 3, 1979 – Sha Na Na - $7.50, $6.50
March 16, 1979 – Waylon Jennings w/Buddy Holly’s Original Crickets - $8, $7
March 17, 1979 - Rush w/Angel - $7
March 23, 1979 – Charlie Pride - $7.50, $6.50
April 5, 1979 – Don Williams w/Charlie McCoy and Barefoot Jerry $7.50, $6.50
April 7, 1979 – Eddie Rabbit w/Gail Davies - $7.50
April 14, 1979 – Black Oak Arkansas w/Stillwater and Brownsville Station - $6.50
April 17, 1979 – Eric Clapton w/Muddy Waters - $7.50
April 27, 1979 – Cheap Trick w/TKO - $6.50
May 5, 1979 – Tom Jones w/Freddie Roman $12, $10
May 11, 1979 – Mahogany Rush w/Blackfoot and April Wine - $7
May 12, 1979 – Willie Nelson w/Leon Russell - $8, $6
May 19, 1979 – Oak Ridge Boys w/Emmylou Harris - $8, $7
June 5, 1979 – Lawrence Welk - $8.50, $7.50
June 16, 1979 – Nazareth w/Mahogany Rush - $7
July 7, 1979 – England Dan & John Ford Coley w/Counterphase - $8, $7, $6
July 27, 1979 – Molly Hatchet
Aug. 24, 1979 – Blackfoot w/Nantucket - $4
Sept. 14, 1979 – Moe Bandy w/Joe Stampley - $6, $5
Sept. 22, 1979 – Little River Band
Sept. 28, 1979 – AC/DC w/Sammy Hagar and Mothers Finest
Oct. 6, 1979 – Johnny Paycheck w/Bellamy Brothers
Oct. 20, 1979 – Blue Oyster Cult w/Rainbow - $7 plus 50 cents parking
Oct. 26, 1979 – Peter Frampton w/Pat Travers and Mothers Finest $8 plus parking
Nov. 3, 1979 – Larry Gatlin - $7, $6
Nov. 17, 1979 – Conway Twitty w/Ronnie McDowell - $8, $7
Nov. 23, 1979 – Harlem Globetrotters - $6, $5
Nov. 24, 1979 – REO w/Ronnie Montrose - $7
Nov. 30, 1979 – Statler Brothers w/Barbara Mandrell - $8, $7
Dec. 8, 1979 – Foreigner w/Wet Willie and Nantucket - $8
Dec. 14, 1979 – ZZ Top w/Point Blank - $8
Freedom Hall kicked off the eighties with teen idol Rex Smith (“You Take My Breath Away”) on Jan. 11, 1980. Tickets were $8 and $7.

Rock and roll didn’t suddenly cease coming to Freedom Hall with the advent of the eighties. Alice Cooper, AC/DC, Van Halen and Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons all performed in 1980. But David and I had to draw the line somewhere. If you want a list of eighties acts, you’ll have to make your own. Count on spending four hours per year searching microfilm.

Another Kingsport Teacher Enters the Eternal Classroom

 

Margaret Melton in college

Miss Melton and I arrived at Ross N. Robinson Junior High at the same time. I was a newly-minted seventh grader and she was a newly-minted English teacher, fresh out of Berea College and joining an already formidable English Department at RNRJHS that included the legendary She Who Must Be Obeyed Of RNRJHS, Mary Erin Riley, the kind-hearted Sara Spracher and a dozen other Kingsport school system legends and future legends like Gerry McCammon.

I was never assigned to Miss Melton’s class during my three years but I got to know her later after I moved back to Kingsport.

She was a wonderful person with a delightfully dry sense of humor.

Miss Melton – Eunice Margaret Melton Tunnell - died earlier this week.

At a teacher’s reunion in 2004 I told her my most memorable story about English class at RNR and she responded with a story that was even better.

In ninth grade I was assigned to the lovely and versatile Miss Snyder, who taught both English and Spanish.

Right before spring break that year Miss Snyder finished up our unit on Charles Dickens’ “Great Expectations.”

That Friday morning is indelibly etched in my mind. I hopped out of my dad’s car and was walking toward Robinson’s front door when I noticed several of my classmates carrying boxes and lugging other heavy objects.

Oh, I thought, they are carrying in their “Great Expectations” projects.

