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  1. #1
    Suspended 3-LockBox's Avatar
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    R.I.P. Porter Wagoner

    Prolly the best thing this guy ever did was introduce the world to Dolly Parton and inspire her to write and sing "I Will Always Love You" (yeah, the same song Whitney Houston oversang).

    He was very popular for a guy who's greatest success was his duets with Dolly. He had some moderate hit songs, but the man couldn't carry a tune in a sack. But he was flambouyant and personable, wearing suits with sequenced wagon wheels all over it (get it, cuz his last name...right). If I sound jaded, its because I had to grow up in a family whose parents loved country music and watched every country-western themed TV show. Porter Wagoner was a syndicated country institution in the '60s and early 70s, where he sang, had guests, and featured the stupifyingly buxom Parton (he wasn't stupid). He also featured a slew of comic 'talents' and hokey, wince inducing skits that made Hee-Haw look like Saturday Night Live in comparison.

    Be that as it may, Wagoner was a TV pioneer, being the first major CW recording entity to embrace the (relatively) new medium, in a very isolated genre relunctant to change. Dolly Parton may very well been a star anyway, but she was an instant success, being really the first country super star to come straight from TV and not the Grand Ol Opry, and that is a debt she owed to Porter, as resistant as he was to let her go (don't worry, she repayed him - he sued her in the early '80s). It was prolly the success of Wagoner's TV show that allowed shows like Hee-Haw to exist... well, happy trails anyway.

  2. #2
    Super Moderator Site Moderator JohnMichael's Avatar
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    I wish him peace and also thank him for introducing Dolly to the world. My favorite song by Dolly is "Bargain Store".
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  3. #3
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    Good to see I'm not the only person here who cared. Porter I can take or leave really, but Dolly... that's another story. For too many people she may be a punchline, but to me she is one of the finest singer/songwriters ever. Simply a beautiful voice singing simply beautiful melodies. Her version of "I Will Always Love You" still outshines Whitney's gross misreading of the song's lyrical content. "Jolene" is a heartbreaker everytime I hear it. I spin Dolly on wax at least once every other weekend. For Dolly, Porter gets props.
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  4. #4
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    I like Dolly's duet with Ricky Van Shelton, Rockin Chair.

    Did Porter go to the Green Green Grass at Home?

  5. #5
    Suspended 3-LockBox's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by JohnMichael
    I wish him peace and also thank him for introducing Dolly to the world. My favorite song by Dolly is "Bargain Store".
    My fave Dolly tune is The Seeker.


    Quote Originally Posted by Slumpy
    but to me she is one of the finest singer/songwriters ever. Simply a beautiful voice singing simply beautiful melodies
    And to think she can read or write music script...no, really. She has what I call a pristine voice, meaning (to me anyway) that her voice is of such a pure quality, that not only is a great singer, but she has an uncanny ability to harmonize with anybody. A scant few singers are like that. Emmy Lou Harris is one, Linda Ronstadt is another. So is Allison Krauss. Like Chet Adtkins once said, "she doesn't have to sneak up on her notes."

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