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WSM Collection 1953-05-26 Jimmie Rodgers Memorial
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WSM Collection 1953-05-26 Jimmie Rodgers Memorial
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- [00:00]
Kristen
Hey, Kristen, how's it tracking with Carvana Value Tracker?
- [00:04]
Unknown
What else?
- [00:05]
Oh, it's tracking, in fact. Value surge alert.
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Kristen
Trucks up 2.5%, vans down 1.7, just as predicted.
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Hank Snow
Mm. So we gonna.
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Kristen
I don't know.
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Jimmy Davis
Could sell.
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Unknown
Could hold the power to always know our car's worth. Exhilarating, isn't it?
- [00:25]
Tracking Always know your car's worth with Carvana Value Tracker.
- [00:31]
Hank Snow
Last Tuesday, May 26, was Jimmie Rogers Day in Meridian, Mississippi. WSM and NBC joined with the thousands who gathered there to pay tribute. The events of the day were transcribed for history, and this program brings you the highlights.
- [01:15]
Carl Smith
All around. The water tanks. Waiting for a train a thousand miles away from home.
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Unknown
Sleeping in the rain.
- [01:32]
Hank Snow
This is the story of how they honored a man and his guitar. How the fleeting wand of fame touched an almost obscure singer who'd grown up in the railroad yards of Meridian, Mississippi, and who in a few short years became one of America's top recording artists. Jimmie Rogers, America's blue yodeler, idol of millions of rural and city folk railroad men, cowboys, gamblers, hobos, sweethearts. He had a song for each of them and with a yodel that was sometimes sad, sometimes happy, and sometimes as plaintive as the whistle of the midnight train. Maybe the name of Jimmy Rogers isn't a familiar one to you, but you certainly know of his blue yodels, his songs of railroading, such as Waiting for a Train, the Brakeman's Blues, and the lullaby Sleep, Baby Sleep, so popular in the 20s and 30s in Meridian, Mississippi. This week, railroad men, folk song artists, fans, and Jimmy's former neighbors came to honor a man who passed away 20 years ago after enjoying only five short years of fame. Jimmie Rogers Day in Meridian was attended by thousands who came at the invitation of two of WSM's Grand Ole Opry folk stars, Ernest Tubb and Hank Snow, both of whom were inspired by Jimmy Rogers songs and who arranged much of the celebration with Meridian civic leaders. A colorful train with excursion type coaches pulled by an old style steam locomotive carried hundreds of guests to a roadside park at Meridian's outskirts. There, the old locomotive, its last run completed, was welded to the rails to serve as a background to the Jimmie Rogers Memorial, honoring not only the singing brakeman, but all departed railroad men as well. The first speaker at the dedication ceremonies is the singing ranger, Hank Snow.
