A biography of one of the founding fathers of modern country music. Until he died in 1975, Lefty Frizzell's life was one of endless touring, drug and alcohol abuse, prison, divorce, decline and resurgence.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
Growing up in rural Texas, the son of an itinerant oil-field worker, Frizzell (1928-1975) taught himself to play the guitar and learned to sing by imitating his idol, Jimmy Rodgers. By the time he was 19, he had a following, a wife and a baby and a six-month jail sentence for rape. A few years later, he rocketed to fame with "If You've Got the Money, I've Got the Time," "Lost Love Blues" and other songs he composed and performed in his unique sliding, yodeling vocal style. Naive about managers and contracts, unable to handle money, women or liquor, he had a roller-coaster career in which fantastic highs were followed by periods of poverty and depression. Cooper, an editor for the Country Music Foundation, builds on interviews with Frizzell's late wife and his children to chronicle the sad life of a popular singer and composer who revolutionized country music and died physically and emotionally exhausted, broke and alienated from his family. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Before Elvis, Cooper would have us think, the hottest thing in southern pop music was Lefty Frizzell, rising star of the loud dance bars known as honky-tonks. But Lefty, product of a family of hapless farmers and laborers in the booming oil fields of Arkansas, Texas, and Oklahoma, was no Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, or even George Jones. As Cooper shows in a show-biz bio better written than most (though still given to bursts of country-music-writer folderol: early star Jimmie Rodgers' "blue yodel" is characterized as an "inarticulate sound--half howl, half river chant," which may describe Howlin' Wolf's voice, but not Rodgers'), Frizzell is most interesting for his relentlessly downbeat career--the result, one eventually suspects, of too much drink and not enough brains. His most famous song is "If You've Got the Money, I've Got the Time," and he is a favorite of Merle Haggard and many other, greater country stars. A discography that lists session personnel valuably concludes Cooper's superior addition to country-music history. Ray Olson
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
"Lefty Taught Us All How To Sing",
By Edla (Chester, WV United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Lefty Frizzell: The Honky-Tonk Life of Country Music's Greatest Singer (Hardcover)
Cooper presents the life of Lefty with little untold. Lefty was all too human and, one suspects, more a victim of his life and times than an instigator. His music was his creation and his escape. No other country singer influenced following generations as did Lefty. Alabama said it best in one single line of a song, "...and Lefty taught us all how to sing." Owning his Bear Family boxed set covers his music (and the only boxed set a country fan really needs), and Cooper's book gets you behind the music. Too many present-day artists have copied Lefty to a tee and fail to acknowledge Lefty as they should. Where is Randy Travis' tribute CD to Lefty? Today's country music is but a footnote to Lefty's career. Cooper tells it well.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Story of a great singer who lacked good managers,
By
This review is from: Lefty Frizzell: The Honky-Tonk Life of Country Music's Greatest Singer (Hardcover)
I didn't know much about Lefty (other than his music) until I read this book. What a sad waste of a wonderful talent. The book certainly shows the importance of management and public relations for an entertainer. This is a good biography. What I thought it lacked was mention of Lefty's siblings. That made for an incomplete family picture.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lefty -- Truly the greatest,
By Lefty Fan Ed "Lefty Fan Ed" (Ohio USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Lefty Frizzell: The Honky-Tonk Life of Country Music's Greatest Singer (Hardcover)
This writer was a pop music fan during the forties. Country music was not even "listenable", as far as I was concerned. Then my sister had me listen to Lefty's "I Want To Be With You Always." I asked her to play it again, and I was hooked. First, just Lefty, then later other country singers --the Hanks, Carl Smith, Mary Robbins, etc..--. Finally by 1980, just Lefty again. Country music began with Lefty and ended with Lefty for me. Cooper's book tells the complete story of Lefty... no holds barred, nothing missing, no glossing over Lefty's failures and weaknesses. Still, it's a remarkable story about a singer who still hasn't been forgiven for ignoring Nashville most of his career. It's a story of country's greatest, a man who deserves to be listed along with Jimmie Rodgers and Hank Williams as the Top Three country singers, writers, and stylists of all times.
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