danny williamson remembers. buhdge

buhdge remembers yesterday, and then some

Guest Remembrances

"Many of these musical memories have become intertwined with memories of my father."

Musical Memories
by Danny Williamson

Growing up in rural eastern North Carolina, I was desperate for good music to listen to late at night. Although I love bluegrass music and somewhat like country music now, in those days I cared nothing about either one. My older brother and my older sister were somewhat into Elvis, Bobby Vee, Bobby Rydell, etc. and all of the usual radio pablum on the air in the late fifties and early sixties. However, we had no stereo to play records; we got all of our music from the radio. I'm referring to AM radio, since that is about all that anyone had, or listened to.

During the day , we would listen to WKIX, "Channel 85," in Raleigh, NC. (I lived near Clinton, on a tobacco farm, sixty miles south of Raleigh). KIX played the latest tunes and was one of the few stations in the South to support the Beatles during the legendary Beatle Boycott. But at night, it was a whole different world! I would lay in bed and manually--no preset buttons or remote control to use--tune to such stations as WOWO, Ft. Wayne, Indiana with Big Jack! WLS Chicago had a DJ whose name escapes me now (If anyone knows who I'm talking about, please inform me; this was around 1966, 1967 and 1968).

I would also listen to WABC, New York (Cousin Brucie) on occasion, but found WOWO and WLS to be somewhat 'hipper''; those stations played songs more frequently and with fewer commercials. Better mixture of tunes too. Of course, all popular radio stations of that day played everything: bubblegum, soul, novelty songs, pop tunes and straight-ahead rock and roll. It's a shame that today's radio stations don't give you a chance to be exposed to everything that's listenable and out there for the youth market.

One thing about listening to that radio was kind of interesting. It was an early 60s mono GE model that had been dropped; the top and back side had been broken off. I had it sitting in a caned chair next to my bed, right at my head. I would often place, or lay, my hand or arm over the top to get a better signal and more volume. Often, if I fell asleep, my brother would have to come in from his bedroom, switch off the radio, take my arm away and place it on the bed. I never awoke when he did this. It's amazing to me that I was never electrocuted as my hand lay on top of, or near, all of those tubes and whatever else was back there. I saw an old radio like that in a consignment store recently, on sale for $5.00. Didn't buy it; I came by the next week and it was gone, regretfully.

Anyway, I bought my first (and the first in my home) stereo with tobacco money in the summer of 1968. But that is another story.

April 16 , 2005