Music

Hank Thompson, RIP

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First Porter Wagoner, now Hank Thompson—it hasn't been a happy fall for fans of classic country music. Here's something to ease the pain:
Hope they managed to fill his order before he left.

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Books Editor Jesse Walker is the author of Rebels on the Air and The United States of Paranoia.

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  1. Karen

    Damn. Thanks for reminding how good the stuff I was raised on (anyone else remember WBAP when it was a country station?) and how much country music SUCKS!!!! SUXXXOOORRSSSS!!!! now. Oh, well.

    Here’s one more.

  2. Jim Walsh

    Tim Wilson said it best: Country was better when it was ugly.

    PS: Speaking of old-school country guys, I saw Bill Anderson getting an award tonight on the CMA show…

    PPS: When the hell did Reba McEntire drop her last name? How lame is that…

  3. Sounds like another tragic Assassanation by Nature.

  4. src

    I wish I’d known about him before. Frank Thompson is amazing.

  5. Six Pack to Go: classic drinking song.

  6. J sub D

    …used electrical engineering knowledge he acquired in courses at the University of Texas, Princeton University and Southern Methodist University to highlight his concerts with top flight sound and lighting systems, an innovation in those days.

    Renaissance man?
    No, that’s not snark.

  7. Rattlesnake Jake

    “(anyone else remember WBAP when it was a country station?)”

    I remember it. It was out of Fort Worth and it had a long range.

  8. My parents were friends with Hank Thompson and my Dad’s band opened of few shows for Hank. Back in the early sixties, Hank Thompson had one of the first luxury touring buses. It was a converted Greyhound bus. The lit up sign above the windshield that was used to announce a bus’s destination proudly said “Hank Thompson and the Brazos Valley Boys.” However, when the bus was speeding or making illegal U-Turns, then the sign was flipped to read “Buck Owens and the Buckeroos.”

    I’ve heard a lot of stories about many musicians, but I never heard one bad thing said about Hank Thompson. He was a class act, a consummate performer, a talented singer, and songwriter.

    Click on my name to see him sing “Humpty Dumpty Heart” or cut and paste: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ot4FzlE-aXA

  9. rac

    As everyone who has an ounce of taste knows, “country” music began its precipitous decline in the early 70s. Can’t put a definitive date on it (though some would say that symbolically, it was when the Grand Ole Opry moved from the Ryman). I watched the CMA awards just to see what they said about Porter, and at least they had a decent artist (Dwight Yoakam) say a few words. Many walk in his footsteps, but none can fill his shoes.

    It was nice to see Whispering Bill get an award, but there is no doubt, the greats are going and will not be replaced by “Reba”!

  10. There is one new country singer that has the voice and talent to match the old country greats: Josh Turner.

    And Randy Travis ain’t no slouch, either.

  11. I saw Hank at a small club in Chicago (Schuba’s, for Chitowners) a few years back, and his voice was just as clear as in the clips embedded above. He made me wish I’d been born a few decades earlier.

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