HONORS POUR IN FOR JERRY LEE LOUIS!

 

Monday, May 23^rd, 2022

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

HONORS POUR IN FOR JERRY LEE LOUIS!

 

Louisiana rockabilly Jerry Lee Louis has just been elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame.  He has already been inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of fame, so the honors keep pouring in for this Louisiana musical icon.  Let me tell you about me and Jerry Lee.

 

In 1958, I was at a high school hop in St. Louis when the number one song in the country was performed.  I danced with my girlfriend to Jerry Lee’s hit, “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.” We played the song over and over. My favorite part was when his vocals got quiet and in a soft voice he sang:

Now let’s get real low one time now
All you gotta do honey is kinda stand in one spot
wiggle around just a little bit
that’s what you gotta do yeah...
Oh babe whole lotta shakin' goin' on

 

I play a little music myself, but I have never heard anyone play a boogie woogie piano like he could. He often performed standing up and could even play with his feet, after he kicked over his piano bench. Jerry Lee was something else.

Fast forward ten years almost to that day.  I’m sitting in my office as a new country lawyer in Ferriday, Louisiana.  I had few clients so I was always anxious when the door opened. One afternoon, in walks “The Killer” himself. I recognized him immediately with that long wavy hair and pointed chin.  He didn’t need a lawyer but had a family member that was in a bit of trouble with the local game wardens. I was glad to help and that forged a long relationship with the king of rock and roll.

There were other incidents from time to time, and when a relative or friend appealed to Jerry Lee for help, I would get a call.  I never sent him a bill for my services, but I could get front row seats to his concerts. He played at a Baton Rouge club called Floyd Brown’s back in the 80s, and Jerry Lee kept my group entertained backstage for a good while after the show.

You have to admire his resiliency.  Jerry Lee has certainly had his highs and lows, but in his worse moments, he’s always had the heart and stubbornest to fight back. And he could pound the piano with such abandon that it’s a wonder it didn’t come apart.

His popularity today continues at a high level that most star musical performers envy.

I attended a dinner in New York last year for a relative, and a wealthy hedge fund CEO came to my table and introduced himself. He had heard I was from Ferriday. All he wanted to talk about was Jerry Lee Lewis. “My musical idol,” he told me. “I even have a piano in my office, so to unwind, I play The Killer’s music.” This guy has billions, travels the world in his own private jet, and to relax, he plays the music of a Ferriday boy who cut his musical teeth hanging out with the likes of Mickey Gilley and Rev. Jimmy Swaggart.  

The three cousins all were self-taught and could each play the piano before they reached 10 years old.  They went separate directions and each found success. At one time, Rev. Swaggart (whose family I also represented) had a worldwide following, and his preaching is still watched in numerous countries.  Mickey Gilley, who did several concerts for me in my political days, was named the country singer of the year, sadly passed away just last month.

He is just one more of the musical legends that call Louisiana their home.  Here’s hoping he lives for years to come and is back on the concert stage. We all want to hear again about a “whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on.”

 Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com. You can also look over a list of books he has published at www.thelisburnpress.com.

 

 

 

WHAT’S GOING ON IN LOUISIANA AND ALL OF AMERICA?

Monday, May 16^th, 2022

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

WHAT’S GOING ON IN LOUISIANA AND ALL OF AMERICA?

 

Remember the song a few years back? “How low can you go?
Cause I wanna know. How low can you go?”

 

Well apparently, as a state and a nation, we still have lower to go. The Wall Street Journal summed it up well this week by saying: “It is becoming difficult to identify any corner of American life that has not become unhinged from what once were considered normal restraints on behavior, personal or political.” And it’s not just the Republicans or just the Democrats. Across the political spectrum, personal attacks, violence, and incendiary rhetoric have become the norm.

 

The verbal attacks on members of the US Supreme Court have become so toxic that an eight-foot fence now surrounds the court building, and the justices are required to have around the clock protection. The Supreme Court is so dysfunctional they can’t even keep their opinions under wraps until time for release. The apparent abortion decision has caused mobs to protest in the nation’s capital. The US senate majority leader Chuck Schumer marching in front of the Supreme Court and yelling at Republican justices: “You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”

 

Mindless assaults and shootings how become the norm across the nation. Just a few days ago, 10 people were killed in Buffalo by a deranged domestic terrorist.  Daily murders in New Orleans, Baton Rouge and Shreveport had become the standard.  Once respected actor Will Smith scrolls up to the stage on national television and punches comedian Chris Rock.  Other comedians like Dave Chappelle are attacked on stage.

 

The Republicans are no better including our former president. All stood by on January 6 and shrugged their shoulders as there was an assault on the nation’s capital with raging mobs.  Our whole way of life here in America and especially my home state of Louisiana seems to be on the brink of disruption and violence.

