The Everly Brothers: Songs of Innocence and Experience Arena

MUSIC: 'Love Is Strange' by the Everly Brothers

-Hey, Don?

-What, Phil?

How would you call your baby home?

Well, if I needed her real bad, I guess I would call her like this.

# Maybe, oh, sweet baby

# My sweet baby

# Please come home

Yeah, that oughta bring her home, Don.

# People don't understand

# They think love is

# Money in the hand

# Your sweet lovin'

# Is better than a kiss

# When you love me

# Sweet kisses I miss

# Love is strange

# Love is strange. #

APPLAUSE

Where you been?

Thank you.

I'm Don. I'm still the oldest one.

LAUGHTER

Phil's catching up, though.

Won't be long!

Won't be long before Phil's as old as I am,

I guess, the way he keeps going.

I hardly know what to say. I've thought and thought and thought

what's the first words I should say.

And I just couldn't come with anything other than...

-It's good to be back.

-It's good to be back.

APPLAUSE

MUSIC: "Bye Bye Love" by the Everly Brothers

# Bye-bye, love

# Bye-bye, happiness

# Hello, loneliness Well, I think I'm gonna cry

# Bye-bye, love

# Bye-bye, sweet caress

# Hello, emptiness

# Well, I feel like I could die

# Bye-bye, my love, goodbye

# There goes my baby

# With someone new

# She looks happy

# I sure am blue

# She was my baby

# Till he stepped in

# Goodbye to romance that might have been

# Bye-bye, love

# Bye-bye, happiness

# Hello, loneliness

# I think I'm gonna cry

# Bye-bye, love

# Bye-bye, sweet caress

# Hello, emptiness

# I feel like I could die

# Bye-bye, my love, goodbye

# Bye-bye, my love, goodbye

# Bye-bye, my love, goodbye

# Bye-bye, my love, goodbye. #

APPLAUSE

Well, a great big howdy-do to all of our good friends and neighbours.

This is Dad Everly talking for the Everly family, and we're going to play

and sing you some songs, neighbours, family style, also country style.

And we've got the whole gang on deck - Mom, Don, baby boy Phil.

And you know, Mom, we kind of ought to tell the folks just how old these youngsters are.

Some of the folks probably don't know. And Don, our oldest boy, is 15 years old.

Phil is 13 and of course me and Mom, we quit telling our age a long time ago!

You know, I'd like to do one here that was recorded by a good

old buddy of mine. He's a well-known fellow, too.

I'm sure most of the folks know Merle Travis and here's one he

recorded he calls Blue Smoke, just some old country guitar picking.

MUSIC: "Blue Smoke" by Ike Everly

Oh, this is very nostalgic.

Terry and the Pirates came on at five o'clock.

5.15, Dick Tracy.

5.30, Jack Armstrong. Gee, that's wonderful stuff.

Shadow came on at nine. All those shows, I used to listen to them.

Then Lemon Ebner was on Tuesday night at 7pm.

-What time were you on?

-We were on the mornings.

And 5.30, or five o'clock.

We were there for the farmers while they were milking or getting ready to milk.

They would have radios in their barns

and then it would be getting up!

We would get up before the bakery was open. That's how early that was.

And we would come back from the shows, stop at the bakery.

We'd go in the back door and get hot cinnamon buns

and take them home sometimes. In the dark of the night, it would still be dark in the winter

up there when we've done our show and on our way home.

Then we'd go back and get ready to go to school.

Dad played all the time and we would go down the radio station

and watch him perform and he taught you everything you knew but it

wasn't like, at three o'clock, come in and learn to play the guitar, you know.

It's the same way I taught my boys. You show them and they must go for it.

You know, I kind of suggest that we get the Everly Brothers to team

up on one here. Phil, what are you going to sing this time?

Well, Dad, we'd like to do a number for the folks and it's called

Don't Let Your Love Die.

# Someone stole you, my darling from me

# Someone stole your love and your heart

# Is it really true you don't care for me?

# Have you missed me since we've been apart?

# What can I do to make you believe

# That I love you, oh, won't you please try?

# If there's room in your heart...

MUSIC FADES INTO CONTEMPORARY VERSION OF SAME TRACK

# ..Left for me... #

I don't remember that line.

# Darling, don't let our love die. #

If there's any room in your heart left for me.

GUITAR DROWNS OUT SPEECH

-You started off as Little Donnie, though.

-Yeah.

-Tell us about that.

When I was...you know, Little Donnie was that they had a 15-minute radio

show on Saturdays, known as Little Donnie, and I used to get to

read the commercials or something and do... The radio station had been...

The fellow that was called the Earl May Seed Company, he had gone on

-a trip around the world and he had fell in love with a mosque somewhere in India.

-Yeah!

He built this radio station to look like a mosque.

With minarets on each end!

It was the movie theatre and the radio station but what a building!

This year, if you have corns and calluses,

send for Foster's 30-minute wonder corn and callus remover.

One dollar will bring you a big one-ounce bottle

and it's guaranteed to get rid of at least a dozen corns and calluses.

So be sure and send all your orders to the Everly family,

station KFNF, Shenandoah, Iowa and get that order in the mail today.

You know, it's about time in our programme that we hear

from the old man from the mountains, Dad Everly.

-Watch your step, Mom!

-Get that guitar all tuned up there. Ike, what are you going to pick?

You know, if you twist my arm a little, I'll do a little of that old country guitar picking.

APPLAUSE

'Phil and I don't remember anything else but show business.

'We grew up in it.

'The food in our mouth came from it, whether it was lean or fat,

'you know, it came from what we did as music.

'You know, we didn't earn it from anything else.'

-Showing us up again.

-Yeah.

It's been a long time, boys.

It surely has and it's been a long time since the old radio days,

hasn't it, Dad?

You know, back in the radio days, boys,

that's when you sang good, you know.

This is what we used to do back when we got started.

And I'd say, I'd say, Dad, I don't want to sing today.

I want to make up a poem instead.

-I want to have a poem contest with you.

-You do?

Now, you know I can beat you, Phil.

What do you want to have a contest for?

I want to pick a hard subject this time. I want to pick...

-Well, you usually picked that same one.

-Well, this one is difficult.

-It's going to be about...

