Patsy Cline - Birth Of A Country Legend (1996)

This is going to be an unusual post. It's a review of a very good, country music CD with a sociological perspective, and I believe it's worth reading even if you're not interested in Patsy Cline or country music.

What's under discussion here is one of the seemingly endless, posthumous releases of Cline's recorded work, but this disc, Birth of a Country Legend, is unique. It's a rare, live CD featuring seventeen songs Cline sang on her visits to Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts.

For those of you who are too young to have grown up with him, Godfrey was one of early television's legendary pioneers, and his importance cannot be overstated. In the 1950s, along with Lucille Ball, Jackie Gleason, Milton Berle, Sid Caeser, Steve Allen, and others, he helped make the young, popular medium the primary source of home entertainment. Godfrey's talk and variety series was a ratings juggernaut due to his downhome banter and all of the talent he featured on it. In addition to Cline, appearances on his show significantly aided future legends Tony Bennett, Pat Boone and Lenny Bruce. I vividly remember watching his CBS morning program regularly with my grandmother in the early 1960s.

According to the website, Patsy Cline Discography, the singer was a guest on Godfrey's show every fifth week beginning in April 1957 through January 1958. Seventeen of those performances from Talent Scouts are on Birth of a Country Legend, and they're all high quality. You'll hear "Your Cheatin' Heart," "Down by the Riverside," "Too Many Secrets," a very bluesy version of "Don't Ever Leave Me Again," and two different takes of "Walkin' After Midnight."

The songs are all in mono and were recorded straight up with no studio enhancements, but the sound quality is very good. Most feature light big band charts even though Cline's performances kept their country flair. What you hear is just her superb voice with Godfrey's tasteful band backing her up. The arrangements are mere showcases for her vocals, and that's the way it should be.

There's no indication that Godfrey is an important part of this album until you play it and read the liner notes. Neither the front cover nor the back one mention him at all, so his presence on it came as a complete surprise to me. He appears on several of the nineteen tracks. The opener is just a thirty second interview with Cline's mother, and the last one has Godfrey discussing several awards that the singer won. In between, it's all live music with Godfrey introducing several of the songs, and that is where the controversy comes in.

Much of Godfrey's radio and TV personality oozed with fake sincerity. It's been said the media legend was quite paternalistic toward his employees, but it also came with a very dictatorial attitude. The host largely ruined his reputation by firing his very popular singer, Julius La Rosa, on the air in 1953 for what Godfrey considered to be a treasonous act. La Rosa's "crime" was signing on with a talent agency to handle the business side of his career. This incensed Godfrey immensely, so after LaRosa finished his set that fateful day the boss announced that it was the singer's "swan-song" on his show. The great reputation Godfrey spent years cultivating was ruined overnight due to his boorishness. Many listeners never forgave him even though he maintained a live, national radio show until 1972.

For those readers who were born after World War II and may not know the word, "gams" was a slang term for a woman's legs. It was mostly used in the 1930s, 40s and 50s when a man noticed a young woman with a nice pair. It isn't a dirty word, but it isn't considered classy.

Surprisingly, I found a YouTube video of Cline's January 15, 1958 visit to Godfrey's show that you'll also find on the CD. I encourage you to watch him introduce her singing "Write Me in Care of the Blues." Hopefully, it'll serve as a good history lesson about society's attitude toward women during the 1950s. Godfrey turns to Cline on TV and tells her he likes her royal blue dress. Then he adds, "Thems a royal pair of gams too, aren't they?"  The audience laughs, but Cline - obviously annoyed - has enough courage to say, "Shame on you," even though he wielded tremendous power at CBS and could have instantly destroyed her rising career. You can tell by the look on Godfrey's face that he knew his words were inappropriate. Fortunately, he didn't fire her, and Cline is now deservedly in the Country Music Hall-of-Fame.

Birth of a Country Legend has long been out of print. If you decide to purchase it from a site like Discogs you can do so at reasonable prices. I got lucky and found my copy for just $1 at a church fair. If you can get past Godfrey's creepiness, this is definitely classic country music worth hearing.