 

In the Bayou State, the legislature is now in session. These lawmakers have overlooked facing an exhaustive number of problems that include ignoring a vast list of health reforms, dealing with the highest insurance rates in the nation, overhauling an outdated tax structure, and failing to put teeth in litter and pollution laws that make Louisiana one of the trashiness states in the nation. The highlight of the legislative session so far in Baton Rouge is to designate an official state butterfly (the Gulf Fritillary).

 

What happened to our political leaders that in the past built coalitions and work towards solutions in finding the common good? In short, what happened to our leadership that used to show political valor in wanting to, as Spike Lee says, do the right thing?  Or is real political courage now dead?

Thankfully, there are special people and groups who do show us profiles in courage at the local level. On the home front in Louisiana, mayors and other civic leaders have been fighting an uphill battle for the last several years across South Louisiana to recover from several major hurricanes. More communities are forming neighborhood watch groups that stand up to drug dealers. And we cannot praise enough our nurses and doctors who expose themselves to diseases like Covid-19 in order to care for their patients. What we could use are more politicians who risk losing elections to say and do what they think is right.

Charles Darwin defined our dilemma 150 years ago in his “Decent of Man.”  “There can be no doubt that a tribe including many members who, from possessing in a high degree the spirit of patriotism, fidelity, obedience, courage, and sympathy, were always ready to give aid to each other and to sacrifice themselves for the common good, would be victorious over most other tribes; and this would be natural selection.”

As kids, we all grew up with stories of our heroes. “We teach kids about special Americans.  People doing good. Putting others before themselves. In Louisiana, statewide elections are less than a year and a half away.  A time for voters to demand answers from those who want to lead.  The buck stops with us, the voters, to pass judgement on who will offer a vision of what Louisiana could and should be.  And that’s an important burden on all of us.

Peace and Justice

Jim Brown

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com. You can also look over a list of books he has published at www.thelisburnpress.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GETTING OLDER AIN’T ALL THAT BAD!

Tuesday, May 10th, 2022

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

GETTING OLDER AIN’T ALL THAT BAD!

 

I woke up from this strange dream last night. I got out of bed, looked in the new mirror and saw the face of a rather interesting old guy who just turned 82. Eighty-Two?  And then it dawned on me.  It wasn’t a dream. When I started writing regular columns back in the year 2000, 82 seemed awfully old. But guess what? I turn 82 this week.

 

I’ve written and published seven books.  But unlike my books, I cannot start again from the beginning.  No, I cannot rewind the video of my life, or step back in time.

 

So I looked again in the mirror, and told myself, look you are 82. Deal with it, and maybe even relish in all the experiences and fond memories. I think it was Lucille Ball who once said: “The secret of staying young is to live honestly, eat slowly, and lie about your age.” I’d rather acknowledge that age is strictly a case of mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter. Well I don’t mind. And as I get older, I’m quick to quote Mark Twain who told his readers that wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been.

 

There is a disturbing article in a recent issue of Atlantic Magazine by a prominent physician at the University of Pennsylvania. Ezekiel J. Emanuelis an oncologist, a bioethicist, and a vice provost of the University.  So he is a bright guy who knows a lot about health. His premise is that no one, in this day and age, should aspire to live longer than 75 years of age.

 

Now I would be skeptical of such an assertion no matter what my current age. I read the obituary section of several newspapers each day, and make note of a number of successful people who have lived a much longer lifespan. But the Atlantic article becomes more than a bit personal to me as I roar by the author’s premise that you don’t make the cut after 75.

 

The basis of Dr. Emanuel’s article is that, for most people, the quality of life diminishes after 75.  He writes that aging “robs us of our creativity and ability to contribute to work, society and the world. We are no longer remembered as vibrant and engaged but as feeble, ineffectual, even pathetic.” He concludes by assuming that those who continue to be productive long after 75 are “outliers,” and far from the norm.

 

But what great philosopher or scientist has concluded that one has to be productive in later years? And just what does Dr. Emanuel mean by being productive? Productivity does not particularly mean that someone who is getting a bit older and slowing down must be creative. Isn’t the idea of retirement a pathway that allows seniors to absorb the world around them in any way they choose?

 

If being productive means that I’m hanging out with grandkids more, reading more, reintroducing myself to old friends who go back 60 years and beyond, taking an occasional music lesson, and even trying to be a more than passible cook, then yes, just like many of my current friends, I am being quite productive.

 

I’d like to think that I still have a long life ahead because I watch what I eat, and I workout a lot. My old college roommate is quick to remind me that the big advantage of exercising and diet is that I will die a lot healthier.

 

Reaching a milestone of three quarters of a century should not be that big a deal. After all, 82 is really just a number, isn’t it? Like a bunch of other numbers in your life. Dates, addresses, sums, phone numbers, passwords, and then, in the mix, is age. But I hope it is more than that. I wrote a few years back, that my life has been, by any measure, full and hard living, with ups and downs too numerous to mention.