-How about me picking a subject?

-All right, you pick a subject.

-Birds.

-That's awful easy.

We'll make it about birds and grapefruit. Make it hard.

-Birds and grapefruit? You mean both at once?

-Both at once.

-You go first.

-OK. I'm going to beat you again. I'll go first.

Birds and grapefruit.

I wouldn't want to be a little bird that flies up so high.

I'd rather be a grapefruit to squirt right in your eye.

LAUGHTER

-'Do you think your father got the recognition that he deserved?'

-'No, not at all.

'Actually, on the radio,'

I never felt he ever really got to be himself there, either.

He had to have a comedy relief. He had an alter ego called Cousin Ike.

He could tell tall tales

and then sing the songs that the particular listeners wanted to hear.

Basically, he liked blues. He loved the old blues and things.

FINGERPICKING GUITAR 12-BAR BLUES

Of course, I don't do it like he does.

-Where did his style come from?

-Well, he learned from Arnold Shultz.

And Arnold Shultz was a black man that evidently was

a magnificent musician. My father said he followed him around.

There's a famous piece called the drum piece which only our

Aunt Hattie could do, which was an open tuning that our grandfather, Melfred Everly,

had paid five dollars to get Arnold Shultz to teach her to play.

-She could still play it last time I saw her.

-Yeah.

-How does it go?

Well, you put it in a tuning and she doesn't play it. She plays like this.

Yeah, it's called the drum piece. You have to...

-It's...

-You know.

-Oh, it's great.

-It's very peculiar.

-It's a very peculiar piece.

-Whereabouts were you...

-Where is this happening?

-Muhlenberg County, Kentucky.

-Yeah.

-What kind of place was that?

-Well, it's a coal-mining area.

And I don't know, it seems to me, coalminers sing. Somewhere... I don't know...

And there's areas in the United States that a lot of music...

West Texas, in particular.

I don't know, they're not miners there but there's something... A little pocket of music.

Could be in the water.

'I don't know what it could be but a lot of music came out of there.'

'How much did your style change from when you were kids, really,

-'to when you were successful?'

-'I wouldn't say any.

'I think it just comes from having sung all those years together,

'the fact that we're brothers, the fact that we were being influenced

'by too many things and we could pretty well sing almost anything.

'And we had heard a lot of Bailes Brothers.'

We dealt in a very close harmony and York Brothers

and the Delmore Brothers and all these major kind of country acts

but, er, we could pretty well sing anything.

Dad had two brothers that he worked with and they worked in clubs

together, three of them singing, and Uncle Leonard played guitar

and banjo and then Chuck was a great rhythm guitar

player in front of my father. And they're all three dead now.

Dad was the only one that wound up really pursuing it as a livelihood.

Now, I never heard them, but, the family, of course...

All the tales of how wonderful they were together.

# Kentucky

# I miss your laurels

# And your redbud trees

# I know that

# My mother, dad and sweetheart

# Are waiting for me

# Kentucky

# I will be coming soon

# When I die

# I want to rest upon your graceful mountains so high

# For that is where God will look for me

# Kentucky. #

Lord, why did you let 'em, why did you let 'em kill him?

And then he said, looking up in the face of God

"Just let me preach in this place."

Walter, he was passed away, not long ago.

He never had a calling from God for preaching.

He had, he was a substitute preacher.

Where are the nine?

Here we are! Here we are!

I know that I am a substitute preacher.

I believe that God came down through the rows of the Everlys

and I may be one of the choice ones first

and had to wait round and get a call.

But here we are.

Here we are!

Let me say, "Where are the nine?"

Jesus said, "Where are the nine? Where are the nine?"

And here we are. Let me say, "Here we are, we're waiting."

We're waiting.

The Bible says, "They that wait upon the Lord..."

Let me read it to you from Isaiah, chapter number 40.

They that wait upon the Lord

"shall renew their strength.

"They shall mount up with wings, as eagles,

"they shall run and not be weary."

"They shall walk and not fade!"

# He's still working on me

# To make me what I ought to be

# It took him just a week

# To make the moon and the stars

# The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars

# How loving and patient he must be

# He's still working on me

# He's still working on me

# He's still working on me. #

Thank you. We can do that. That's all right.

You bear with us if we get a little bit clannish

because we have a lot of Everlys,

and we, I'm an Everly

and I'm so proud of it

and I thank God for being an Everly.

This is Mr and Mrs Darrel Everly.

If I ever had another brother, Darrel would be my brother.

And you stand, and also, Darrel's family.

We have some family that's here, OK.

John's not here.

And then around the corner there, that's Jewel Everly

and Jewel, would you stand, please?

And Mr and Mrs Jewel Everly, this is Marguerite.

And then son, Kelly, and give them a hand, yeah.

Thank you so much.

APPLAUSE

And then, of course, this is Uncle Roland and his wife.

Uncle Roland, Aunt Margaret, to me, but they're here.

I think he's very special.

There was Jesse, Leonard, Charlie

Ike, and Roland Everly

of the Everly Brothers that were born to Milford and Mary Delilah

And the last ones here...

# ..I want you in my arms

# When I want you

# And all your charms

# Whenever I want you

# All I have to do... #

Dad and Uncle Roland, his older brother, they held the mine record.

They had loaded 18 tonnes of coal.

But hand-loaded - you're talking shovelling.

# When I feel blue... #

He was working the mines when they had the picks

and mules used and things.

He was loading it for paying by the tonne.

# To hold me tight

# Whenever I want you

# All I have to do

# Is dream

# I can make you mine

# Taste your lips of wine

# Any time, night or day

# Only trouble is

# Gee-whiz

# I'm dreamin' my life away

# I need you so

# That I could die

# I love you so

# And that is why

# Whenever I want you

# All I have to do

# Is dream, dream, dream, dream

# Dream

# Dream, dream, dream. #

I said Uncle Roland, he's the only Everly that ever worked.

The rest of us picked guitars!

I don't have no guitar!

LAUGHTER

Well, I never bought one.

I remember one time hearing a story about going to a contest.

And Dad and Uncle Ike and Uncle Charlie won the contest

by all three of them playing on one guitar.

-How did they sound? Leonard and Chuck and Ike.