And that’s when it hit me.

Are our “Great Expectations” projects due today?

Suddenly my stomach started doing cartwheels.

I thought they were due…well, I didn’t know when I thought they were due.

Now I knew. They were due today. It was a nightmare come true.

I had two choices:

I could go to the office and tell our principal Mr. Webb the truth, that I felt nauseous and he would need to call my father to come and get me.

Or I could hurriedly create a project.

I didn’t have English until seventh period. I had a study hall and health class – which was like study hall with a teacher – before English.

I thought maybe I could pull off creating a project out of thin air. Plus I knew if necessary I could always get “sick” during sixth period.

There was no way I could bake a cake or sew a wedding dress or papier-mâché a diorama in study hall.

So I did the only thing I could do in a study hall period. I wrote a new ending for “Great Expectations.”

Dickens had never been satisfied with the original ending to his story and on the advice of a friend he had written a second more upbeat ending. I knew this because Miss Snyder had told us.

I would write a third ending! It was the easiest solution. It was the only solution.

I turned it in and forgot all about it over spring break but when I sat down in my seat the first day back, I suddenly remembered it. I suddenly remembered because I saw that Miss Snyder had my paper in her hand.

Oh, crap.

She began to review the projects situated around the room, the cakes and costumes, the models and the miniatures. And then she came to mine.

I knew she had figured me out. I was ready for my figurative flogging. Then I heard words like “creative” and “unique” and…and I wondered who she was talking about.

That’s when she told the class she had given me an A plus.

I tried to accept my accolades with humility. Because, believe me, I knew the truth and I knew I should be humble. I had plenty to be humble about. But…I had pulled it off.

You may think that the lesson here is that necessity is the mother of invention. Or when the going gets tough the tough get going. Or something equally as clichéd.

The real lesson is that there is such a thing as luck.

 

When I finished telling Miss Melton that story, she laughed out loud.

And then she began to tell me a story about her first year teaching at Robinson.

“It was the end of the school year and one afternoon Mr. Webb came into my room. That was not something he normally did, so I was on high alert.”

She said he told her he would be back Monday to look at her lesson plans from the year.

She said there was suddenly a queasy feeling in her stomach. “I thought, what lesson plans? Was I supposed to have been doing lesson plans?”

But like that 14-year-old boy in Miss Snyder’s English class, she didn’t panic. She pondered.

“I went home and spent the entire weekend writing lesson plans for the past year. On Monday Mr. Webb came in and I dug them out of my desk drawer, as if they had been sitting in there all year, and handed them to him. He thumbed through, reading a few pages and moving on to the next notebook. Finally he got up and started out the door. ‘Those are excellent,’ he said. ‘I look forward to working with you next year.’”

She taught at Robinson for the next 30 years.

 

Rest in peace, Miss Melton.

(She married Truman Tunnell in 1975 so the name on her obituary is Eunice Margaret Melton Tunnell. She was 83.)

 

 

Remembering other teachers

Here is a list of all the teachers in the Kingsport school system for the school year 1962-1963. (Click to enlarge.)

I remember so many of them. Most of them fondly….

 

 

 RNR Teachers in 1962

Here is a photo of the 1962 Ross N. Robinson Junior High School faculty. (My eighth grade math teacher Jim Scott gave this to me about 20 years ago. Gerry McCammon Frazier helped me with the names.)

 

Row 1(l to r)

Tommy Hill, Hazel Stewart, Johnnie Wray, Rowena Johnson, Maude Dishner, Mildred Kozsuch, Lucille Massengill, Shirley Garrett, Don Stevens, Delbert Webb (principal).

 

Row 2

Jack Campbell, Nancy Randall, Sarah Gouge (McKee), Gerry McCammon (Frazier), Margaret Melton (Tunnell), Wanda Bledsoe, Lorena Hoover, Hope King.

 

Row 3

Oscar Dalton, Nell McLean, Bea Gilbert, Sarah Spracher, Mary Tuggle, Faye Neergaard, Madeline Thomas, Ruth Sauer, Mary Riley, Wilma Snyder (Bunting), Dolly Wallen(behind Mr. Webb).

 

Row 4

Reba Robinette, Jim Scott, Jo Ann Emmert, Sam Hicks, Charles Flanary, Bob Shepherd, Don Little, David Wise.