Left out of most of the obituaries about renowned country music talk-show host Ralph Emery, who died Saturday, was how he infamous to many rock fans for having gotten into a tiff in the late 1960s …
But, lest Emery be remembered forever by Byrds buffs as a villain in the story, Emery later invited McGuinn onto his highly rated cable series “Nashville Now” in 1985 for a reconciliation — albeit a deeply awkward one — that was captured for posterity and can be viewed on YouTube. The sight of the very, very proud Emery admitting his ingrained bias against rock music and extending a sort of olive branch to McGuinn years later manages to be both cringe-worthy and kind of touching.
That was nothing compared to the chilliness Parsons and McGuinn received when they went on Emery’s clear-channel WSM-AM radio show to premiere their single, a song Bob Dylan had given them from his so-called basement tapes, “You AIn’t Goin’ Nowhere.” Or so they thought they would.
Parsons left the Byrds between the time the song was recorded in October 1968 and released on the “Dr. Byrds & Mr. Hyde” album in early 1969. So it was McGuinn who not only sang the lead vocal but added the spoken tag line that made the song’s subject unmistakable: “This one’s for you, Ralph.” That was theo a song that didn’t pull any punches in its disdain — all the way to including a line that said the figure in the lyrics was so redneck, he was “the head of the Ku Klux Klan.
I didn’t have any Byrd records.” In if-it-makes-you-feel-any-better fashion, Emery admits to having dissed an earlier rocker, many years before the Byrds. “Another embarrassing thing happened to me on that all-night show. The Jordanaires brought Buddy Holly by one night. I didn’t have any Buddy Holly records. I mean, I had Ray Price and George Jones, Carl Smith, Webb Pierce, Kitty Wells — those were the records I had.
McGuinn tries to explain that the Byrds were then dressing the country part. “See, you didn’t understand where we were coming from. We had fallen in love with country music in 1968. And Gram Parsons was from the South and he had always grown up on it, and his ambition in life was to play the Grand Ole Opry. And so with ‘Sweetheart of the Rodeo,’ we were trying to do a sincere, genuine country album… It came off a little different from that, but we were really sincere at that time.
South Africa Latest News, South Africa Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Ralph Emery, Country Music Broadcaster, Dies at 88The radio and television personality hosted live talk-variety show 'Nashville Now' for a decade.
Read more »
Ralph Emery, Country Music Broadcaster and Hall of Fame Member, Dies at 88Emery notably interviewed a number of country music stars as the host of ‘Nashville Now’ for a decade, from 1983 to 1993.
Read more »
Ralph Emery Dies: Country Music DJ & TV Host Was 88Ralph Emery, the country music disc jockey and television host who came to prominence on Nashville’s WSM, died on Saturday of natural causes, while surrounded by family at Nashville’s T…
Read more »
Ralph Emery Dies: Country Music DJ & TV Host Was 88Ralph Emery, the country music disc jockey and television host who came to prominence on Nashville’s WSM, died on Saturday of natural causes, while surrounded by family at Nashville’s T…
Read more »
Ralph Emery, Country Music Broadcaster, Dies at 88The radio and television personality hosted live talk-variety show 'Nashville Now' for a decade.
Read more »
National Weather Service: Expect snow going into Martin Luther King Jr. holidayNWS says that snow will start to accumulate Sunday night into Monday.
Read more »