Buck Owens 1929-2006

When I was young, a revolutionary television program called Hee Haw invaded our home every Saturday night at 6pm. At the time, and for a long time afterward, Hee Haw was the butt of many, many jokes and sometimes the focus of our lament of growing up in the backward Bible Belt region of the US. Years later, many of the characters introduced on the show have become cult figures of a (somewhat) simpler time: Junior Samples, Archie Campbell, The Hager Twins, Stringbean, Lulu Roman, Grandpa Jones, Minnie Pearl, Roy Clark and Buck Owens.

Even later on, during the "I'm so fucking Punk Rock and original and owe nothing to anyone except maybe the Dead Kennedys and Black Flag" era, the influence that Buck Owens and Hee Haw really had on us was still of incubatory status. It wasn't until playing in an "Americana" cowpunk outfit in the mid-90's that the truth really all came home to roost for me.



So I'll just come out and tell the truth: I don't give a rancid shit what any boy-band smooth harmony mall-punk loving turd says, there wouldn't be "hardcore" or anything vaguely resembling it without the likes of Buddy Holly, The Beatles, Howlin' Wolf, Chuck Berry, Bob Wills, Little Richard, Woody Guthrie, and yes, Buck Owens.

And Hee Haw.