- [03:11]
Jimmy Davis
Thank you very much, friends and neighbors. Thank you. I'd like to say to start with that I ain't much of a speaker, but I'll do the very best I can to put it before you. I would like to say it is a great honor to be here today on behalf of WSM's Grand Ole Opry and the entire hillbilly and polk industry to have a few words here on this wonderful happening here. Something that we have looked forward to for the past, I might say, 10 years. We're all gathered here from different parts of the nation. Every hillbilly and his brother, I believe, are here, boy and gal, to help in paying tribute to the daddy of us all and the daddy and originator of hillbilly and folk music, the late and great, the one and only Jimmy Rogers, once America's blue yodeler. Friends, I'd like to just tell you, as brief as I can, how much Jimmy Rogers has meant to the hillbilly field and to all us boys and gals in the business. Jimmy Rogers worked back, friends and neighbors. In 1926, when Jimmy recorded for the RCA Victor Company, it wasn't like it is today. They didn't have the modern equipment they have today to do the very best recordings that they do today. To make the best quality, the best volume and to bring out the voice as it is today. Therefore, Jimmie Rogers wasn't only under that handicap, but he was also under the handicap of being very ill and stricken with tuberculosis. He had a hard fight. Besides that, Jimmie Rogers was a brakeman on the Southern Railways for many years, fighting against weather of all kinds. As all you railway men understand, it is a rough life and of course, is very, very hard on the hell. Well, anyway, Jimmy carried on with his singing as kind of a sideline. Until finally Mr. Ralph Pier of the RCA Victor Company located him and brought him forward to the public. And you can see what has happened. He has led the way and paved the way to make it worthwhile for us. Our great friend Hank Williams, who our great musician above called away from us, proved that Jimmy Rogers did set the pace. Friends, the two different types of music, the modern class of music and the hillbilly type of music was separated for a long time. But our good friend Jimmy Rogers brought it along and handed it over to our great friend Hank Williams, who was the one that bridged it. He bridged that gap between the hillbilly and the popular music. Now it is really all one another time. Thanks to our wonderful friends Hank Williams for doing that part of it. Well, friends, I don't want to run over here in time too much. I would like to say once again on behalf of everybody that has taken part here in the. In making this day so Successful. This is a dream that Ernest Tubb and I had planned up for years and has finally came true. Tell you we see you again. On behalf of everybody in the hillbillian music industry, this is Hank Snow saying thanks a million until we see you all out at the stadium tonight. Good luck, good health, and may the good Lord be proud of you. Thank you. Now, friends and neighbors, it gives me great pleasure here to bring up a gentleman that actually knew Jimmie Rogers. I didn't, but this gentleman did, and as a matter of fact, had worked with Jimmie Rogers on several occasions. He too has added a great deal to make the hillbilly and the folk industry what it has arrived to today. Let's give him a wonderful welcome. The former Governor of Louisiana, Governor Jimmy.
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Kristen
Davis.
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Frank Clement
Hank Snow, Mrs. Rogers, members of the clergy, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. I was very happy when Ms. Rogers asked me to be here on this occasion, for I had known the Rogers family for some time. I was with Jimmy at some of his last recordings. He was a great inspiration to me as he was to many other folk artists. And I've often marveled at how much personality he put in one song, how he had a touch there that nobody seemed to duplicate. And I know that with his passing, he took with him the greatest voice of its kind, perhaps this country has ever known. At the same time, he left a world of happiness in the form of song to be heard around the world till the end of time. But most of all, he left to his very devoted wife and family a heritage that money couldn't buy. You know, it has been said that for every great man, there lurks somewhere in the shadows a woman. And I'm sure that no man could have a better inspiration than than that of his own wife. And knowing the Rogers family as I did, I know the greatest inspiration that he ever had was that of his own wife, Carrie Rogers, known as the first lady of hillbilly music. And I would like for Miss Jimmy Rogers to stand up and take a bow and say a word if she likes.
- [08:16]
Carrie Rogers
Jimmy Davis. Distinguished guests, Jimmy Rogers fans.
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Unknown
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- [09:10]
Carrie Rogers
Am not a speech maker and so I won't attempt to make a speech at this time. But I am profoundly grateful to all who have had anything to do with making this day possible. I am especially grateful to Mr. Ralph Pier of Southern Music for giving Jimmy his first opportunity to record. We are pleased that Mr. Pier is here today with his contribution to this occasion. My daughter Anita and I will always remember the thoughtfulness and assistance given us by Ernest Tubb and Hank Snow of Radio Record and Grand Ole Opry theme. It was Ernest and Hank who first sponsored this memorial movement. It's impossible for Ernest to be with us. He is with us in thought. We are especially happy that his son and Hank Snow are here participating in this event, this tribute to my Jimmy. Thank you.
