Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Bob Wills: The King of Western Swing

Bob Wills: The King of Western Swing
Radio Script

Music: San Antonio Rose (under)

RB: Bob Wills, I used to say that Bob Wills was the Elvis Presley of Western Swing. He was as charismatic a performer as ever stood on stage according to the people who have reported to me and by looking at his films. You could see he was not staid. He incorporated?he was?his manager O.W. Mayo described him as 180, 165-lbs of pure rhythm.

JG: People drove 100 miles to see Bob play a dance

LAURA: IMAGINE WALKING INTO A DANCEHALL ON A DUSTY TEXAS HIGHWAY BACK IN 1946. THE ROOM IS PACKED WALL TO WALL, AND ON THE BANDSTAND IS A SMILING, HOLLERING FIDDLER LEADING 22 MUSICIANS WHO ARE WORKING THE DANCERS INTO A FRENZY WITH HIT AFTER HIT.

THAT BANDLEADER WAS BOB WILLS AND FOR OVER TWENTY YEARS, BOB WILLS AND HIS TEXAS PLAYBOYS WERE THE MAIN ATTRACTION, THE BIGGEST AND ONE OF MOST POPULAR DANCE BANDS OF THE SOUTHWEST.

BUT IT WAS ALSO AN UNUSUAL SOUND, MIXING COUNTRY WITH JAZZ, BLUES AND POP MUSIC UNTIL IT BECAME IT?S OWN STYLE, TEXAS SWING.

IN THE NEXT HOUR, WE?LL HEAR HOW BOB WILLS BECAME THE KING OF TEXAS SWING. TEXAS PLAYBOY FIDDLER JOHNNY GIMBLE JOINS US, SO DOES BOB WILLS BIOGRAPHER AND DAUGHTER ROSETTA WILLS. WE?LL ALSO HEAR FROM RAY BENSON OF THE BAND ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL.

I?M LAURA CANTRELL, AND WELCOME TO BOB WILLS: KING OF TEXAS SWING.

Music: Sittin? On Top Of The World (under)

JG: Radio played bits of others, then 45 minutes of Bob Wills

IN THE MID 1930?S, RADIO WAS PERHAPS THE BIGGEST SOURCE OF NEWS AND ENTERTAINMENT IN AMERICA. IF YOU WERE ON THE RADIO, THAT EXPOSURE COULD MAKE OR BREAK YOUR MUSICAL CAREER.

ROSETTA WILLS IS BOB?S DAUGHTER AND WROTE HIS BIOGRAPHY, ?BOB WILLS REMEMBERED: THE KING OF TEXAS SWING.

RW: radio is what really made him big, everyone listened

JOHNNY GIMBLE PLAYED FIDDLE FOR BOB WILLS AND THE TEXAS PLAYBOYS.

JG: Jukeboxes at least half Bob Wills records, so popular

BY THE TIME JOHNNY GIMBLE JOINED THE TEXAS PLAYBOYS IN 1949, HE KNEW HOW TO PLAY MANY OF THEIR SONGS.

JG: Any Texas dance band had to learn and play Bob Wills tunes

HERE?S ONE OF THOSE DANCE TUNES, ?GET WITH IT.?

Music: Get With It

LAURA: ?GET WITH IT? PERFORMED BYBOB WILLS AND HIS TEXAS PLAYBOYS WITH SINGER TOMMY DUNCAN.

TEXAS PLAYBOYS FIDDLER JOHNNY GIMBLE.

JG: Total freedom to musicians on stage, inspiring

AND LIKE ANY GOOD BANDLEADER, HIS PRESENCE HAD AN EFFECT ON THE BAND.

JG: Bob upped the energy and music when he arrived

ONE OF THE REASONS PEOPLE DROVE A HUNDRED MILES TO DANCE AT A BOB WILLS SHOW IS THAT KIND OF CHARISMA. BOB HAD PLENTY OF CHARM ON STAGE AND OFF.

BOB?S DAUGHTER, ROSETTA WILLS.

Music: I Ain?t Got Nobody

BOB WILLS AND THE TEXAS PLAYBOYS PERFORMED ?I AIN?T GOT NOBODY.?

YOU?RE LISTENING TO ?BOB WILLS: THE KING OF WESTERN SWING.? I?M LAURA CANTRELL.

RB: It was the music of the day, the popular music of the day and I think it was just his own version of it. People really loved it. That?s what I think made him special. RB: Bob Wills didn?t write all of his music. In fact, he wrote very little of it. Bob Wills used the popular tunes of the day, the Blues tunes of the day, the standards of the day, etc. and reinterpreted them as Western Swing tunes.

RAY BENSON OF THE BAND ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL WROTE THE STAGEPLAY ?A RIDE WITH BOB.? IT?S AN IMAGINED CONVERSATION WITH BOB WILLS ABOUT HIS LIFE STORY.

