March 19, 2013

1. I am obviously not a Catholic, but having lived in Argentina, I am very pleased the new pope is Argentine. I wish him the best.

2. I have not seen that new series about the Bible on the History Channel, but everyone I’ve talked to who has seen it has told me it is great TV.

3. RIP, Steve Davis. I did not like watching you quarterback OU to three wins over UT back in the seventies, but you were a good player and a great person. You died too soon.

4. I’m rereading Philip Yancey’s Rumors of Another World. I’ve written about it before, so I won’t repeat that. But I am being reminded what a great book that is.

5. I just finished a book I checked out from the library. It is memoir by music icon Kenny Rogers called Luck Or Something Like It. I was never a big fan of Rogers, although I always liked his work. I intended to skim the book but became engrossed in it. Here are some highlights for me:

• Rogers talked about the impact his mother made on him from at an early age. She had sought to instill values within him as a child. For example, as a youngster she would take him and his siblings to church three times a week on the public bus in Houston–since they could not afford to own a car. Once, when Rogers told his mother that he did not want go to church, she said to him, “Son, I want you to listen to me and remember what I say. You can never be anything more as an adult than was put into you as a child. So get a on the bus and let's go.”
• The book contains some poignant stories as well. Rogers grew up in the housing projects in Houston. Today we would refer to his childhood as one of poverty. He remembered that as a first grader, a dance was held at his school in which the girls picked the boys to be their partners. He was picked last.
•  At the peak of his popularity, he was performing in the Houston Astrodome back to the 1980s. The arena was filled. It was quite a homecoming. Afterwards, Rodgers encountered a girl whom he had liked during elementary school. He had tried to impress her in those early years, and had failed to do so. Now, he could not help but think that he had surely succeeded. Walking up to her, Rogers said hello. She responded with a greeting, but had a completely blank look on her face. Rogers told her, “I'm Kenneth Rogers. We went to Wharton Elementary School together. I use to pick pecans at your house." Again, the woman revealed nothing but a blank stare. She had absolutely no recollection of him from their childhood.
• Another funny story he tells is of country music Hall of Famer Eddie Arnold presenting him an award. Arnold announced to the audience, “I like this guy. He's had so many big hits. He's done so many good things for country music.” Arnold continued describing why Rogers merited the prize, but finally confessed, “I really do like this guy, but for the life of me, I can't remember his name!” Rogers is definitely self-effacing.
• Rogers’ first marriage was at age 18. He was, to say the least, naïve. Here is how he described his view of marriage to his father, “… I thought that having a wife just meant a guy could have sex anytime he happened to think about it, which in my case was all the time. I can still see the look on my dad’s face when I told him my all-sex/all-the-time theory of wedded bliss. He looked at me and shook his head. ‘Just know this, son. Sooner or later you’ll have to get out of bed.’” Wise words from a father.
• Rogers advised that no one enter into the music business for the money. “Most people who set out just to make money don't last long enough to actually see the money. They get discouraged and quit. Longevity is based on your ability to accept rejection and keep trying. Most people can't do that. Those who do survive do so because they feel music is their calling. These people are hard to discourage.” That is good advice for any field.
• There were several valleys in Rogers’ music career. One of them occurred after the group he was a part of, First Edition, broke up. Over the next two years, he hardly worked at all. He had always been part of a group, but he had to become a solo singer. Unfortunately, he did not know how to do it. He migrated to Nashville and began pursuing a new career in country music. Somebody offered him a song that sounded so depressing, the record company that was going to record him told him to forget the song. But Rogers and his manager fought for the right to record the song, and at last the record company, United Artists, relented. They recorded it. 
• One evening shortely thereafter, on the “Tonight Show with Johnny Carson”, Rogers opened his set by singing the words of that song, “In a bar in Toledo across from the depot…” The song was called “Lucille.” By the time he was singing the chorus, the audience, both in the studio and at home, was hooked:

You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille,
with four hungry children and a crop in the field,
I've had some bad times,
lived through some sad times, but this time the hurting won't heal.
You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille.

• That song sold over 5 million copies and launched the biggest American music act of the next decade.
• I had forgotten Rogers’ enormous success. Nor did I remember that he had recorded songs that made top 40 lists in the 1990s and 2000s. At age 75, Rogers is still making music. Although Kenny Rogers is no Johnny Cash, you can make the argument that he belongs in the same league.

            *Thanks to Peter King for the inspiration for this title.