Tom T. Hall passes away

[electra225]

Tom T. Hall passed away yesterday, the 22nd. He was 85. He was known for "Old Dogs, Children, and Watermelon Wine", and "I Love". His album cuts may have been some of his better efforts. Dick Curless "The Baron of Country Music", had a hit on " I Miss A Lot Of Trains", in 1971. "The Little Lady Preacher" is one of my favorites. Tom T. also advertised for Chevrolet trucks for a number of years.

[William]

I remember those ads, does that make me old? He had one of those voices you do not forget.

Bill

[electra225]

I sold a video of his 1973 commercial he did with a truck exactly like the one I had. He was pulling a boxcar. All I can offer to the rest of your response is "yes".

[electra225]

Poke here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5hRkU_hQsY

[TC Chris]

Interesting how trains remain a part of our national self-image even if passenger trains are mostly long gone. Train travel was unusual when my Boy Scout troop rode one to Colorado Springs for the 1960 Jamboree, and when around 1964 I took one to D.C. to visit my uncle and aunt. The Canadians held on a bit longer. I flew to Edmonton in about 1978 to bike between Jasper and Banff National Parks. We took a train from Edmonton almost to Jasper and then rode our bikes into the park. What I remember was a fierce headwind. Yeah, we've got Amtrak but that's mostly an east coast and transcontinental thing.

It used to be how Americans got around. My mother told her story about traveling from Birmingham, where she grew up, to Chicago, where she worked during WW II. She toted a watermelon with her. Now, of course,every supermarket has watermelon.

But we still resonate to train songs.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

Tom T. Hall was the son of a preacher. He spent his adult life, as well as much of his song writing caracturizing and mocking his childhood. The upside is that he became a master at hyperbole. His talent in this regard is one reason I appreciate his work. "I Miss A Lot Of Trains" is a song about a guy giving the middle finger to his lost love. I believe it has nothing to do with a physical, metal, literal choo-choo train. I believe "train" here refers to opportunity. "Your foolish mind and selfish heart are waiting there in vain. While I'm sleeping good, and I miss a lot of trains". I chose to link the Dick Curless version. Besides the hard-core country band accompaniment, Dick Curless himself may have been responsible for the outstanding piano riff.

[19&41]

People often look wistfully back at the 1970's, thinking about only the good parts and not remembering the bad, difficult and hard parts. I do remember Tom T. Hall as one of the good parts that made all the rest better as he sang. He was one of the people who opened up country music to a wider, broader audience than it had previously and to a degree, since. Rest in peace.

[TC Chris]

Tom T. Hall was the son of a preacher. He spent his adult life, as well as much of his song writing caracturizing and mocking his childhood. The upside is that he became a master at hyperbole. His talent in this regard is one reason I appreciate his work. "I Miss A Lot Of Trains" is a song about a guy giving the middle finger to his lost love. I believe it has nothing to do with a physical, metal, literal choo-choo train. I believe "train" here refers to opportunity. "Your foolish mind and selfish heart are waiting there in vain. While I'm sleeping good, and I miss a lot of trains". I chose to link the Dick Curless version. Besides the hard-core country band accompaniment, Dick Curless himself may have been responsible for the outstanding piano riff.

All true, but to caricature something, your audience has to know what you're talking about. And we all know that trains stand for travel, for leaving and arriving. We still associate that lonesome whistle in the distance with somebody leaving, or with leaving ourselves. How many people under 60 have ever traveled on a train, yet we all understand what it means. That's just interesting. Maybe it's because the musicians keep reminding us.

Chris Campbell

[electra225]

The audience for the Dick Curless version was a bunch of half-drunk truck drivers at the American Legion on Friday night. I know that I, personally, put enough quarters in the juke box playing that song to buy Mr.Curless his villa in the south of France (if he ever owned one. ) That song and "No One Will Ever Know" by Gene Watson. Many and many a pitcher emptied to the sound of these two recordings.

[MEZLAW]

Faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, more money.

[electra225]

"The Little Lady Preacher" and "The Ballad Of Forty Dollars" are two more Tom T. Halls songs of some fame. "Faster Horses" may have been one of his bigger hits later on.