RB: you gotta realize that he was born in 1905 and so he was a young man during the ?roaring 20s?when Jazz was king and was being developed and what not. The story was that Bob rode a mule 20 miles to see Bessie Smith play when he was a young man.

BOB WILLS? DAUGHTER AND BIOGRAPHER, ROSETTA WILLS.

RW BEG: He was trying to go along with the sound that was so popular in the 40?s which was the big band sound, but he had come from the background of playing fiddles with his dad, and his whole family had always been musical, but it was more of the western style. So I think what he did was he just took that fiddle and the swing beat. Like say, at times he had a big band and sometimes he didn?t. You dance pretty much the same way, you know, it?s still swing dancing but it was just to western, but then you?ve got that jazz influence, where I noticed these guys ? you never know what they?re gonna do next, it?s so much of that goes on. And when he was directing things, it was always like that. They never played anything the same way twice. Everything was spontaneous. The jazz comes out. And they?re usually excellent musicians. I?ve noticed the western swing people, they really are creative. They just take off, and you never know what they?re gonna do. And that?s where I think it makes it different, too, than just straight swing. Because you have that jazz influence into it.

Music: White Heat

WILLS LOVE OF JAZZ MUSIC LEAD HIM TO ADD HORNS AND DRUMS, A RARE SIGHT FOR A COUNTRY BAND.

RAY BENSON.

RB: Bob?a. put drums in what was ?country music?. Bob Wills never considered himself a country musician at all. Bob Wills considered himself a big band leader like the Miller Band or the Dorsey Band or the Whiteman Band and that?s what he considers himself. He just happened to play fiddle. I think Bob was a little na?ve in that because in retrospect it?s obvious that he was all of the above. But again stereotypes are such that people think of country music as all hillbillies with overalls and singing 3-chord songs. And Wills was so much more than that. There was a sophistication to his music that was due more to the big bands and popular music than it did to Bill Monroe?you gotta remember Bill Monroe and Bob Wills were contemporaries. So while Monroe was developing Bluegrass music, Bob Wills was developing Western Swing.

?WHITE HEAT? PERFORMED BY BOB WILLS AND HIS TEXAS PLAYBOYS.

YOU MIGHT HAVE NOTICED A LOT OF SOLOING IN THESE SONGS.

RAY BENSON OF THE BAND ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL.

RB: Yeah and the other thing was improvisation. Western Swing was built on improvisation so in other words, when it was time to play a chorus you aren?t playing the same chorus night after night, you?re improvising and that?s what Jazz and Blues is all about. You have a set of chord structures that you play take-off or improvised solos, and that?s the difference.

IT DREW IN A YOUNG FIDDLER NAMED JOHNNY GIMBLE.

JG: Attracted by the solos

GIMBLE SHARED THE STAGE WITH BOB WILLS FOR SEVERAL YEARS.

JG: Bob didn?t solo much, had other fiddlers solo

IT?S BOB WILLS? FIDDLE THAT YOU HEAR PLAYING THE MELODY ON THESE SONGS, AND ON THIS NEXT ONE, JESSE ASHLOCK TAKES THE FIDDLE SOLO.

Music: Trouble in Mind

BOB WILLS AND HIS TEXAS PLAYBOYS PERFORMED ?TROUBLE IN MIND.?

RB: He took the great rhythm, like I say, of the black community, of the Afro-American experience; the great rhythm that was part of Jazz and Blues and incorporated it into?that?s who he was. He learned how to sing and play the Blues from the other people on the cotton fields, the black laborers in the cotton fields.

IN A MINUTE, WE?LL HEAR ABOUT BOB WILLS? CHILDHOOD IN THE COTTON FIELDS AND A LOT MORE MUSIC.

I?M LAURA CANTRELL, AND YOU?RE LISTENING TO ?BOB WILLS: THE KING OF TEXAS SWING.?

Break 1

WELCOME BACK TO ?BOB WILLS: THE KING OF TEXAS SWING.? I?M LAURA CANTRELL.

Music: Steel Guitar Stomp

RB: So his repertoire was far and wide. It went from the big bands to the old Blues, the Mississippi delta Blues artist to the contemporary people and to songs that he wrote or interpreted.

RAY BENSON OF THE BAND ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL WROTE A PLAY CALLED ?A RIDE WITH BOB.?

RB: Well he?s born in Kosse, TX which is just East of Waco and then the family, when he was 10, moved to Turkey, TX, or excuse me, to Hall County which is outside of Turkey, TX and his family were cotton farmers and he then became a barber in Turkey and then went to Fort Worth and then the rest is history so to speak. He came from a family that fiddlin? was a great tradition in his family. His father was a fiddler, his uncle; everybody played music in the family. And they would play these ranch dances at an early age and that?s where he started. You know, playing it.