- [10:44]
Frank Clement
Thank you, Miss Rogers, very much. You know, I'm one of the few people here that can understand how busy a governor can get and still not do all the things he'd like to do because he doesn't have the time. But we have with us today from one of our neighbor states a man who's been a great friend of hillbilly music and he's taking time out and I know he has time to do a lot of other things. I mean, he would perhaps could do a lot of other things and things he'll never get to do. But I know you like I appreciate his coming here and I met him for my first time some time ago. He's a man that has an enviable record at a very early age in life because he's still a very young man. And of course he's going to say.
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Kristen
A word to you.
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Frank Clement
And I have reference to his Excellency, the governor of the state of Tennessee, the Honorable Frank Clemens.
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Kristen
My friend Governor Jimmy Davis, Mrs. Rogers, and all of you, my friends and fellow lovers of the music of the people, as I prefer to call the type of music which Jimmy Rogers originated and which has been carried on forward to this day with increasing success by those for whom we have so much admiration. It is not a burden to me, but a great honor to the people of the Volunteer State of Tennessee that I should have been invited to come down here to the great city of Meridian in the Magnolia state of Mississippi to participate on this wonderful occasion in this tribute to the father of this Music that we love so well. As I stand before you, I am reminded of the fact that we are paying tribute not only to a man of the past, but to a memory that has continued to be perpetuated until the present and on into the future. You know, many people take much out of life and take much with them. But there are very few who leave us and leave behind more than they receive. On this occasion, we're going to unveil in a few moments a monument to a man. A man who is a legend in America today. And it is with peculiar pride that I come here. Because as the gentleman who gave him his opportunity can tell you, the first two records Jimmie Rogers ever recorded were in the city of Bristol, Tennessee. We're proud of that. We're proud that Tennessee had the opportunity of being the sightus of Jimmie Rogers stark in the recording field. We are proud of the fact, of course, that we've come to be known as the music capital of America. And why would I be here today, being a young man, to the extent that I was not a part of the day of Jimmie Rogers. Except that, as I remember, in days gone by when I lived up in Kentucky, I'd hear that old song, T stands for Texas and T stands for Tennessee. I'd hear people sing and talk about the Blue Yodel. And I came to love that kind of music. And I came to want to be a part of it. And when two men who I have great admiration and appreciation for, my friends Ernest Tubb and Hank Snow, came to the governor's office and said, frank, we want you to go to Meridian, Mississippi, for a day honoring Jimmie Rogers, who gave us all our opportunity. And I told them that if Jimmy Rogers gave them their opportunity, Jimmy Rogers was a man to be remembered. And from then on out, I began to reminisce and go back to the days when I heard his songs and remember what they had meant to me. Though I had not given the man the credit because his name had not been impressed upon me. And I got out the book that his good wife had authored. And I read the story of his life. And I studied more and more about Jimmy Rogers. And then Hank and Ernest brought me a Jimmy Rogers album to add to my collection of tunes that I love to play on my own Victrola, in my own house, when I have the opportunity. And with all that background, I came to realize perhaps we haven't given the credit to those in this field that we should have. Geography draws boundary lines. Men set up zones. Political parties have their partisanship but there's nothing under God's Son draws the line on this music that we love except a person's own heart and their willingness to take unto themselves that which these songsters offer unto us for our own comfort and appreciation. And with that thought in mind, we want to share with you here today the realization that from the great state of Tennessee we have come with our hearts open to you today and brought here to you the greatest collection of musical talent that the world has perhaps ever seen. We're happy to be with you and to share with you the knowledge that come perhaps this fall and certainly next year, we're going to officially proclaim, let them call it a Hillbilly Day, a Country Music Day, or a Music of the People Day. But in Tennessee, we'll have a day midst those Great Smoky Mountains. And we want you to come back up there and repay the visit we've made to you. And let's perpetuate, not for a day or for a year, but for all time, the name and memory of Jimmy Rogers and these great people who have followed him in this land of succession whereby they give unto the world the opportunity to have a better and a happier life because of the songs they make available to us. As my friend Hanks said, may the good Lord be real good to you. God bless you. Until we meet again.
