I think the show's success is due to the enduring infamy of the real woman. I only really know what I've read about her. I have a biogrphy of Patsy plus a collection of her letters that were published a few years ago. Here's what I can tell you about Patsy Cline: She was a force to be reckoned with. She had a hearty laugh that you hear a block away. She could cuss like a sailor with the boys one night and slip into a gown and fur for a performance a Carnegie Hall the next. She called everybody "hoss" and filled a room with energy when she entered it. She fought with her producers-- who wanted to pigeon hole her into doing the kind of music they thought she was best for. She had fun. She knew what would sell and adapted her image to whatever the current trend was. When "cowgirls" were popular in country music she had her mom make her a custom cowgirl dress with fringe (see photo above). Later, when she broke into pop scene she cut her hair short, put on a pair of bright red Laura Petry pants, and showed the world she was "modern"!
49 nine years ago today the world lost a great tallent when a small airplane crashed in the woods near Camden, Tennessee. Country music legend Patsy Cline died that day along side her manager Randy Hughs and fellow musicians Cowboy Copas & Hawkshaw Hawkins. I've decided to spend some time this afternoon listening to Patsy's music and reflecting on this woman who died decades before I was born. I am a huge Patsy Cline fan.
I grew up listening to country music so it's not surprise that the first time I heard a Patsy Cline song I was just a kid. I remember it well. I was at my grandmother's house playing in the den while she was listening to the radio and cooking supper. Her small transistor radio crackled as "She's Got You" began to play. Even as a kid I was stopped in my tracks by Patsy's voice. I asked "Mamaw, who is that?!" She replied "That's Patsy Cline." in a matter-of-fact way. I was too young to really understand the difference in current music v/s oldies. I had no idea that I was listening to a song that was recorded 25 years earlier. All I knew was that I had a new favorite singer and her name was Patsy Cline!Fast forward a few years and you'll find me as a very awkward teenager mailing away $10 and a membership application to become part of the Always Patsy Cline Fan Club. While most of my friends were listening to Nirvana, Depeche Mode, or Tori Amos... I was a different kind of "emo kid". I felt that the sad love songs of Patsy Cline best described my tortured suburban teen experience. I mean, lyrics like these are PERFECT for a gay kid crying into his pillow over a crush on some straight boy:
If you loved me half as much as I love you
You wouldn't worry me half as much as you do.
You're nice to me when there's no one else around
You only build me up to let me down ("Half as Much" by Curly Williams)
Of course I outgrew that emo phase-- but my love for Patsy Cline has never died. I was lucky enough to work on a production of the musical based on her life, Always Patsy Cline while I was at the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. The show has sort of a flawed book, but if you get someone who does a good job portraying Patsy it can be a great show! And that's just what we had in Cincinnati. Molly Andrews did an amazing job of playing Patsy. Always Patsy Cline is one of those shows that a theatre puts in their season to put butts in seats (especially if that theatre is in the South). It sells very well! Do that and A Christmas Carol and the rest of your season is paid for.
It breaks my heart to think that we will never know what else this woman would have done if she hadn't died at the age of 30. Can you imagine what she'd have been like post women's lib?! What would a Patsy Cline of the 70's have produced? How else would she have reinvented herself? She could have continued to produce music into the 80's and 90s!
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7g6nfU8_Mm8]