-Yeah.

Tell us about how they sounded.

-Well, you could hear Charlie playing anything.

-Oh, really?

He'd play anything that made music.

What about singing, when they sang together?

Was it in any way similar to what Phil and I maybe sounded like?

He is a good tenor singer.

That's what they said.

Charlie sounds like Phil, maybe.

Or Phil sounds like Charlie!

Phil does sing like Charlie!

If they'd stuck together like y'all do...

it, it, way up there.

They didn't listen to Uncle Ike.

I think Uncle Charlie and Dad never listened to Uncle Ike.

They resented his...

Your pa wanted to be boss, you see!

That's right!

-Ike wanted to be the boss, cos he was the eldest.

-Well, he should.

Charlie wanted to be boss cos he could play the best!

LAUGHTER

And Dad wanted to be the boss cos he was the youngest!

-Yes!

-LAUGHTER

When we were young, things were kind of...

Ha-ha! "When we were young"! Oh!

Things were kind of tough, then.

When Dad taught us to play the guitar,

-all we could afford was one for the three of us.

-For the three of you?

-What do you do, take turns?

-No, the three of us played it at once.

The three of you at once?!

That's like three men milking the same cow.

Somebody's going to be pulling on somebody's fingers!

LAUGHTER

Yeah, how did you do it?

You be Papa and we'll show you how it's done.

I'll be Papa, I would have to be Papa. What did Papa do?

-He played on these two strings right here.

-And you played up there?

-And what do you do?

-I play whatever's left over.

-Uh-huh. Now...

-Papa played here, what did you play?

-We played kind of blues.

-Just kind of a blues beat, be fine.

-Let's see if I can find it.

-And Papa played on that there?

-Mm-hmm.

UPBEAT BLUES RHYTHM

Well, for goodness' sake!

APPLAUSE

Thank you!

Yeah!

Papa knows this!

# I'm a rattlesnake daddy

# And I rattle where I please

# Yes, I'm a rattlesnake daddy

# And I rattle where I please

# And when you hear me rattle

# Better get down on your knees

-IN HARMONY:

-# I rattled last night, the night before

# I woke up this morning, gonna rattle some more

# I'm a rattlesnake daddy, yeah!

# From Tennessee

# And when you hear me rattle

-# You better let me be

-# You better let me be. #

GENTLY-STRUMMED GUITAR

One of the first things I remember, whenever we'd go to Kentucky.

We'd always go to Kentucky. Wherever we would live,

every summer, we would be back in Kentucky.

All Kentuckians kept a little hut between Chicago and Kentucky.

I mean, they lived in Chicago, but they were Kentuckians,

they would go back.

There still is a tradition in the neighbourhoods of Chicago,

where people who are Kentuckians, or Tennesseeans,

or West Virginians, that have gone there for work, but he would

go back and he would go to the house and the guitar would be there.

And he passed the guitar to this fella, passed it over,

it was just constant.

# Oh, well, it rained five days

# And the sky turned dark as night

# Well, it rained five days

# And the sky turned dark as night

# Trouble taking place in the lowlands at night

# Well, it thundered and it lightnin'd

# And the wind began to blow... #

Gonna get you out of that bad tone.

# Well, it thundered and it lightnin'd

# And the wind began to blow

#, Well there's thousands of people

# Ain't got no place to go

# Mmmmm, I can't live no more... #

What a sad thing that is.

# Oh!

# I can't live no more

# Well, my house fell down and I can't live there no more. #

Well, that's great.

What's that called, Mose?

That's Lowland Blues.

That's nice. Really nice.

You're kidding me, right?

No, never!

We wouldn't kid you at all. That's wonderful. That really is.

Well, thank you very much.

I remember, back years ago, driving through Drakesboro

and you always had a guitar

and you and Dad wouldn't hardly say anything,

just grab the guitar and sort of pass it back and forth.

Yeah.

Who taught you to play the guitar?

Well, my sisters, I had about three or four sisters

who played, you know?

Played, and...

HE STRUMS A JAUNTY COUNTRY RHYTHM

They all played that,

and so I'd then get the guitar and I wouldn't let 'em have no peace.

I'm cryin', Momma's making me leave the guitar!

DON LAUGHS

And that tune'd keep me quiet now, right?

So when I got the ol' guitar, you know, and I'd jump on it like this,

and there was a little doorstep to go to, outside the cabin

I'd hold nothing back once I got on there!

LAUGHTER

HE STRUMS GUITAR

Oh, is that...?

Boy, I'd do that all day long.

And finally I learned to make 'em sing,

combining the C chord...

HE STRUMS CHORD

-The G.

-HE STRUMS CHORD

Like that, y'know?

They consider thumb-pick guitar to come from right here.

I guess Merle is the one that popularised that.

He was a good writer. Merle Travis was a very fine writer.

16 Tonnes, Dark As A Dungeon.

-Was that guitar style a particular thing in the mining areas?

-Yeah.

Merle came around to learn from Mose. My father,

Merle gives Dad a lot of credit for helping teach him, actually,

a few chords here and there, and whatever.

Can I start pickin' a tune, boys?

Yeah!

Did you and Ike work down the mines at the same time in the same mine?

We might have worked at the same mines

but we didn't work in the same room.

-Was it hard work?

-Hard work?

Man, when you had to go down that shaft, it'd almost kill you.

That's right.

Dad was sort of determined that Phil and I'd never work in the mines

-because it was so dangerous.

-Yes, it was.

Up in East Kentucky around Harlan and Perry County,

the coalminer sings a little song called The Nine Pound Hammer.

Now, just picture yourself driving four-inch spikes and hard,

black oak track ties about five miles back into the mountain.

Where the top's so low in the mines that you can't straighten up

to rest your back just for a minute.

And lots of times, the air gets so foul back there

that you just can't get a good, deep breath.

HE EXHALES

# This nine-pound hammer

# Is a little too heavy

# For my size

# Buddy, for my size

# I'm a-going over the mountains

# Gonna see my baby

# But I ain't coming back

# Oh, I ain't comin' back

# Oh, no, buddy, don't you go so slow

# How can I roll when the wheels won't go?

# Roll 'em, buddy

# Pull a load of coal

# How can I pull when the wheels won't roll? #

-Did you know Dad?

