A true Texas fact
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The Texas Quote of the Day finds Brownsville native Kris Kristofferson talking about how he wrote "Me and Bobby McGee" and how he felt when Port Arthur native Janis Joplin recorded it and then passed away shortly afterward:
"The title came from [Monument Records founder] Fred Foster. He called one night and said, ‘I’ve got a song title for you. It’s “Me and Bobby McKee.”’ I thought he said ‘McGee.’ Bobby McKee was the secretary of Boudleaux Bryant, who was in the same building with Fred. Then Fred says, ‘The hook is that Bobby McKee is a she. How does that grab you?’ I said, ‘Uh, I’ll try to write it, but I’ve never written a song on assignment.’ So it took me a while to think about.
There was a Mickey Newbury song that was going through my mind—‘Why You Been Gone So Long?’ It had a rhythm that I really liked. I started singing in that meter.
For some reason, I thought of La Strada, this Fellini film, and a scene where Anthony Quinn is going around on this motorcycle and Giulietta Masina is the feeble-minded girl with him, playing the trombone. He got to the point where he couldn’t put up with her anymore and left her by the side of the road while she was sleeping. Later in the film, he sees this woman hanging out the wash and singing the melody that the girl used to play on the trombone. He asks, ‘Where did you hear that song?’ And she tells him it was this little girl who had showed up in town and nobody knew where she was from, and later she died. That night, Quinn goes to a bar and gets in a fight. He’s drunk and ends up howling at the stars on the beach. To me, that was the feeling at the end of ‘Bobby McGee.’ The two-edged sword that freedom is. He was free when he left the girl, but it destroyed him. That’s where the line ‘Freedom’s just another name for nothing left to lose’ came from.
The first time I heard Janis Joplin’s version was right after she died. Paul Rothchild, her producer, asked me to stop by his office and listen to this thing she had cut. Afterwards, I walked all over L.A., just in tears. I couldn’t listen to the song without really breaking up. So when I came back to Nashville, I went into the Combine [Publishing] building late at night, and I played it over and over again, so I could get used to it without breaking up. Donnie Fritts came over and listened with me, and we wrote a song together that night about Janis, called ‘Epitaph’.
‘Bobby McGee’ was the song that made the difference for me. Every time I sing it, I still think of Janis.
Source: "Performing Songwriter" magazine. You can find the article and a treasure trove of wonderful music lore at their website, here:
http://performingsongwriter.com/kris-kristofferson-bobby-mcgee/
Really great stuff!
"The title came from [Monument Records founder] Fred Foster. He called one night and said, ‘I’ve got a song title for you. It’s “Me and Bobby McKee.”’ I thought he said ‘McGee.’ Bobby McKee was the secretary of Boudleaux Bryant, who was in the same building with Fred. Then Fred says, ‘The hook is that Bobby McKee is a she. How does that grab you?’ I said, ‘Uh, I’ll try to write it, but I’ve never written a song on assignment.’ So it took me a while to think about.
There was a Mickey Newbury song that was going through my mind—‘Why You Been Gone So Long?’ It had a rhythm that I really liked. I started singing in that meter.
For some reason, I thought of La Strada, this Fellini film, and a scene where Anthony Quinn is going around on this motorcycle and Giulietta Masina is the feeble-minded girl with him, playing the trombone. He got to the point where he couldn’t put up with her anymore and left her by the side of the road while she was sleeping. Later in the film, he sees this woman hanging out the wash and singing the melody that the girl used to play on the trombone. He asks, ‘Where did you hear that song?’ And she tells him it was this little girl who had showed up in town and nobody knew where she was from, and later she died. That night, Quinn goes to a bar and gets in a fight. He’s drunk and ends up howling at the stars on the beach. To me, that was the feeling at the end of ‘Bobby McGee.’ The two-edged sword that freedom is. He was free when he left the girl, but it destroyed him. That’s where the line ‘Freedom’s just another name for nothing left to lose’ came from.
The first time I heard Janis Joplin’s version was right after she died. Paul Rothchild, her producer, asked me to stop by his office and listen to this thing she had cut. Afterwards, I walked all over L.A., just in tears. I couldn’t listen to the song without really breaking up. So when I came back to Nashville, I went into the Combine [Publishing] building late at night, and I played it over and over again, so I could get used to it without breaking up. Donnie Fritts came over and listened with me, and we wrote a song together that night about Janis, called ‘Epitaph’.
