Faron Young

小簡介
Faron Young在1953年到1974年底一直是鄉(xiāng)村音樂界演出最多的藝人之一。他1953年的第一支上榜曲《Goin’ Steady》曾列排行榜第2位。到1974年底，他共獲得42支列排行榜前10位的歌曲。其中有5支是榜首曲，即1955年的《Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young》，1958年的《Alone With You》，1959年的《Country Girl》，1961年Willie Nelson作曲的《Hello Walls》，再就是這支《It’s Four In The Morning》?！　aron Young1951年19歲時，錄出了他的第一張唱片。韓戰(zhàn)推助了他的音樂前程。1952年秋他參軍，在國內(nèi)電視的一次陸軍競賽節(jié)目中勝出。兩年來，他為分布全球的部隊進行演出，還和廣播員Leonard Limoy一起為陸軍征兵的廣播節(jié)目共同工作。50年代末，F(xiàn)aron從事電影事業(yè)，拍了11部電影。頭一部電影‘Hidden gun’是和Angie Dickinson一起拍的。他的角色是扮演一位檢查官，從而得到了‘小警長’的外號。Faron自辯道：“那時侯，Ernest Tubb被稱為‘Texas Trabadour(德州樂師)’，Hank Thompson被稱為‘游吟護林人’。在一次比賽節(jié)目結(jié)束后，他們稱我為Faron Young-‘小警長’。我后來把‘小警長’變更成‘游吟警長’，我估計到我35歲時，這種更換便可以完成?！?　　Faron1970年曾因車禍舌部受傷。經(jīng)過4次手術(shù)后恢復了演唱功能。但當作曲者Jerry Chesnut打算為他寫曲時，他提出了歌詞中不要有發(fā)‘s’的音，因為出事后他仍有點口齒不清。如此這般，這支3拍子的《It’s Four In The Morning》便出臺了?！　『虵aron Young一起在Shreveport成長的制作人Jerry Kennedy回憶道：“Feron不想要3拍子的歌曲，因為一直有一種‘華爾茲音樂’不好賣的說法。謝天謝地，這場辯論到底還是我贏了?！?　　這支單曲終于在排行榜首停留了2周，F(xiàn)eron特別高興，因為這個嘉獎正好接上他1972年2月25日的40大壽。　　Faron Young除了是一位藝人外，還是一位精明的商人。在‘納須維爾’音樂正成型的時候，他蓋起了一座辦公商業(yè)樓，創(chuàng)辦了‘Music City News-音樂城’雜志。
Originally known as the Hillbilly Heartthrob and the Singing Sheriff, Faron Young had one of the longest-running and most popular careers in country music history. Emerging in the early 50s, Young was one of the most popular honky tonkers to appear in the wake of Hank Williams death, partially because he was able to smooth out some of the grittiest elements of his music. At first, he balanced honky tonk with pop vocal phrasing and flourishes. This combination of grit and polish resulted in a streak of Top Ten hits — including If You Aint Lovin, Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young, Sweet Dreams, Alone With You, and Country Girl — that ran throughout the 50s. During the 60s, Young gave himself over to country-pop, and while the hits werent quite as big, they didnt stop coming until the early 80s. Through that time, he was a staple at the Grand Ole Opry and various television shows, including Nashville Now, and he also founded the major country music magazine, Music City News. Most importantly, he continued to seek out new songwriters — including Don Gibson, Willie Nelson, and Kris Kristofferson — thereby cultivating a new generation of talent.
Faron Young was born and raised outside of Shreveport, LA. While he was growing up on his fathers dairy farm, he was given a guitar, and by the time he entered high school, he had begun singing in a country band. Following high school, he briefly attended college, before he left school to join the Louisiana Hayride as a regular performer. While on the Hayride, he met Webb Pierce and in a short time, the pair were touring throughout the South, singing as a duo in various nightclubs and honky tonks. In 1951, he recorded Have I Waited Too Long and Tattle Tale Tears for the independent label Gotham. After hearing the singles, Capitol Records decided to buy Youngs contract away from Gotham in 1952. That same year, he was invited to perform regularly on the Grand Ole Opry.
