He's in bad condition [lung cancer] in a Nashville hospital.
Waggoner is a 50 yr. member of the Grand Ole Opry.

Get well Porter, and keep on truckin....

Here's a classic:

I've always accused my brother in law of looking like Porter.

He was as much of my growing up as grits, peaches, and George Jones. Here's wishing Porter well. And what about Speck Rhodes?

"No Anchovies, Please"

Porter has died, he had been in a hospice for last few days.

gmanp Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Porter has died, he had been in a hospice for last
> few days.


RIP.

Elmo Lewis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I've always accused my brother in law of looking
> like Porter.
>
> He was as much of my growing up as grits, peaches,
> and George Jones. Here's wishing Porter well. And
> what about Speck Rhodes?

Elmo, I don't remember Speck Rhodes but I do remember some country music TV show that would come on Saturday evenings and I think it was called the Porter Wagoner Show......and he dressed in this hideously gawdy sequened shirts....and there was always an omnipresent pedal steel guitar....it was indeed a part of my childhood, too. I think it came on before that damn Lawrence Welk Show.

You got it, Lukester. Every Saturday night as a kid. Porter wore those sequined suits and was the first exposure for Dolly Parton. Norma Jean had been on there before Dolly became his singing partner. Dolly had a bigger (ahem) voice than NJ.


Speck was a comedy part of the show. He wore a checkerboard suit and a derby hat and acted kinda like Goober on the Andy Griffith show. he was always calling some chick on the phone.

"No Anchovies, Please"

...ah yes, now I remember Speck.....and what kind of mother would name her child "Speck?".....I forgot Dolly and her (ahem) big voice was on the show too.....I remember seeing Porter Wagoner at the NC State Fair back in the early 70's....I really wasn't into country music. Me and some buddies were selling drinks at the concession stands and got in for free. I remember thinking, man this is lame....let's go smoke cigarettes or see the human pin cushion or something.

Yeah, the show "That Nashville Music" came on about that time, too. It showcased all that was wrong with country music in the early 70's. Maybe it was the catalyst for the Outlaw movement. Long live Waylon.

Luke, glad we got to catch the World Series champs in Atlanta.

"No Anchovies, Please"

yeah, I bet you're right Elmo about "all that was wrong with country music" and the outlaws (Waylon, Willie, David Allen Coe?, Jerry Jeff Walker?)

anyhoo, yeah, too bad the Braves didn't make it to the World Series, but it was cool watching the team that stomped the Braves on June 19 in the World Series....next summer I promise to get to Atlanta much earlier in the day so we have more time to party before the game.....



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2007-10-29 21:08 by Lukester.

Speck died in 2000, don't know the circumstances.

This morning I heard a quote about Porter attributed to Waylon. something like: Porter could never do "pop", even with a mouth full of firecrackers

that's funny......I'll have to remember that one gmanp

Hey, Lukester, I'll try to maintain a little later schedule next year. Coulda been that NC moonshine!

"No Anchovies, Please"

...or the gazzillion beers....who knows?

Country angels all around ya Porter....RIP



ROCKMAN

Here's the LA Times story/obituary from today.

[www.latimes.com]

By Randy Lewis, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
October 29, 2007
Porter Wagoner, the blond pompadoured, rhinestone-encrusted personification of Nashville tradition, host of the longest-running country-music variety show in TV history and mentor to Dolly Parton, died Sunday night of lung cancer. He was 80.

Wagoner died at a hospice in Nashville, according to an announcement on the Grand Ole Opry's website.

Parton recently went to a Nashville hospital to visit the man who inspired her best-known song, "I Will Always Love You," after their acrimonious career split in the mid-1970s.

She described him then as very weak, but said Wagoner "had his wits and joked around," and she vowed she would sing with him again at the Grand Ole Opry when he was ready. Wagoner was released from the hospital Friday and transferred to hospice care.

A little more than a year ago, Wagoner had been seriously ill after suffering an intestinal aneurysm, but defied a dire medical prognosis and recovered sufficiently to mount a career comeback that led to appearances last summer on "The Late Show With David Letterman" and an opening slot at Madison Square Garden with upstart rock band the White Stripes, whose members are ardent Wagoner fans.