BOB WILLS? DAUGHTER, ROSETTA WILLS.

RW: history

RAY BENSON.

His greatest contribution, I think, was his affinity for black music, for Jazz and Blues and so the combination of Jazz and Blues and the Texas fiddlin? traditions and the country music and the square dancing or country whatever it was, Bob did, he brought the two of them together to a form that was later called Western Swing.

RB: I mean you gotta remember Texas in the 20s and 30s was like an apartheid state. Black people were subjugated. They were lynched. They were segregated. And here was this white farm boy who understood the great value and the artistry of the black entertainers.

Music: Ida Red

?IDA RED? PERFORMED BY BOB WILLS AND HIS TEXAS PLAYBOYS.

BOB HAD A BACKUP PLAN IF THE MUSIC CAREER DIDN?T WORK OUT.

RAY BENSON.

RB: He was a barber in Turkey, TX for a couple of years. Bob always said that if you can?t play music become a barber if you need to fall back on something because you can keep your hands in good shape as opposed to a welder or a farmer.

WILLS FOUND SUCCESS IN EACH OF HIS BANDS, THOUGH ONE OF THE EARLY ONES, THE LIGHT CRUST DOUGHBOYS, WAS A LOT OF TROUBLE.

BOB WILLS DAUGHTER AND BIOGRAPHER, ROSETTA WILLS.

RW: Pappy Leo Daniel,

TWO BANDLEADERS CAME OUT OF THE LIGHT CRUST DOUGHBOYS.

JG: Milton Brown had first Texas Swing band, he was in Light Crust Doughboys with Bob

UNFORTUNATELY, MILTON BROWN DIED IN A CAR ACCIDENT IN 1936.

ROSETTA WILLS.

RW: Milton, Bob continued on

Music: Nancy Jane

A BIT OF ?NANCY JANE? PERFORMED BY THE FORT WORTH DOUGHBOYS, WHICH INCLUDED BOB WILLS AND MILTON BROWN.

BOB WILLS FORMED THE TEXAS PLAYBOYS IN THE EARLY 1930?S, BUT CAME CLOSE TO RUIN DURING ITS FIRST RECORDING SESSION IN 1935.

RW And you know, that?s another funny story they tell about when he first started doing that, one of the first recording sessions, and Art Sadderly(sp) was getting very distressed and stopped the band and said, ?Look, you?re making too much noise. Stop hollering, you?re messing up the music,? and all. And of course, all the musicians were just- they were horrified. It?s like, nobody ever told my dad what to do and not do, and they sure didn?t tell him not to holler. So Art Sadderly, well, that didn?t work. My dad was always saying, ?Well, okay, pack ?em up, boys, we?re leaving.? If something didn?t suit him, he was going to get out of there. So Art backed off. And then as time went on, I?ve been told that he then got worried if he didn?t holler. It was like, ?Hey, you?re not hollering enough. Come on. Do some more of that.? People like it, you know. So but it is different, but it was just the way he was. I don?t think he could keep from doing it, really.

Music: Osage Stomp

?OSAGE STOMP,? THE FIRST RECORDING OF BOB WILLS AND HIS TEXAS PLAYBOYS, HOLLERING AND ALL.

BOB WILLS AND BAND MOVED TO TULSA IN THE 30?S AFTER THEY NOTICED THAT SO MANY FANS WERE WRITING FROM THERE. IT BECAME THEIR HOME BASE FOR MANY YEARS. IT WASN?T UNTIL THEY MOVED TO OKLAHOMA THAT BOB CAME UP WITH THE NAME TEXAS PLAYBOYS.

AND PLAYBOYS WAS A MORE DESCRIPTIVE WORD FOR THE BAND?S LOOK. THE COWBOY LOOK CAME LATER.

ROSETTA WILLS WROTE A BIOGRAPHY OF HER FATHER CALLED ?BOB WILLS REMEMBERED: THE KING OF TEXAS SWING.?

RW I do know that for a while there in the early- well, actually it was more of the late ?20s, they had more of a preppy image. They wore sweaters and slacks and things like that. They didn?t have that cowboy image. It really came a little bit later. And then of course when they started making those movies out in California, that?s when they really got into the cowboy image and kept it from then on. But for a while there, I saw some pictures, and like I say, they didn?t have that kind of look at all, when they first started.

THEY MAY HAVE LOOKED MORE COUNTRIFIED BY THE MID 1940?S, BUT BOB WILLS DID NOT WANT TO BE CAUGHT IN THE CLICH?.

