Honky Tonk Song

Buck Norris sings “Honky Tonky Song” by Webb Pierce. Webb Pierce was one of the most popular honky tonk vocalists of the ’50s, racking up more number one hits than similar artists like Hank Williams, Eddy Arnold, Lefty Frizzell, and Ernest Tubb. For most of the general public, Pierce — with his lavish, flamboyant Nudie suits — became the most recognizable face of country music, as well as all of its excesses; after all, he boasted about his pair of convertibles lined with silver dollars and his guitar-shaped swimming pool. For all of his success, Pierce never amassed the reputation of his contemporaries, even though he continued to chart regularly well into the ’70s. Webb’s weakness for gaudy ornaments of his wealth, as well as his reluctance to break away from hardcore honky tonk, meant that he had neither supporters in the industry, nor the ability to sustain the ever-changing tastes of a popular audience. Nevertheless, he remains one of the cornerstone figures of honky tonk, both for his success and his artistic achievements. As a child in West Monroe, LA, Pierce became infatuated with Gene Autry films and his mother’s hillbilly records, particularly those of Jimmie Rodgers and various Western swing and Cajun groups. He began to play guitar before he was a teenager. At the age of 15, he was hired as a singer by Monroe’s KMLB. During World War II, Pierce enlisted in the Army. While he was in the service, he married Betty Jane Lewis; their wedding was in June of 1942 …
Video Rating: 5 / 5

Freur is the name of the second band (following the art school collaboration, The Screen Gemz) of Karl Hyde and Rick Smith, who went on to found the successful electronica act Underworld. The band was formed in the early 1980s in Cardiff, Wales by Hyde, Smith and Alfie Thomas. It originally had only a graphic ‘squiggle’ for a name. In 1983, after recruiting John Warwicker and drummer Bryn Burrows (formerly of the Fabulous Poodles), they got a recording contract with, CBS Records, and met the label’s insistence on a pronounceable name, with the compromise that the squiggle was pronounced Freur. Their first and only hit single (number 59 in the UK Singles Chart), was “Doot Doot” (1983). It was recorded and co-produced by Alex Burak at The Point studio in London, which was controlled by Rupert Merton of Point Music publishing. Merton (who also had an early version of the Thompson Twins on his roster of artists) signed Freur. The band released five further tracks after “Doot Doot”, between 1983 and 1985: “Matters of the Heart”, “Runaway”, “Riders in the Night”, “Devil and the Darkness” and “Look in the Back for Answers”. All failed to dent the UK chart. Freur released two albums: Doot Doot (1983) and Get Us Out of Here! (1985). The second LP was only released in Germany and the Netherlands. Warwicker left the band in 1986 and Freur went into recess. In 1987, Hyde, Smith, Thomas and Burrows, along with bassist Baz Allen signed to Sire Records under a new name, Underworld, and …
Video Rating: 4 / 5