‘Bobby McGee’ was the song that made the difference for me. Every time I sing it, I still think of Janis.
Source: "Performing Songwriter" magazine. You can find the article and a treasure trove of wonderful music lore at their website, here:
http://performingsongwriter.com/kris-kristofferson-bobby-mcgee/
Really great stuff!
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For you guys and gals in SE Texas that have dreamed of visiting the Sahara Desert, looks like you can postpone your travel plans, the desert is coming to you this Friday. Enjoy!
" This thicker layer is likely to reach Texas by Friday and then take a turn to the east. If the forecast model is right, it will move over most of the Southeast and MidAtlantic states over the weekend. "
" This thicker layer is likely to reach Texas by Friday and then take a turn to the east. If the forecast model is right, it will move over most of the Southeast and MidAtlantic states over the weekend. "
Today marks the 157th anniversary of the death of Sam Houston, who died on July 26, 1863. His last words were "Texas, Margaret, Texas." With him were his wife Margaret, most of his children, and Jeff Hamilton, his slave and faithful companion. His body was laid to rest during a rainstorm in Oakwood Cemetery in Huntsville and, owing to the strife of the nation during the Civil War, there were very few people in attendance. An obituary appeared in the Dallas Herald, August 5, 1863, which read in part: “Let us not shed tears to his memory due to one who has filled so much of our affections. Let the whole people bury with him whatever of unkindness they had for him.” A very simple slab marker was placed on his grave. In 1936, in observance of the Texas Centennial, a marble marker by sculptor Pompeo Coppini was placed on the grave by the State of Texas. The inscription engraved on the monument is attributed to Andrew Jackson, a long-time friend. It reads: “The World Will Take Care of Houston’s Fame.”
Yessir Yessir
Both are must see in my opinion.
Wondering how long it's gonna be before someone will try to get this statue removed. Someone needs to paint it before that becomes an issue. ........... Jerry (in Tucson)
It was posted on social media awhile back that they were coming for it. A very large crowd of protectors showed up and no protestors did.
I'll try to find a picture
The Texas Quote of the Day: "We're going to have to do something about this guy [Roger Staubach]. He's going to ruin the image of an NFL quarterback if he doesn't start smoking, drinking, cussing or something." ----- Dandy Don Meredith referring to the starting Dallas Cowboys quarterback, Roger Staubach
Ahh, those were the days. I went to my first Cowboys game when Meredith was QB. Met Tom Landry and Staubach at a Fellowship of Christian Athletes meeting when I was a Jr in HS. Fun times. Miss those days.
Sam Houston circa 1850. This portrait is wonderfully clear. It really gives you a sense of what he looked like.
Great photo and what a tie!!
Today in Texas History
October 2nd, 1835 -- COME AND TAKE IT!
On this day in 1835, fighting broke out at Gonzales between Mexican soldiers and Texas militiamen. When Domingo de Ugartechea, military commander in Texas, received word that the American colonists of Gonzales refused to surrender a small cannon that had been given that settlement in 1831 as a defense against the Indians, he dispatched Francisco de Castañeda and 100 dragoons to retrieve it on September 27. Though Castañeda attempted to avoid conflict, on the morning of October 2 his force clashed with local Texan militia led by John Henry Moore in the first battle of the Texas Revolution. The struggle for the "Come and Take It" cannon was only a brief skirmish that ended with the retreat of Castañeda and his force, but it also marked a clear break between the American colonists and the Mexican government.
and so it begans..........
October 2nd, 1835 -- COME AND TAKE IT!
On this day in 1835, fighting broke out at Gonzales between Mexican soldiers and Texas militiamen. When Domingo de Ugartechea, military commander in Texas, received word that the American colonists of Gonzales refused to surrender a small cannon that had been given that settlement in 1831 as a defense against the Indians, he dispatched Francisco de Castañeda and 100 dragoons to retrieve it on September 27. Though Castañeda attempted to avoid conflict, on the morning of October 2 his force clashed with local Texan militia led by John Henry Moore in the first battle of the Texas Revolution. The struggle for the "Come and Take It" cannon was only a brief skirmish that ended with the retreat of Castañeda and his force, but it also marked a clear break between the American colonists and the Mexican government.
and so it begans..........