 

 If there is a yin and a yang, the before and the after, what has happened and what is yet to be, then maybe eighty two is a special way-post for me. In fact, I really believe that I could be at the top of my game, and ready for the long and relaxing ride back down.

 

So to the good doctor who wants to shut his life down at 75, I say that’s your call; your freedom of choice. As for me, I still have a whole lot of living to do. And not just passive living.

 

 Dylan Thomas said it best. “Do not go gentle into the night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

 

Peace and Justice

 

Jim Brown

 

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com. Also, see Jim’s other books at www.thewlisburnpress.com.

 

GARTH BROOKS WOWS THEM IN TIGER STADIUM!

Monday, May 2^nd, 2022

Baton Rouge, Louisiana

 

GARTH BROOKS WOWS THEM IN TIGER STADIUM!

 

Oh if you could have been last Saturday night in Tiger Stadium packed with a crowd of over 102,000 fans, all to hear super country music star Garth Brooks.  It couldn’t get any bigger than this.   And the crowd’s greatest response, hands down, was when Brooks roamed the huge LSU stage singing: I spent last night in the arms of a girl in Louisiana.  It was his signature song titled Callin’ Baton Rouge. The crowd went nuts.

 

If you come from Louisiana, it’s almost a congenital requirement that you are born with a love for music. Particularly string music, from country, zydeco, blues, rock and even an abundance of classical aficionados. I’m certainly in that number. Two of my first legal clients as a practicing lawyer in Ferriday were Jerry Lee Lewis and Mickey Gilley. I paid my way through law school by playing my banjo on Bourbon Street at a place called Your Father’s Mustache. Yep, music is in our DNA down here in the Bayou State.

 

Garth Brooks is a mega star when it comes to selling albums. Fourteen have debuted as No. One, and he’s sold over 150 million albums.  In Tiger Stadium, the crowd stood up the entire evening and sang along with the crooner. Even younger kids in their late teens and early 20s seemed to know the words to every song. He ran and jumped across the stage, while singing, during the entire performance. I was exhausted myself just watching him perform.

 

. The crowd went into a tizzy when he sang “Callin’ Baton Rouge,” a song Brooks told the crowd was his all-time favorite. After he finished, the swarm of fans burst out chanting “L.S.U.-L.S.U.” He had the whole stadium in the palm of his hands, and would have received a unanimous vote for Mayor, Governor, President, or anything else. He was the Man and certainly the king of country music.

 

It was different the first time I heard Garth Brooks sing back in 1980. I had just been elected as Louisiana Secretary of State. On a Saturday night, I had spoken to a civic club in Kentwood, right on the Louisiana-Mississippi line in the southeastern part of the state. To get back to the state capitol in Baton Rouge, I followed the back roads that took me through Greensburg on down highway 16 into the small community of Montpelier. As was my custom when I would travel that route, I stopped off at the Bear Creek Restaurant and Saloon for a bite to eat and a cold beer.

 

A full house and a rowdy crowd on a Louisiana Saturday night, as I visited with the bartender, a guy named Jesse. A young singer and guitar player was on the stage, and a net had been put up in front of the platform to inhibit beer bottles from being thrown by any disorderly patrons. Few listened to the young fellow, but being a frustrated strummer myself, I paid attention to his forlorn country songs that he told the indifferent crowd he had written himself.

 

“Gotta nice sound,” I shared with Jesse.” Who is he?”

 

“From Oklahoma. Comes over every now and then to perform. Let’s see. His name is Brooks….Garth Brooks.”

 

As I got up to leave, I paid my tab, dropped a few bucks in the tip jar, and shared my opinion with Jesse. “He’s got a pretty good mellow voice. Who knows? He might make it big one day.” I headed off into the night towards the city whose name would become one of Garth Brooks all-time hits.

 

When I wrote my first book about my time in Louisiana politics, I raised the question about whether all I went through in my 28 years as a public official was worth it. I answered by quoting from my favorite Garth Brooks song. “Our lives are better left to chance. I could’ve missed the pain, but I’da had to miss the dance.”

 

From singing in a Louisiana country saloon to becoming a country music mega-star. At 60, he can’t do much better. Here’s hoping Garth Brooks will keep on performing and keep on singing about that gal in Louisiana for many years to come.

 

*******

 

“It’s funny how a chubby kid can just be having fun, and people call it entertainment!”

Garth Brooks

Peace and Justice

 

Jim Brown

 

Jim Brown’s syndicated column appears each week in numerous newspapers throughout the nation and on websites worldwide.  You can read all his past columns and see continuing updates at http://www.jimbrownusa.com. You can also hear Jim’s nationally syndicated radio show each Sunday morning from 9 am till 11:00 am, central time, on the Genesis Radio Network, with a live stream at http://www.jimbrownusa.com.