-Yeah, I knew him.

Ah.

What kind of, what would you call this?

This is an underground mine, it's a highwall mine.

You finish... You go straight back under.

-How far would that go down?

-Number nine coal seam.

Number nine? Number nine coal, that's like in the song, isn't it? Number nine coal!

# That number nine coal... #

Dad worked the Brownie mines.

That's where I was born, actually.

Been riding in the same coal train as him.

Oh, is that right?

Well, I'll be darned!

# Well, the wheel won't go. #

You know, Dad also talked about you and him loading coal.

That you and him held a record at one mine,

or something, for loading coal, in your day.

I don't know exactly how much

me and Ike loaded together but we loaded, I loaded...

43 tonnes, myself.

-Phew! In one day?

-In one day, yes.

-Oh, Lord!

We didn't have no union for nine years.

They took the union. Busted it.

-You helped get the union, didn't you?

-Huh?

I struck a year and a day for the union.

Uncle Roland, do you remember Dad used to talk about a time

when they fired on him with machine guns from the mines?

Down there in Hopkins County, there was a creek.

It was as wide as the road out there.

Went down from there, and they come out, firing a machine gun at him,

and boy, they would turn that creek bright red.

-Trying to get out.

-Getting away from there. Yeah.

One old man, one old man

stayed right out there.

He just stood there, he didn't run, huh?

No. He said, "Kill me, but you can't scare me!

LAUGHTER

# For 18 year

# It's a mighty long time

# To labour and toil

# Down in the coalmine

# My bones they do ache me

# Lord, my kneecaps got bad

# I went to that doctor

# And I heard him say

# Both lungs are broke down

# You spent your best days

# Go back to that coalmine

# They got you this way. #

True, they did.

When we get down to the bottom of the hill, we'll take a left

and probably, within 100 yards something, we're down on the front.

That's old Brownie, right back in there.

So there was a whole town just there?

Right there, in there. You're in Brownie.

Why did they choose to destroy it?

Well, it served its purpose.

That's Peabody's colours right there,

-green and yellow with the red stripe.

-Who are Peabody?

Peabody's the coal company.

Now, all the economy in Muhlenberg County is contingent on coal.

Um, everything, even the businesses.

And without the coal industry, there's no Muhlenberg County.

# When I was a child, my family would travel

# Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born

# There's a backward old town that I often remember

# So many times that my memories are worn

# And Daddy, would you take me back to Muhlenberg County

# Down by the Green River where paradise lay?

# Well, I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking

# Mr Peabody's coal train has hauled it away

# Then the coal company came with the world's largest shovel

# And they tortured the timber and stripped all our land

# Well, they dug for their coal till the land was forsaken

# And they wrote it all down as the progress of man

# And Daddy, won't you take me back to Muhlenberg County

# Down by the Green River where paradise lay?

# Well, I'm sorry, my son, but you're too late in asking

# Mr Peabody's coal train has hauled it away... #

# If you talk too much, you might get into trouble

# If you talk too much, your troubles will be doubled... #

We were sitting there having the biggest thrill

and up walked the waiter and he had the biggest bill.

And I said, "Who's this for?" And he said, "You!"

And I said, "14 for a hamburger and a glass of water?!"

I paid him, though.

# If you talk too much, you might get into trouble

# If you talk too much, your troubles will be doubled... #

And there's other verses but they're not clean!

It's such fun, yes, it was the best time

-back in Cleaton.

-And you'd sit on the porch and swing, and, er...

HE CLEARS HIS THROAT

Up at Aunt Myrtle's and Uncle Roland's

and Nadine's and GW's

and we would, we'd be playing at night in Cleaton, Kentucky

and it'd be pitch-black, cos there weren't city lights

and you could start playing

and you'd see little lights start to appear because people could hear you

and they'd come down.

And they'd come down, about on the porch light,

just about the time they'd get about ten or 12 feet away,

right, you know, people would come up together.

We were talking about times we'd done it

because we got to singing loud enough,

and when we got older, we were singing a little louder

because sometimes that music attracts the young girls!

You had a chance to meet somebody that way.

But it was the best of times. It was the best of times.

What about that melancholy that you talked about?

Where do you think that comes from? Is it because of that history of where people come from in this area?

Well, I don't really call it melancholy.

I think it's just a basic truth.

Life is full of both happy and sad events.

Love and death, and losing and winning,

and this area and this music, people are very honest about it.

And when you're happy, you sing a happy song

and when you're sad, you sing it sad, and you allow yourself to feel.

# You cheated me

# And made me lonely

# I tried to be

# Your very own

# There'll be a day you want me only

# But when I leave

# I'll be a long time gone

# Be a long time gone

# Be a long time gone

# Yes, when I leave

# I'll be a long time gone

# You're gonna be sad

# You're gonna be weepin'

# You're gonna be blue

# And all alone

# You'll regret the day

# You seen me leavin'

# Cos when I leave

# I'll be a long time gone

# Be a long time gone

# Be a long time gone

# Yes, when I leave

# I'll be a long time gone

# You'll see my face

# Through tears and sorrow

# You'll miss the love

# You called your own

# Baby there'll be

# No tomorrow

# Cos when I leave

# I'll be a long time gone

# Be a long time gone

# Be a long time gone

# Yes, when I leave

# I'll be a long time gone. #

Nashville was pretty much the Mecca of country music.

And, of course, we were doing that strange brand of country

and some of the other things that we'd been listening to.

Phil and I wanted to get on the records.

That was the thing, your own records.

And any way we could do it was what we would do.

We liked all kinds of music at that point.

We were trying to make it in our field, as we saw it.

And the Grand Ole Opry was considered being the start of...

Hank Williams, to me, was the first real rock 'n' roll star,

in the way I would call a rock 'n' roll star.

To me, he wasn't real, pure country, down-home musician. He was out there.

He was chugging along, and he was dancing and stuff.

I think it was a combination of that and black R & B

that made rock 'n' roll.

There was something so glamorous about the cowboy suit with

the white piping and the Cadillac and the music and the whole thing.