The Arcane Texas Fact of the Day: The man shown in this photo, General David Emmanuel Twiggs, was the man who surrendered federal forces to the Confederates at the Alamo in 1861. What happened was this: After the Mexican–American War, Twiggs was appointed brevet major general and commanded the U.S. Army's Department of Texas. He was in this command when the Civil War broke out. Twiggs's command included about 20% of the Army guarding the Mexican border. On Feb. 8, 1861, as the states began to secede, Twiggs began talks with a quartet of Confederate commissioners, including Philip N. Luckett and Samuel A. Maverick. The talks were stalled by Feb. 15. That night, 90 of Ben McCullough's men stole into San Antonio and fixed guns on the Federal sentries and garrison in Alamo Plaza. 300 more Texas troops entered the city behind them. Twiggs forces were disarmed and held in quarters until Feb. 16, when Twiggs agreed to surrender his entire command, which included the Federal Arsenal at the Alamo, and all other federal installations, property, and soldiers in Texas, to the Confederacy. Along with him went 20 military installations, 44 cannons, 400 pistols, 1,900 muskets, 500 wagons, and 950 horses, valued at a total of $1.6 million. He insisted that all Federal forces were to retain personal arms and sidearms, all artillery, and flags and standards. However, already, shortly after the secession of South Carolina in December 1860, Twiggs had written a letter that proclaimed that Georgia was his home and that he (Twiggs) would follow the state if it left the Union. That's what he did. He went back to Georgia and was made a General in the Confederate Army but was too old to ever take command. He died at the age of 72 in 1862.
Traces of Texas reader Jennifer Baacke Schrade graciously shared this nifty photo of Santa in Goliad yesterday. Jennifer says that Santa rides his "reinsteer" in the Christmas parade every year there, making his way around the courthouse square. It doesn't get much more Texas-ish than this! Thank you, Jennifer. Looks like a good time was had by all.
They now keep the door locked because couples were going in there and doing what couples do!
The Texas Quote of the Day is in regards to that giant set of cowboy boots at the North Star Mall in San Antonio: "On the north property line of North Star Mall and just off the frontage road of Loop 410, they sent out a tacit howdy to each passerby. These five-ton enormities peered out toward passing vehicles containing tourists and San Antonio newcomers who stared at these marvels completely bewildered. At forty feet tall and thirty-five feet wide, they set the world record for the largest “cowboy-wearin’-shoes”. Their eccentric design of black, brown, and white faux ostrich skin expressed their own sense of Texas pride beginning in 1980. They are none other than the “The Giant Justins.” However, locals came to know them simply as “The Boots of North Star Mall.” The artist, Austin native Bob “Daddy O” Wade created the Giant Justin's for the 1979 Washington Project of the Arts, an arts organization in D.C. (Davila 1B). He created the boots out of donated material in a vacant lot three blocks from the White House. After the exhibit, the issue of what to do with them puzzled Wade and the founders of Project of the Arts, so the massive boots stayed put in the lot. Then Wade received a phone call from the Rouse Company, owners of North Star Mall, telling him they wanted to purchase the boots and send them to San Antonio. So for a fee of $20,000, workers dismantled the boots, loaded them on three flatbed semi-trailers, and then sent them off to Texas. The boots were re-assembled on January 16, 1980 at their permanent home. With the excitement of these four story high boots in the Alamo city, thousands felt it necessary to get their pictures with the boots... quite specifically, on the boots. Wade had constructed the boots of a foam-like substance that is similar to the material used on fiberglass bodies of automobiles, but in 1982, workers added a concrete covering to the boots after continued issues arose including persistent and deliberate vandalism to these recent additions to the city’s cultural landscape. Along with the concrete covering, a coat of paint was applied that year. Later, in 2006, one of Wade’s ex-students from his time as an art professor at the University of North Texas, Style Read, took the job of giving the colossal boots fresh paint. As tedious and demanding as it was, Read began the process by administering a coat of white primer, followed by a sheet of caramel colored paint. The painting of the bottom portion of the boots cost an estimated $5,000. . The boots have provided a home to some astonishing guests. Radio disc jockeys from local country stations used the door located at the bottom of one of the boots to climb up an interior ladder to a platform at the top of the boot. From there, they broadcast their show during the weeks of the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo. In