Hank : the short life and long country road of Hank Williams / Mark Ribowsky.

Author
Ribowsky, Mark [Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Εdition
First edition.
Published/​Created
  • New York : Liveright Publishing Corporation, [2017]
  • ©2017
Description
xxiii, 472 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, portraits ; 25 cm

Availability

Copies in the Library

Location Call Number Status Location Service Notes
ReCAP - Remote StorageML420.W55 R53 2017 Browse related items Request

    Details

    Subject(s)
    Library of Congress genre(s)
    Getty AAT genre
    Summary note
    After he died in the backseat of a Cadillac at the age of twenty-nine, Hank Williams, a frail, flawed man who had become country music's most compelling and popular star, instantly morphed into its first tragic martyr. Having hit the heights in the postwar era with simple songs of heartache and star-crossed love, he would, with that outlaw swagger, become in death a template for the rock generation to follow. Presenting the first fully realized biography of Hiram King Williams in a generation, Mark Ribowsky vividly returns us to the world of country music's origins, in this case 1920s Alabama, where Williams was born into the most trying of circumstances, which included a dictatorial mother, a henpecked father, and an agonizing spinal condition. Tracing the singular rise of a music legend from the street corners of the Depression-era South to the now-immortal stage of the Grand Ole Opry, and finally to a haunting, lonely end on New Year's Day 1953, Hank uncovers the real man beneath the myths, reintroducing us to an American original whose legacy, like a good night at the honkytonk, promises to carry on and on.
    Bibliographic references
    Includes bibliographical references (pages 427-450) and index.
    Contents
    • Part one: 1923-1937
    • King Hiram
    • An American twang
    • "Country music ain't nothin' but white people's blues, anyway"
    • I got a home in Montgomery
    • Part two: 1938-1948
    • "Don't tell mama"
    • Drydock
    • "Audrey, get me a bottle"
    • "It ain't a funny song"
    • Bottle up and go
    • From a mean bottle
    • Part three: 1948-1950
    • "Syrup sopper" or "populist poet"
    • "The sorriest thing I ever did hear"
    • "Never put me on after Hank Williams!"
    • Pettin' parties, cigarettes, and gin
    • "It's never too country"
    • A brand-new recipe
    • Part four: 1950-1953
    • "Don't he kill an audience?"
    • "The gun shot four times"
    • "Almost a continuous nightmare"
    • Hurting from inside
    • So far gone
    • "I see Jesus comin' down the road"
    • "Don't worry about ol' Hank"
    • Then came that fateful day.
    Other title(s)
    The short life and long country road of Hank Williams
    ISBN
    • 9781631491573 ((hardcover))
    • 1631491571
    LCCN
    2016026928
    OCLC
    937452748
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