# Hey-hey, good lookin'

# What ya got cookin'?

# How's about cookin' something up for me?

# Hey-hey, sweet baby

# Don't you think maybe

# We could find us a brand-new recipe?

# I got a hot-rod Ford and a two-dollar bill

# And I know a spot right over the hill

# There's soda pop and the dancin's free

# So if you wanna have fun, come along with me

# Hey, good lookin'

# What ya got cookin'?

# How's about cookin' something up with me...? #

We hadn't made it yet, but we were going to make it one day, you know?

We were plugging and going to make it.

Going to make it. They'd made it, you know? That was the lure of Nashville.

# In the Bible

# It says, "Thou shalt not steal"

# But I have found the love I want

# My heart knows that it's real

# I found her in my best friend's arms

# Stole her though I meant no harm

# Too late to heed the warning

# The love thou shalt not steal... #

We would hang around the alley here at the back of the Opry,

and whoever would be passing back and forth, going in and out,

we would have our guitars, and they'd say,

"They are the Everly Bros, they're songwriters and they're singers."

And they'd say, "We'd like to hear you," and we'd sing for 'em.

And show them a song.

-There were a lot of people hanging out here.

-We weren't the only ones!

No! It was kind of a line, you know, of musicians.

We wanted to be on a record, and on the Grand Ole Opry.

To us, that was the top.

And we were waiting for that break, that record,

whatever it took to accomplish that.

And I think it was due to Chet Atkins saying,

"These kids are pretty good" that made it acceptable.

And we were accepted.

Hello there, I'm Chet Atkins and you're about to enter a place

where country music history was made. For many years,

Studio B served as RCA's prime recording studio in Nashville.

It was a time in which the Nashville sound was born.

And countless country hits were recorded.

And a lot of it happened right here in this studio.

# When you left me... #

With hits by Elvis, Jim Reeves, Eddy Arnold and Don Gibson

between me and the other producers

we came up with a lot of hit records.

# Here he comes, that's Cathy's clown... #

FINGERPICKED GUITAR

You can do it! Yeah!

HE LAUGHS

-Whose guitar is this? Is this yours?

-This is mine.

-It's bad!

That's the best it's ever sounded!

There used to be stories that Ike and Mose used to go down to this...

-Arnold Schultz, is that his name?

-Yeah.

They'd go down to his house and crawl under the porch

and listen to him pick at night, little kids.

Then they'd go home and try to imitate what he was doing.

I don't know if it's true.

Dad said he followed him around everywhere.

Said he followed him everywhere.

If I explain more...

It's, I can't do it, but...

It's probably the way Arnold was playing.

Country folks...

Blind Lemon Jefferson and Big Boy Crudup and all those people.

They loved... The lyrics were about the same.

About the same problems - love and infidelity and everything

and they... I would say the first tunes I learned to play

were like, the guy that had Match Box Blues, Blind Lemon Jefferson.

And I used to win money off my stepdaddy

who'd say, "You can't play this," and I would play it.

I'd copy the record and play it.

So it was, most white southerners in the South do that, or did that,

bought a lot of black blues.

Dad was very aware of gospel

and black gospel and everything

and he used to listen to it on the radio in Chicago

and was a child, I remember going down to Maxwell Street with him.

Can you explain what that was?

Well, Maxwell Street, then, this was a long time ago,

was just where they set up little flea markets,

and people busking and passing the hat for money.

People playing instruments.

And Dad really took a liking to it.

We used to see him over there, and this guy would sing this song...

# Going to New Orleans to get my cold ice cream

# Oh, Daddy, don't you go

# Going to New Orleans to get my cold ice cream... #

That was it, he'd sing it right over and over and over.

Daddy used to just love it.

They were into Bo Diddley, and people like that, at that time.

And I was, too. They introduced me to stuff like that.

-And so we would talk about him and try to play his licks.

-Yeah?

And that, I think, helped them get a contemporary sound,

because the first thing they did, when they got in the studio,

they started playing that Bo Diddley lick

that we had listened to.

Which is a derivative of Bo Diddley.

He didn't play that many chords, I don't think.

ENGINE RUMBLES

Uh-oh!

Hi there, once again, everybody, this is the swinging

sound of the Art Roberts Show, just cooking up a storm with you.

Let's continue with that man, Mr Bo Diddley!

GUNSHOTS

GUNSHOTS IN TIME WITH RAPIDLY-STRUMMED GUITAR

# We're gonna be married

-# We're gonna be married... #

-Ha-ha-ha! You ready? Woo!

Yeah, all right!

Me too. Hee-hee-hoo!

-All right!

-Go, girls, swing!

# Gon' save my money now Gon' get married

# Woo! Yeah! Right!

# Daddy gonna gimme no horse and carriage

# Woo! Yeah, right!

# Tell all your friends! #

Chet Atkins had told me about them,

but there again, I just sort of let it slide

because Chet had made the remark that he knew two great singers,

a couple of brothers that were a great duet, and that,

if you found the right material, he might record them.

But that's sort of a hazy, too much of a hazy thing to go in

and try to go into full production on,

as far as writing goes.

How did they strike you when you first met them?

When I first heard them I thought they were wonderful.

They had a different, a different quality.

They were of course a duet,

and there had been many duets before,

but they had that little extra something, and when the two

voices came together there was an abstract third something happening

that made them just a little touch above most anybody I'd ever heard.

They were like a fine Swiss watch.

Boudleaux would know what would sound good

and he would know how high Phil could sing and he would put him

up there, because Phil, to Boudleaux, sounded like a Stradivarius

when he hit those high notes.

And Boudleaux just loved that.

# Who's gonna shoe # Your pretty little feet?

# Who's gonna glove your hand?

# Who's gonna kiss

# Your ruby-red lips?

# Mmm, mmm...

# Mmm, mmm

# Mmm, mmm... #

'A man from Nashville'

gave me a call one day

and suggested I listen to a demo he'd made with two young boys.

And he saw it had great potential.

They were the Everly Brothers.

Well, listening to the record that was sent to me,

I was really not that impressed with them.

And of course, in the phone conversation with a music

publisher from Nashville, whose name was Wesley Rose.

Wesley suggested that he'd make a demo with them and that

I listen again, because he felt sure that these boys could be successful.

So he made a new demo and I listened to it and

this time I was very much impressed.

And I signed them.

