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Porter Wagoner returns from obscurity
Associated Press ^ | August 10, 2007 | JOHN GEROME

Posted on 08/10/2007 2:24:18 AM PDT by HAL9000

Excerpt -

NEW YORK - Porter Wagoner looks right at home in the marble lobby of Manhattan's Roosevelt Hotel. He wears a dark Western suit and tie and holds a shiny black cane. The glare from the crystal chandelier reflects off his eyeglasses as he tilts his head back, trying to remember the last time he played Madison Square Garden.

Sometime in the '70s ... one of those package tours ... Little Jimmie Dickens and Faron Young were there ... some others he can't recall ...

Back then, "The Thin Man from West Plains" was still the grand showman of country music with his rhinestone suits and pompadour hair. He had a TV show and dozens of hits on his own and with a pretty young blonde named Dolly Parton.

All that faded with time, and so did Wagoner. He checked into a psychiatric hospital for exhaustion, his show went off the air, he was dropped from his record label and dismissed as a relic. Last summer he nearly died.

Except for his standing gig on the Grand Ole Opry, he was mostly forgotten.

Until.

"I was thinking while on stage last night, 'This is the biggest, most well-known arena in the country, and here I am performing at it,'" he says the morning after a show with the White Stripes.

~ snip ~


(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Music/Entertainment; Society; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: countrymusic; dollyparton; grandoleopry; nashville; porter; porterwagoner; wagoner

1 posted on 08/10/2007 2:24:19 AM PDT by HAL9000
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To: HAL9000

Great story, great article.


2 posted on 08/10/2007 2:59:43 AM PDT by RightOnline
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To: RightOnline
Great story, great article.

I could have done without that pic of Imus, looking like death, hovering over the article.
3 posted on 08/10/2007 3:07:35 AM PDT by Thrownatbirth (.....when the sidewalks are safe for the little guy.)
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To: HAL9000
I remember Porter and Dolly hawking some detergent with a gift towel stuffed inside on UHF channels back when UHF channels required a converter.
4 posted on 08/10/2007 3:49:23 AM PDT by Mikey_1962 (If Roger Maris got an asterisk next to his name, Bonds should get a syringe)
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To: HAL9000
Does anyone have a pic of Porter in full regalia?

Leni

5 posted on 08/10/2007 3:50:52 AM PDT by MinuteGal (Three Cheers for the FRed, White and Blue !)
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To: HAL9000

I think he was in a car racing/wrecking movie paired up with Terry Bradshaw back in the 70s. Gumball Rally maybe? Porter’s role was hysterical!


6 posted on 08/10/2007 3:52:00 AM PDT by ovrtaxt (Sworn to oppose control freaks, foreign and domestic.)
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To: HAL9000
Except for his standing gig on the Grand Ole Opry, he was mostly forgotten.

I know basically nothing about country music but I always thought that appearing at the Grand Ole Opry was the holy grail of country singers.How does that equate with obscurity?

7 posted on 08/10/2007 4:35:25 AM PDT by Gay State Conservative (If martyrdom is so cool,why does Osama Obama go to such great lengths to avoid it?)
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To: HAL9000

Eeew, he was always beyond creepy. He could have stayed obscure. Actually, I thought he’d died a decade or two ago.


8 posted on 08/10/2007 4:43:34 AM PDT by mtbopfuyn (I think the border is kind of an artificial barrier - San Antonio councilwoman Patti Radle)
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To: Mikey_1962

I remember that show. “And you can get them in boxes of Breeze!”


9 posted on 08/10/2007 4:56:45 AM PDT by Drawsing (The fool shows his annoyance at once. The prudent man overlooks an insult. (Proverbs 12:16))
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To: Drawsing

Breeze! You made my day by saving me from hours of pondering the name of that detergent, lol. I didn’t recall Dolly and Porter doing the ads, but sure remember the product.

Like lots of others, I didn’t realize he was still alive until this article. Probably because of Dolly’s rendition of “Hillbilly Heaven,” where she’s going down the list of all the stars she’s seeing “up there” in her dreams of going to the Gand Ole Opry in the Sky.

She says a bunch of names of country singers who are already there, then gets to “future” possibilities, such as George Jones and the like, then herself. Then she stops and says “oops” “where’s Porter?” “oh, there he is.”

Maybe that was a double-entendre on her part, alluding to his semi-vanishing act from the business.


10 posted on 08/10/2007 5:42:39 AM PDT by Rte66
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To: Rte66

I even remember now how Dolly would pronounce the phrase. “Gitcher flaher tayels (flower towels) in boxes of Breeze!”


11 posted on 08/10/2007 7:33:23 AM PDT by Drawsing (The fool shows his annoyance at once. The prudent man overlooks an insult. (Proverbs 12:16))
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To: HAL9000
I saw Porter Wagoner when I was a kid back in the 60's while I lived in Owensboro, Kentucky.

I was forced to go by my parents.

The one thing I remember about the concert was that he was disappointed that the auditorium didn't have more people in it.

12 posted on 08/10/2007 7:45:38 AM PDT by Tolkien (There are things more important than Peace. Freedom being one of those.)
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To: MinuteGal

13 posted on 08/10/2007 7:48:09 AM PDT by girlscout
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To: Revolting cat!

SONG TITLE: THE RUBBER ROOM

RUBBER ROOM (Porter Wagoner)
« © ‘72 Owepar Publishing »

In a buildin’ tall with a stone wall around,
there’s a rubber room.
When a man sees things and hears sounds that’s not there,
he’s headed for the rubber room.
Illusions in a twisted mind to save from self-destruction.
hmm it’s the rubber room.
Where a man can run into the wall
till his strength makes him fall and lie still...
And wait, for help, in the rubber room.
From his blurry vision of doom,
a psycho, in the rubber room.
The man in the room right next to mine screams a woman’s name,
hits the wall in vain...
He’s in the rubber room.
I hear footsteps poundin’ on the floor,
God I hope they don’t stop at my door.
Hmm I’m in the rubber room.
Now they’ve come to get me but they find,
I’m a screamin’ pretty words, tryin’ to make ‘em rhyme...(*)
I’m in the rubber room!
hmm a psycho...
I’m in the rubber room
hmm...

14 posted on 08/10/2007 9:13:40 AM PDT by weegee (NO THIRD TERM. America does not need another unconstitutional Clinton co-presidency.)
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To: HAL9000

Thanks for posting this article.


15 posted on 08/11/2007 2:56:50 AM PDT by Tainan (Talk is cheap. Silence is golden. All I got is brass...lotsa brass.)
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To: Gay State Conservative
“I know basically nothing about country music but I always thought that appearing at the Grand Ole Opry was the holy grail of country singers.How does that equate with obscurity?”

When that is the ONLY place you’re appearing, it’s obscurity. I like his work, and I thought he’d died years ago. No new albums? Dude must be daid!

Now, you’ll have to excuse me, I need to search Amazon...

16 posted on 08/18/2007 2:36:13 PM PDT by Old Student (We have a name for the people who think indiscriminate killing is fine. They're called "The Bad Guys)
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