Country singer and songwriter Marty Stuart, a generation younger than Wagoner, coaxed his childhood idol into a recording studio last winter to record a new album, "The Wagonmaster." The recording brought Wagoner renewed attention, some of the best reviews of his career and created a new cachet among fans who are yet another generation younger than Stuart. The album also is expected to garner Wagoner at least one Grammy Award nomination from members of an industry that has long favored rewarding veterans who successfully reignite their careers.

When Wagoner performed in Los Angeles in June in conjunction with the album's release, it wasn't at an old-line country-music club, but at the trendy Safari Sam's nightclub on the edge of Silver Lake and Hollywood. Performing in one of his signature jewel-laden western suits and dazzling silver cowboy boots, he was cheered by fans young enough to be his grandchildren -- and called it one of the biggest thrills of his life.

This year he also celebrated his 50th year as a member of the Grand Ole Opry cast. He returned to the country-music institution in March after recuperating from the aneurysm and resumed his role as one of the organization's most recognizable stars.

Over a period of nearly 40 years, Wagoner placed 81 songs on the country-music chart, 19 of those duets with Parton, who joined his show in 1967 as a replacement for his first female co-star, Norman Jean. Wagoner and Parton were named country group and country duo of the year in 1970 and 1971 by the Country Music Assn.

Wagoner's music often told dark tales of desperate people in stark terms that placed him in the gothic tradition of country music. This was best exemplified in his 1971 recording "The Rubber Room," a song about a man wrestling with the dark side of his psyche. "The Cold Hard Facts of Life," a 1967 hit, recounted the tale of a husband returning home early from a business trip to find his wife in the arms of another man. Without directly describing the outcome, the song ends with the husband sitting in his cell on death row, asking himself, "Who taught who the cold hard facts of life?"

Porter Wagoner was born Aug. 12, 1927, in West Plains, Mo. He grew up helping out on the family farm, but when he wasn't busy with farm chores he would spend hours standing on the trunk of a felled oak tree pretending he was host of the Grand Ole Opry, which he listened to religiously on the radio.

Once a neighboring farmer stumbled on the young man mimicking his act and asked what he was doing. When Wagoner told him of his dream to be an Opry star one day, the farmer told him, "You're as close to the Grand Ole Opry as you'll ever get. You'll be looking these mules in the rear end when you're 65."

Recalling that incident backstage at the Opry earlier this year, Wagoner, who was surrounded in his kingly dressing room by photos showing him with hundreds of celebrity well-wishers who had joined him on the show over the years, just smiled and said with a gentle laugh, "I wish I could see him now."

He got his first guitar from his older brother, Glenn, whose death before age 20 from a heart ailment hit Wagoner hard. He became determined to carry on his brother's love for music. Working at a department store in West Plains, Wagoner was hired by the owner to sing on a radio show he sponsored.

His initial attempts at a recording career were less than stellar, as Wagoner simply attempted to copy the sound of his idol, Hank Williams. But he quickly realized that his only chance at a meaningful life in music was to be himself.

He wrote and recorded "A Satisfied Mind," a song that discounts the rewards of the material world in favor of the facets of life that lead to peace of mind. It took him to the top of the country chart in 1955 for the first time and remained his biggest hit.

He sang with an unadorned, everyman voice, not the booming bass-baritone of a Johnny Cash, the jazz-inflected acrobatics of Willie Nelson or the bluegrass-steeped purity of a Vince Gill.

"I don't try to show off a so-called beautiful voice, because I don't feel my voice is beautiful," Wagoner once said. "I believe there is a different kind of beauty, the beauty of being honest, of being yourself, of singing like you feel it."

He reached the No. 1 spot two more times, in 1962 with "Misery Loves Company," and a dozen years later with "Please Don't Stop Loving Me," a duet with Parton.

More than his own music, Wagoner's greatest legacy was his syndicated TV series, "The Porter Wagoner Show," which ran from 1960 to 1979.