# Bye-bye, love

# Bye-bye, happiness

# Hello, loneliness

# I think I'm a-gonna cry-y

# Bye-bye, love... #

One month we were out there and the next month we were here,

and that, in itself, was phenomenal as far as I was concerned.

I remember encoring here, one time, four times.

Coming back and the crowd not stopping. They just kept applauding.

We would come back and sing Bye-bye Love, maybe half of it,

three or four times again.

We just carried the banner of country all the way

through as far as we were concerned.

That was important.

It felt like a sea of people, too.

I remember, the crowd - it's different now when we've played

large audiences, but at that time, it looked like an ocean of people.

-Something.

-The world was a little smaller, then.

PHIL LAUGHS

# I've been made blue

# I've been lied to

# When will I be loved?

# I've been turned down

# I've been pushed round

# When will I be loved...? #

I guess the best place to start is at the beginning.

The beginning for Phil

and I was just a small dot on the map called Brownie, Kentucky.

We're now living in Nashville, Tennessee.

This is our town of Nashville.

# I've been cheated

# Been mistreated

# When will I be loved...?

As you can tell, when we all get together,

we usually wind up somewhere round the music room.

Where we are now.

And Don's playing with the guitar, there,

and Sue and I are enjoying it very much.

I'm kind of waiting for my turn, though.

# Mr Sandman... #

# We're gonna rock, rock, rock till broad daylight

# We're gonna rock, gonna rock around the clock tonight... #

APPLAUSE

Welcome, welcome, welcome.

It's nice to have you at our Rock Around The Clock party.

I think we're going to have a lot of fun this evening.

We've got a lot of wonderful dancing kids.

And we also have some wonderful guests for you.

And to start things off,

two boys who have had a long succession of hits.

The Everlys!

# Problems, problems problems all day long

# Will my problems work out right or wrong?

# My baby don't like anything I do

# My teacher seems to feel the same way, too... #

my daughter, Jackie, was a great influence on me.

As a matter of fact, I've sort of learned to listen through her ears.

And she was, of course, much impressed by the Everly Brothers.

I would watch her reaction.

Not to the point of asking, "Jackie, do you like this?"

But I'd wait for signs, for example,

when I came home with Bye-Bye, Love, she immediately called all

her girlfriends to come over and listen to the record.

# Wake up, little Susie, wake up

# Wake up, little Susie, wake up

# We've both been sound asleep

# Wake up little Susie and weep

# The movie's over, it's four o'clock

# And we're in trouble deep

# Wake up, little Susie

# Wake up, little Susie

# Well, what are we gonna tell your Mama?

# What are we gonna tell your Pa?

# What are we gonna tell our friends when they say, "Ooh la la!"?

# Wake up little Susie

# Wake up little Susie

# Well, I told your Mama that you'd be in by ten

# Well, Susie baby, looks like we goofed again

# Wake up, little Susie

# Wake up, little Susie

# We gotta go home... #

As soon as we could afford it, we went and had a suit made.

And the first thing we did when we went to New York was try to find...

We quit dressing what they call '50s style now, immediately,

cos everybody was wearing it. Your father was wearing it, first of all.

The last thing you want to look like is your father!

We went Ivy League strictly.

Three buttons, button-down collars and little things

and everything had a belt in the back, including your shoes.

LAUGHTER

In those days, there was no youth market.

There was no shop for young people to go buy clothes,

because nobody had any money if you were young.

I remember when The Crickets showed up, and they said,

"Where'd you guys get those clothes?" You know?

And then I've seen pictures of Buddy,

and we'd taken them down to Phil's Men's Shop.

-There was a place called Phil's Men's Shop.

-Where was that?

In New York City. Before we really started getting tailor-made things.

It was way off the beaten track.

It was like, somebody had to tell you about it, to find it.

But, they had, even before that, even in Knoxville, Tennessee, we had

gone down...more towards the black area, I remember those Mr B shirts.

Yes, we wore Mr B shirts in the '50s. Mr B collars and stuff. Yeah.

That whole thing, and the new haircuts. You know?

-Where did you get your hair done?

-Dad and Mom.

Dad had gone to barber school and Mom had gone to a beautician's school,

so they cut it.

-I tell you, the hassle over haircuts, it is just immense.

-Yeah, it's phenomenal.

And all through the airports. I remember the first time I walked down Hong Kong,

walking through the streets of Hong Kong, early '60s, before us,

before the Beatles,

and my hair was just a little bit longer than it is now.

Stopped traffic. Literally stopped traffic.

People stopped and stared.

APPLAUSE

# I want you to tell me Why you walked out on me

# I'm so lonesome every day

# I want you to know that since you walked out on me

# Nothin' seems to be the same old way

# Think about the love that burns within my heart for you

# The good times we had before you went away, oh me

# Walk right back to me this minute

# Bring your love to me, don't send it

# I'm so lonesome every day

# I'm so lonesome every day. #

APPLAUSE

We tried to continually introduce new things.

I mean, we were the first in Nashville to have horns in the sessions

and harpsichords and bringing all kinds of other things,

attempting other sounds other than the same thing every time.

After you have one hit with a group, it's very exciting

because you realise,

they got so big with their first hit that you know the next one's

going to be a hit, so it's very important

and interesting what you play,

because millions of people are going to hear it, so they loved that.

I remember when Chet came along with the volume control and changed it

to tonal control, which is the first, they called it the wah-wah pedal.

And then he'd also taken a tremolo,

which was unknown at that point.

You couldn't buy an amplifier with it in it.

And he graciously, here's for All I Have To Do Is Dream,

we were into that. We wanted to experiment.

# Dream, dream, dream, dream

# Dream, dream, dream, dream

# When I want you in my arms

# When I want you and all your charms

Whenever I want you, all I have to do is dream, dream, dream, dream

# When I feel blue in the night

# And I need you to hold me tight

# Whenever I want you

# All I have to do is dream

# I can make you mine, taste your lips of wine

# Any time night or day

# Only trouble is, gee whizz

# I'm dreamin' my life away

# I need you so that I could die

# I love you so and that is why

# Whenever I want you

# All I have to do is

# Dream, dream, dream, dream, dream

# Dream, dream, dream, dream, dream... #

HE CLAPS A BEAT

# Lollipop, lollipop, Oh, lolly-lolly-lolly

# Lollipop, lollipop, Oh, lolly-lolly-lolly

# Lollipop, lollipop, Oh, lolly-lolly-lolly

# Lollypop. #

POP

# Well, since my baby left me

# I've found a new place to dwell

# It's down at the end of lonely street

# At Heartbreak Hotel. #

I believe Elvis Presley is still a kind of a king.