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Jimmy Davis
Thank you.
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Hank Snow
That was an address by the honorable Frank Clement, Governor of Tennessee. Those were the ceremonies of the Jimmie Rogers Memorial. Then that night, the crowd assembled in Meridian's Junior College stadium to hear a three hour program by leading folk song artists honoring Jimmie Rogers Day. As we joined the mammoth jamboree, Hank Snow of WSM's Grand Ole Opry and his son, Jimmy Rogers Snow have just been introduced.
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Carl Smith
There's an old guitar that's lonely since the mast is gone away but he's singing to the angel way up in heaven today he left the blue song for the brakeman to the kid is the love of mine to all sweethearts he left a love song When Jimmy Roger said goodbye he left the Y before the cowboy they sing it now with Cheered him now and he left every pray lonely When Jimmy Rogers said goodbye they miss him down in Alabama across the world you can hear them say Mississippi lost their blue yodeler When Jimmy Rogers said goodbye Although the freight trains keep on running he caught a blast One arm the fly but he left his guitar behind him When Jimmy Rogers said goodbye.
- [20:05]
Hank Snow
That was Hank Snow and his son, Jimmy Rogers Snow, with their tribute in song to the memory of the late Jimmy Rogers. And now the show goes on. The next voice you will hear is that of the master of ceremonies, the Grand Ole Opry's Smiling Eddie Hill.
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Kristen
Right now, neighbors, it gives us a.
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Jimmy Davis
Great pleasure and a great opportunity to.
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Hank Snow
Introduce one of our favorite people at.
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Jimmy Davis
The Grand Ole Opry.
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Hank Snow
That I know you've heard many, many times. You're going to enjoy them more than ever tonight.
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Kristen
So what do you say? Let's give a great big welcome to Miss Minnie Pearl.
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Minnie Pearl
I'm just so proud to be here. Well, I like to not fade this. I'm telling you, them fellers back there wouldn't let me get through, you know. Oh, thank you. Yeah, no, it's all bark and no bite. I tell you, back there, there was two fellers standing back there, and I was trying to get food back there, and there was a police feller standing there. And I says to that police feller, I said, I wish you'd do something about them fellows right there. They are bothering me. He says, well, I've been standing here for 15 minutes and they ain't even looked at you. But I said, yeah, that's what's bothering me. What got me was, oh, there was a feller standing there when I passed by, and he said, ain't that that many pearl? It's been up there at the Grand Ole uproar all these years. Oven said, yes, that's her. Said, I wonder if she really is a country girl. He said, I bet she don't know a goose from a gander. I said, well, at Grindr Switch, we don't worry about that. We just put them all out there together and let them figure it out for themselves. Well, I'm proud to be here, but I got to go. Cause we got more talent back here than you ever seen. But this is my place right here. I love Meridian. I almost married a fellow from down here, but he wasn't very handsome and he didn't have much money and he married another girl. So I broke our engagement. I'm gonna let this other guy take over, but I want to tell you I'm proud to be here. And I might come back later on. I'm glad to see.
- [22:52]
Kristen
Come here, you gotta sing.
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Minnie Pearl
Okay, let's dance one. What do you say? Well, good for you. Let's sing out there and call Jealous Hearted me. I'm ready to dance. I didn't know you fellas will share. What gear? I don't know, but one gear D Let her flick or fly. You can have my coffee.
- [23:10]
Jimmy Davis
You can have My tea.
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Minnie Pearl
But yet you let my feller be on Jealous. Jealous hearted me. I'm just as jealous as I could see.
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Unknown
Now I got a man and a.
- [23:41]
Hank Snow
Now the Grand Ole Opry's cold, tater boy. Little Jimmy Dickens.
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Unknown
I got a song here I'd like.
- [23:47]
Kristen
To try to sing for you folks.
- [23:49]
Unknown
That I hope you will enjoy. A little song called the Sleeping at the Foot of the Bed.