When Parton left his TV show to launch a solo career that made her one of country's biggest stars, Wagoner felt betrayed; meanwhile, she felt he had exploited her songwriting talent for his own benefit. Wagoner sued her, but they eventually settled the lawsuit and reconciled.

Part of the settlement was that Parton agreed to record another album with Wagoner during the height of her own success in the late 1970s and early '80s. The session yielded a pair of hits, "Making Plans" and "If You Go, I'll Follow You," but failed to substantially revive Wagoner as a hit-maker.

Parton acknowledged writing "I Will Always Love You" as a peace offering to Wagoner, but she said it took him years to understand its message. The song was a hit for her three separate times -- when it was released in 1974, as a remake for the 1982 movie "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" and in 1995 as a duet with Vince Gill. It became an international pop smash when Whitney Houston recorded it in 1992.

Wagoner's old-school country style fell out of favor with Nashville, except for his role at the Opry, as country moved on in the '80s to younger, more pop-music minded stars such as Alabama. But Wagoner never relinquished his love for flashy Nudie Cohn-designed outfits.

At his Safari Sam's performance in June, Stuart, who led his backing band, quipped that "they should rename Lankershim as Porter Wagoner Boulevard" for his undying patronage of the veteran North Hollywood western-wear designer.

Marty Stuart, who spent time as a member of Johnny Cash's band in the '80s before launching a successful career of his own, grew up in Mississippi watching Wagoner's TV show every Saturday afternoon with his father.

The album they recorded together, "The Wagonmaster," resuscitated some of Wagoner's old songs and added a few new ones.

Funeral services were pending.

Wagoner's survivors include a son, Richard; and two daughters, Denise and Debra.

randy.lewis@latimes.com

thanks for the info hairball

Lots of tributes going on here in Nashville to P. W.
Today's paper has a link to a slide show, info about the services, etc.

[www.tennessean.com]

Porter was a country/western legend.

RIP

He was just on Letterman in July , most likely his last TV gig
Dave Let. & Paul Schaeffer were sayin that nite the way artists play country music today " well it really isn't country music " but Porter is da real deal

here's da clip
[www.cbs.com]

R.I.P.

Porter and Dolly, Saturday nights, great-grandparents' house, family, fried chicken... good memories.

Obituaries Melbourne Age - 31 October 2007



ROCKMAN

ROCKMAN

RIP PORTER - now I know where JIMMY PAGE got his stage clothes ideas in the 70's...BTW, do think Porter ever got his hands on Dolly's "Floaters". Now that would be what I would call a "Serious Goal", something I would think about in those last dark hours on my deathbed.... those memories would surely carry one through into the Tunnel of LIGHT.....

Maybe he did in the Rubber Room...



ROCKMAN

Elmo Lewis Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hey, Lukester, I'll try to maintain a little later
> schedule next year. Coulda been that NC moonshine!

Damn! No wonder y'all were in such a great mood. It was cool to see you just take over that table. btw--what kind of Mothers would name her son Lukester or Elmo? Cheers!

Hey Rockman, how's you make those BOLD TYPE words appear like that? Are you an EVIL SCOCERER OR SOMETHING? Come on Lad, Fess up !! I do believe it be time to cleanse The Rockman's soul - it's that time mate - it's here now, will do you nuttin' but good Thangs.... Ahhh, we'll need a Dingo or 2 for the Sacrificial Ceremony before we start here.....

Ah...Ha love to con heart-breakers then burn 'em alive
What's left gets fed to horny scorpians...Cruel but highly entertaining...



ROCKMAN

johnny cash,waylon,buck owens. now porter-and too many more to mention. All the greats are leaving us the last few years. How long can Ray Price and George Jones hold on? only "ganga" keeps ray going! The pure country that still would coexist with rockers and bluesman alike on the same stage gives the "generic country" we must endure now sound even more plastic. Of course Gram has somebody to pick with! to quote Porter "Its so hard to find one rich man in ten with a satisfied mind".