If he hadn't have kicked down all the doors,

none of us could have gotten through.

Music, then, was going through a real major change.

The orchestras and that era was ending.

Records were beginning to rock'n'roll and people hated rock.

You either hated it or you loved it.

Did you know what it was? Did anyone identify it as rock'n'roll?

Well, we called it rock'n'roll, that was only because of Alan Freed.

Alan Freed named it rock'n'roll.

It was the records that were happening...

The things we were listening to... I called Little Richard rock'n'roll.

But I guess I also called what Buddy Holly was doing was rock'n'roll.

The basic music that I grew up with

and lived all my life will always be with me.

I didn't think because I would settle down and get married

and have a house in the suburbs that I would quit liking that music.

# Lucille

# Won't you do your daddy's will?

# Lucille

# You don't do your daddy's will

# Well, it ain't nothin' to you

# But I love you still

# I woke up this morning

# Lucille was not in sight

# I asked her friends about her

# But all their lips were tight

# Lucille

# Please come back where you belong

# I been good to you, baby

# Please don't leave me alone

# Oh! #

At the end of the '50s, I mean, it was pretty tumultuous,

being on the road too.

The big package tours that we would get on...

You had 15 to 20 acts and you were playing to 100,000 people a night

in these big coliseum stadiums, doing three songs, and pandemonium.

You could hear nothing. Everyone screaming

and yelling from the time it started to the time it ended.

You were saying yesterday, you were friendly with Cochran

and Holly and that. Was there a sort of sense of camaraderie between...?

Oh, yes. It was like fraternity.

It was like being in a college fraternity. It was great.

-Us against them, always.

-Yeah.

Very few of those rock'n'roll people from our life, in fact,

none that I can think of, anyone had any control over what they did.

It wound up that the publishing company had control over what

was being released. We disagreed with that entirely.

And anybody, to this day, if your publishing company controls

your releases, they're going to want their songs to be released.

And so, artistic freedom, came down to that, we had to have it

and we got it. By saying, but in the process,

all the people that we were dealing with had to go by the wayside,

in order for us to go ahead and pursue it, right or wrong,

what we wanted to do musically.

Cos rock'n'roll wasn't going to stay in that one spot.

Let's face it, it didn't.

# Don't want your love

# Any more

# Don't want your kisses

# That's for sure

# I die each time

# I hear this sound

# Here he comes

# That's Cathy's clown

# When you see me shed a tear

# And you know that it's sincere

# Don't you think it's kind of sad

# That you're treating me so bad?

# Or don't you even care?

# Don't want your love

# Any more

# Don't want your kisses

# That's for sure

# I die each time

# I hear this sound

# Here he comes

# That's Cathy's clown

# That's Cathy's clown. #

This is John Wayne, white cap and gloves,

blue tunic and white belt, light blue trousers with a red stripe.

This is the bold dress blue uniform of the United States Marine.

Whether he earns his dress blues as an honour man at boot camp or

acquires them later in his career, a Marine wears them with deep pride.

Being a Marine is like being a part of the nation's history.

I hadn't thought this through and I said...you know,

Marines sound like death to me, you know?

And Donald said, "Yeah," and he did say this, he said, "Yeah, but you know, they got those..."

He said shiny helmets too, which...

I never saw a shiny helmet in the time, you know?

So one thing led to another and we wound up in that.

But the Marines, there's an esprit de corps connected with it.

It was great training, it was something that actually,

I think, all in all, helped us in a period of time in our lives

that maybe could have been more difficult.

But I think it was good.

I'll tell you how tough it was, as far as discipline, we didn't

even speak for the first week, two weeks, that we were together.

We stood side by side for two weeks and we did not have time to speak.

Once you get through that, and everybody that gets

through it is proud to put that uniform on, from then on.

You meet somebody with that uniform on, you say, "There's a Marine."

-And if he knows you're a Marine...

-I've heard from so many people since then, if you're a Marine...

Instantly, they know what you've done.

Phil, you were scratching off each day.

-As each day went, you would be writing it off...

-I would.

And when he'd do that, I'd check it. I wanted to know how many, you know?

And now, ladies and gentlemen, bringing out on stage here,

two United States Marines.

The Everly Brothers have just finished their boot training out on the coast.

Let's have a wonderfully warm welcome for them. The Everly Brothers!

-Glad to have you back on our show.

-Thank you very much.

-Congratulations.

-I understand you put on 20 pounds.

-That's right.

-Wow! You look great.

-Thank you.

-Sing a number there for Colonel Glenn.

-Be glad to.

# I'll never let you see

# The way my broken heart is hurting me

# I've got my pride and I know how to hide

# All my sorrow and pain

# I'll do my crying in the rain

# Raindrops falling from heaven

# Could never wash away my misery

# But since we're not together

# I pray for stormy weather

# To hide these tears I hope you'll never see

# Some day when my crying's done

# I'm going to wear a smile And walk in the sun

# I may be a fool, But till then, darling

# You'll never see me complain

# I'll do my crying in the rain

# I'll do my crying in the rain. #

APPLAUSE

We turned around twice and you had to be English. It was in to be English.

# Some other guy now

# Has taken my love away from me, Oh, no

# Some other guy now

# Has taken away my sweet desire, Oh, now

# Some other guy now

# I just don't wanna hold my hand

# I'm the lonely one, As lonely as I can feel all right. #

If you weren't from England, for a period of time,

especially The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, a lot of good

came over, but then it dominated the airwaves for quite a period.

Did you feel the pressure to change your way of performing?

Well, the only pressure I felt was people said, "The Beatles

"sound an awful lot like you," and I said, "Well, what can I do?"

# She loves you, yeah, yeah... #

From our side of the music business, it became very square

if you didn't get stoned and you didn't have really long hair

and that...element about your mystique, you know?