Just as his career was taking off, Young was drafted into the Army to serve in the Korean War. Assigned to the Special Service division, he sang for the troops in Asia and appeared on recruitment shows; while on leave, he recorded his debut on Capitol, Goin Steady. Upon its early 1953 release, it climbed to number two on the country charts and it was followed in the summer by I Cant Wait (For the Sun to Go Down), which hit number five. Young was discharged from the Army in November of 1954, releasing If You Aint Lovin, his biggest hit, shortly after he returned. The single was quickly followed in the spring of 1955 by Live Fast, Love Hard, Die Young, which became his first number one hit, and the number two single, All Right.
As soon as he returned to the States, Faron Young began turning out singles at a very rapid pace, and most of them charted in the Top Ten. In addition to recording, he began appearing in films, starting with 1955s Hidden Guns. Over the next few years, he was in no less than ten films — including Daniel Boone, Road to Nashville, Stampede, A Gun and a Gavel, Thats Country, and Raiders of Old California — and was featured in many television shows. Upon his first film appearance, Faron earned the nickname the Young Sheriff, which eventually metamorphasized into the Singing Sheriff. Youngs career truly began to hit its stride in 1956, as Ive Got Five Dollars and Its Saturday Night and Youre Still Mine reached number four and three, respectively, during the spring, followed by the number two Sweet Dreams later that summer. Sweet Dreams was not only his biggest hit since All Right, but it gave songwriter Don Gibson his first significant exposure. Soon, Young developed a reputation for finding promising new songwriters, bringing Roy Druskys Alone With You to the top of the charts in the summer of 1958 and taking Willie Nelsons Hello Walls to number one in 1961; Young was one of the first artists to record a Nelson song.
Young continued to record for Capitol through 1962, when he switched labels and signed with Mercury. In general, Youngs Mercury recordings were more pop-oriented than his Capitol work, possibly because Hello Walls, his last number one for Capitol, reached number 12 on the pop charts. Throughout the early and mid-60s, Youngs music became more polished and produced, yet his audience didnt decline dramatically; he may not have been hitting every top of the charts with the same frequency as he was during the 50s, but he was still a consistent hitmaker, and singles like Youll Drive Me Back (Into Her Arms Again), Keeping Up With the Joneses, and Walk Tall climbed into the Top Ten.
Faron left the Grand Ole Opry in 1965, deciding that it was more profitable for him to tour as a solo artist instead of being restricted to the Opry. Following his departure, Young began to explore a number of different business ventures, including a Nashville-based racetrack and helping to run the country music publication Music City News, which he co-founded with Preston Temple in 1963. By the end of the decade, he began to return to honky tonk, most notably with the hit Wine Me Up, which reached number two upon its summer 1969 release. For nearly five years, Young continued to reach the Top Ten with regularity, including such hits as Your Times Comin, If I Ever Fall in Love (With a Honky Tonk Girl), Step Aside, and Its Four in the Morning. During this time, Young continued to appear on television shows and he made the occasional appearance on the Grand Ole Opry. During the late 70s, his hits gradually began to fade away. In 1979, he left Mercury for MCA, but none of his singles for the new label reached the Top 40.
For most of the 80s, Young performed concerts, maintained his business interests, and appeared on television; in short, he was acting like the country music statesman he was. In 1988, he briefly returned to recording, signing with the small label Step One, and had two minor hits on the label. After that brief burst of activity, he retreated to semi-retirement, occasionally making concert appearances.
During the 90s, Young was stricken with a debilitating emphysema. Depressed by his poor health, he shot himself on December 9, 1996, and passed away the next day. Though he was underappreciated toward the end of his career, Faron Young was a groundbreaking vocalist during the 50s, and he remains one of the finest honky tonkers of his time.