their rodeo clothes, they waved to passing freeway commuters and soon attracted crowds of cowboys and cowgirls in the mall parking lot next to the boots. At other times, vagrants found shelter in the boots for short periods. Roland De La Garza, an employee of North Star Mall, made the comment, “When they put these boots up, they didn’t think it’d be a big thing. But now it’s one of the biggest things in San Antonio”. In the first three decades after their arrival in San Antonio they have appeared in television commercials, on the covers of books, postcards, billboards, and also on the Saks Fifth Avenue snow globe with other iconic symbols of San Antonio like the Alamo. The Christmas season had not truly begun for some San Antonians until North Star Mall lit the three thousand white lights shaped into stars on the prodigious footwear. These boots have really left a footprint on San Antonio." ----- Haley Hamilton in "Journal of the Life and Culture of San Antonio." You can find a lot more such San Antonio history at this link: https://www.uiw.edu/sanantonio/index.html
The Texas Quote of the Day is in regards to that giant set of cowboy boots at the North Star Mall in San Antonio: "On the north property line of North Star Mall and just off the frontage road of Loop 410, they sent out a tacit howdy to each passerby. These five-ton enormities peered out toward passing vehicles containing tourists and San Antonio newcomers who stared at these marvels completely bewildered. At forty feet tall and thirty-five feet wide, they set the world record for the largest “cowboy-wearin’-shoes”. Their eccentric design of black, brown, and white faux ostrich skin expressed their own sense of Texas pride beginning in 1980. They are none other than the “The Giant Justins.” However, locals came to know them simply as “The Boots of North Star Mall.” The artist, Austin native Bob “Daddy O” Wade created the Giant Justin's for the 1979 Washington Project of the Arts, an arts organization in D.C. (Davila 1B). He created the boots out of donated material in a vacant lot three blocks from the White House. After the exhibit, the issue of what to do with them puzzled Wade and the founders of Project of the Arts, so the massive boots stayed put in the lot. Then Wade received a phone call from the Rouse Company, owners of North Star Mall, telling him they wanted to purchase the boots and send them to San Antonio. So for a fee of $20,000, workers dismantled the boots, loaded them on three flatbed semi-trailers, and then sent them off to Texas. The boots were re-assembled on January 16, 1980 at their permanent home. With the excitement of these four story high boots in the Alamo city, thousands felt it necessary to get their pictures with the boots... quite specifically, on the boots. Wade had constructed the boots of a foam-like substance that is similar to the material used on fiberglass bodies of automobiles, but in 1982, workers added a concrete covering to the boots after continued issues arose including persistent and deliberate vandalism to these recent additions to the city’s cultural landscape. Along with the concrete covering, a coat of paint was applied that year. Later, in 2006, one of Wade’s ex-students from his time as an art professor at the University of North Texas, Style Read, took the job of giving the colossal boots fresh paint. As tedious and demanding as it was, Read began the process by administering a coat of white primer, followed by a sheet of caramel colored paint. The painting of the bottom portion of the boots cost an estimated $5,000. . The boots have provided a home to some astonishing guests. Radio disc jockeys from local country stations used the door located at the bottom of one of the boots to climb up an interior ladder to a platform at the top of the boot. From there, they broadcast their show during the weeks of the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo. In their rodeo clothes, they waved to passing freeway commuters and soon attracted crowds of cowboys and cowgirls in the mall parking lot next to the boots. At other times, vagrants found shelter in the boots for short periods. Roland De La Garza, an employee of North Star Mall, made the comment, “When they put these boots up, they didn’t think it’d be a big thing. But now it’s one of the biggest things in San Antonio”. In the first three decades after their arrival in San Antonio they have appeared in television commercials, on the covers of books, postcards, billboards, and also on the Saks Fifth Avenue snow globe with other iconic symbols of San Antonio like the Alamo. The Christmas season had not truly begun for some San Antonians until North Star Mall lit the three thousand white lights shaped into stars on the prodigious footwear. These boots have really left a footprint on San Antonio." ----- Haley Hamilton in "Journal of the Life and Culture of San Antonio." You can find a lot more such San Antonio history at this link: https://www.uiw.edu/sanantonio/index.html