I was listening to the music. And to me it wasn't revolutionary.

I mean, it was louder and there were more tracks.

They didn't know what to think of us at all. Not at all.

I mean, even if we didn't wear tuxes.

They didn't know what to think of us. They knew we were from the '50s.

You know, and that was not the '60s.

You know, it was that attitude

and our songs didn't have anything about double meanings.

You know, so...

we had a hard road to hoe within that group

and we'd also worked in Vegas and that was really bad.

RASPING GUITAR MUSIC

Music quit being something you could earn an honest living by.

It had to be a social movement.

-PHIL:

-I always felt that the '60s were phoney.

Include the psychedelic period.

You still have to get records played

and when everybody has an attitude that they're going for,

like that sort of political reform in this, that and the other,

I think the '60s was a very bad period for music.

DON: In the '60s,

we were never able to break into that record thing at all.

No matter what music we pursued.

I got stoned, I did everything trying to record something.

I said, maybe there's something I'm missing in this whole thing.

Got to set record stoned... that didn't work!

-But we just were never accepted.

-Did it get you down?

It got me down a bit.

I wanted to be on records.

I mean, I found myself all of a sudden...

we were working, but our records weren't

and we made some really good records.

APPLAUSE

# Way down in Bowling Green

# Prettiest girls I've ever seen

# A man in Kentucky sure is lucky

# To love down in Bowling Green, yeah

# Bowling Green folks treat you kind

# They let you think your own mind

# A man in Kentucky sure is lucky

# In Bowling Green you walk your own line

# Kentucky sunshine makes the heart unfold

# It warms the body I know it touches the soul

# Bluegrass is fine, Kentucky owns my mind... #

'Don and I toured almost 16 years

'and we had been working for years and years before.

'So, I'd had a lot.'

'Phil and I for a while was working seven, eight months a year,

'nine months a year. So, that takes it up... the year.

'And if you do that for a period of 20 years, or something like that,

'you've got a big chunk of your life has been spent travelling.

'Being a duet and in the music business,

'especially the kind of duet Phil and I are.

'You know, close harmony, nose to nose,

'right up on stage there every night

'when we were working. That takes a lot of strain on a relationship.'

# Bluegrass is fine

# Kentucky owns my mind... #

# Wandering down the road of life

# Wandering over the hill

# Don't know what I'm searching for... #

The real pressure in that was the business. It's the business.

We had more to worry about than, you mean, like sibling rivalry?

Continuing the past adolescence all the way into adulthood?

No, it's more the pressures of the business.

That's a method I think a lot of people have tried to handle us

with that because it's, you know,

it's a simplistic kind of view

that that's what would be a problem

and that led to the ultimate end of the Everly Brothers,

-but it's untrue.

-Sure.

Obviously, it's something that I think everybody is interested in,

the fact that you were so close when you sing and then,

can you just tell me about the last time you performed together?

Well, I never really, basically discuss it.

I've basically approached my life this way.

Yesterday is yesterday and if you bring

and take all of your past mistakes and drag them

into your present, you're only going to confuse your present.

Tomorrow's more important than your yesterday.

I went through a period I didn't want to sing anything

that Phil and I had done. I just needed a rest.

I wasn't pursuing it, I wasn't... I spent a lot of time just

sort of living I think an ordinary life which I hadn't done before.

You know, I think that took up a lot of my... I was amazed to

be off the road in the first time that I could remember.

I did one album in California.

Really out of the... for the thing of feeling that

I should do an album and I did one.

And it was a band called Heads, Eyes and Feet.

Came into town, Albert Lee became a good friend of mine

and I wanted really started working with them

on a collaboration of an album called Sunset Towers.

-PHIL:

-Periodically, I will get an urge to go play

and I would go do it.

But I'll go two years without performing in front of somebody

and it wouldn't bother me too much.

Because I would make music at home and I was always satisfied.

Be sure and put your phone number down as Don told you to have a

fine programme Monday through Friday, two o'clock in the afternoon

called Tune Tips and neighbours, if they call you up, you're going to

be playing this. Donny, I feel another tune coming on.

Let's get in gear and play another old favourite called

Stealin' The Blues.

BLUEGRASS STYLE GUITAR MUSIC PLAYS

The Everly Brothers are the all-time greats.

They have the two most extraordinary voices in pop and put together.

What I think is incredible is that, you know, the early records

were 25 years ago and the voices were still just unbelievable.

There's really no better singers than the Everly Brothers, is there?

I don't think there's any better singers than them.

The voices, I mean they've managed to keep their voices

throughout 25 years of rock'n'roll and they still sound like,

you know, two birds with crystal clear voices. Amazing.

-How long have you been an Everly fan?

-Oh, I think all my life.

As long as I remember, anyway.

Yeah. When did you first hear their stuff?

I guess I started listening to them when I was about 16. I mean,

that's as far back as I can remember and I have always absolutely

loved them, so I was really happy to see them back together again.

BLUES GUITAR MUSIC PLAYS

How come it's ten years. Why this year?

That's a good question.

I think maybe it could be I'm tired of everyone saying,

"Why don't you do it, why don't you do it?" Every day of my life.

And when we finally decided to do it people quit asking me

that question and I don't know... the times change.

You change, you mellow. And you...

You see things. You get anxious again, maybe.

I had enough time, we had enough time alone,

enough time away from the road and everything.

But then, sooner or later time changes. And I don't know.

'It's an adventure.

'That's the major thing. Right now it's an adventure which is wonderful.

'If your father were alive, he'd love to see this.

-'He would be there with us.

-Yeah.

-That's the one regret.

'Actually, I also, too think that I kind of feel

'because of playing the Royal Albert that Dad is there

'and it's special, you know, because I know that he really,

'no matter what all of this other stuff,

'that Dad basically would like this. This is important.

'It's more important that we do do this,

'regardless of what we do afterwards and all that.

'It's important that we sing together at least once more and it's

'a magic moment in my life, you know, and Don's too,

'so it was just ideal.'

AUDIENCE CLAMOURS

APPLAUSE

AUDIENCE CHEERS

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE CONTINUE

# I bless the day I found you

# I want to stay around you

# Now and forever

# Let it be me