- [23:53]
Jimmy Davis
Poet.
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Unknown
Did you ever sleep at foot on the bed? When the weather was a whistling cold? When the wind was a whistling around the house and the moon was yellow as gold. And you give your good warm mattress up to Aunt Lizzie and Uncle Fred. Too many kin folks on a bad night so you went to the foot of the bed. I could always wait till the old folks and eat the lemons with grace. The teacher could keep me after school I'd still have a smile on my face. I could wear the big boys where I'd go let sister have my sled. But it always did get my nanny goat. I had to sleep at the foot of the bed. Was fine enough when the kin folks come and the kids brought brand new games. You could see how fat all the old folks was and learn all the babies names. We had biscuits and custard and chicken and pie and we all got Sunday baked. But I know darn well when nighttime come I was in for the foot of the bed. Let's play them guitar. They say some folks don't know what it is. Haven't cut me all over the place. Harassing for cover on a winter night. With a big Buddha sitting in your face or cold toenails a scratchin your back and the footcore stripping your head. I tell the world you ain't lost a thing. Never sleeping at the foot of the bed. I've done it over and over again. In this land of the brave and free. And in this all part battle of life it's left its mark on me. But I'm always a struggling around at the foot instead of forging ahead. And I don't think it's cost my dog on things. I'm sleeping at the foot of the bed. Thank you very much. And now, ladies and gentlemen, we're going to have to raise our microphone just a little bit, I'm sure, because I'm fixing to introduce to you an old boy that he's so tall if he'd fall down he'd be halfway home before he could get up. A wonderful fellow by the name of Carl Smith, ladies and gentlemen.
- [26:27]
Carl Smith
Thank you. Thank you very much. It's wonderful to be with all you folks. We've got a song we'd like to try to sing for it, and we hope you like it.
- [26:36]
Jimmy Davis
If you do, while you smack your hands, we'll sing a little bit more.
- [26:39]
Carl Smith
You tell me I'm too shy, A bashful sort of guy. But wait till I get you along. I'm older than you know. My arms will tell you so. Just wait till I get. I used to blush and hang my head and stutter a stammer Even when I tried to call you on the phone. But love has made me brave and love is what I crave. Just wait till I give it here alone. Your eyes dare me to try? Your kiss is on the slide? But wait till I get you along. I'll teach you not to flirt. I squeeze you till it hurts? Just wait till I get you alone. I may seem bashful in a crowd but don't let it boo you. You'll know better when I make your lips my own. If love is what you need, I'm ready.
- [28:41]
Kristen
Yes indeed.
- [28:43]
Carl Smith
Just wait till I get get you alone.
- [28:53]
Hank Snow
Now it is fitting that we close this program dedicated to the memory of Jimmy Rogers with one of Jimmy's greatest song hits sung for you by Hank Snow. It's the anniversary Blue yodel.
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Carl Smith
I want strangers passing through your town. I was a stranger passing through your town. When I ask you a favor, good gal, you turn me down. You may see me on a walking talking down that railroad track. You may see me other walking parking down that railroad track. But good gal you done me wrong. I ain't never coming back. I wrote that old Southern. I wrote that L and N. I borrowed Battle Southern. I wrote that L.
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Hank Snow
And if the.
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Carl Smith
Police don't get me I'm gonna ride them again. Now some like Chicago, some love Memphis, Tennessee. Some like Chicago, some love Memphis, Tennessee. Hey pretty mama, give me sweet Dallas, Texas willow whammon thankful world tell them about Dallas, Tom. I'm not singing the blues. I'm just telling you the hard luck I've had. I'm not singing blues. I'm just telling you the hard luck I've had. Cause the blues ain't nothing but a good man feeling bad. I'm aweary now and I want to leave this town. I'm aweary now and I want to leave this town. Cause can't find no job. I'm tired of hanging around.