RB: Oh yeah, he was anything but a hillbilly musician. And yes considered that very much to be and again hillbilly was a derogatory term in his day and age. It meant uneducated. And again it meant not sophisticated. The Bob Wills Band, the fiddle players, most of them doubled on horns by the early 40s so he had saxophones, trumpets, trombones and arranged music. They did everything from ?In the Mood? to all of the popular tunes of the day to ?Ida Red? and the fiddle tunes. So the range that his band played was phenomenal. And again, I play country music and country music is simple in terms of how you have to play it but it is not music that you have to have a knowledge of harmonic structures, chord substitutions and the things that make Jazz so complicated harmonically.

HERE?S ONE OF THEIR MOST POPULAR TUNES, ?FADED LOVE.?

Music: Faded Love

?FADED LOVE,? ONE OF THE BIG HITS FOR BOB WILLS AND HIS TEXAS PLAYBOYS.

IN A MINUTE, WE?LL HEAR ABOUT THE CONSTANT TOURING, PERSONAL PROBLEMS AND ROCK AND ROLL OF BOB WILLS.

I?M LAURA CANTRELL, AND YOU?RE LISTENING TO ?BOB WILLS: THE KING OF TEXAS SWING.?

Break 2

WELCOME BACK TO ?BOB WILLS: THE KING OF TEXAS SWING.? I?M LAURA CANTRELL.

LIFE ON THE ROAD WITH BOB WILLS AND HIS TEXAS PLAYBOYS WAS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART.

FIDDLER JOHNNY GIMBLE JOINED IN 1949.

JG: Radio broadcast every day at noon, travel to show that night and come home in time for bcast

ROSETTA WILLS IS BOB?S DAUGHTER.

RW: always wanted to go back out

RAY BENSON OF THE BAND ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL.

RB: From the stories people told me, he was very generous with people but it was a grueling schedule. You didn?t get to see your family. You worked all the time. Traveled a lot; an awful lot. So I guess that takes a toll on you. It?s a volatile business, you know, mostly that. It was a fulltime thing, you know.

NOT ALL THE MUSICIANS WERE ABLE TO KEEP UP WITH THE CONSTANT TOURING, SO THE TEXAS PLAYBOY ROSTER GREW AND GREW.

RAY BENSON.

RB: Tiny Moore used to make a joke where he said, he went home and said: ?Honey, you won?t believe it, I met a man who didn?t play with Bob Wills today.? He did go through at least a 1000 musicians; yeah, in 30 some odd years. But again Elden Chandlin was with him for, I don?t know, off and on for 30 years. So yes, there were some people who stayed a long time.

REGARDLESS OF HOW MANY PEOPLE PLAYED IN THE BAND, IT WAS THRILLING FOR THE YOUNG FIDDLER JOHNNY GIMBLE.

JG: Asked to try out, like moving from sandlot baseball to the majors

JOHNNY GIMBLE PLAYS THE ELECTRIC MANDOLIN ON THIS NEXT ONE, ?IDA RED LIKES THE BOOGIE.?

Music: Ida Red Likes the Boogie

?IDA RED LIKES THE BOOGIE? PERFORMED BY BOB WILLS AND HIS TEXAS PLAYBOYS.

TEXAS PLAYBOYS HAD A CODE OF CONDUCT THAT BOB WILLS EXPECTED, EVEN WHEN PLAYING TO SOME VERY ROUGH CROWDS.

ROSETTA WILLS IS BOB?S DAUGHTER.

RW It was pretty rowdy ? he would lean down from the bandstand and reach out to people and hold there hands and smile at them and wink at them and talk to them he didn?t never sign autographs or anything that?s something he didn?t like to do. But he would mingle with the crowd afterwards and he didn?t take a break they just played straight through for hours. They said they didn?t take a break because if they did a fight would usually break out so they kind of had to keep the people doing what they were doing so they wouldn?t get into a fight. He never did take a break. After the show he would make sure that all the guys went out and talk to everybody and visited with them and he knew everybody on a first name basis and I think that?s another reason he was so popular was because he was so personable with the people.

HE ALSO PLAYED THE SONGS THAT THEY WANTED TO HEAR, INCLUDING THIS NEXT ONE.

Music: New San Antonio Rose

BOB WILLS AND HIS TEXAS PLAYBOYS PERFORMED ONE OF HIS BIGGEST HITS, ?NEW SAN ANTONIO ROSE.?

THAT SONG HAD AN INTERESTING ORIGIN.

ROSETTA WILLS WROTE A BIOGRAPHY OF HER FATHER.

RW: Irving Berlin commissioning story

MOST OF THE TIME, IT WAS BOB WILLS THAT ASKED FOR SONGS FROM OTHER PEOPLE.

RB: So much of the Western Swing stuff was written by other people or co-written and he would?Cindy Walker wrote so many of his songs. I think 40 of Bob Wills? tunes were written by Cindy Walker. And Cindy told me he would come to him? her with an idea. One time he said hey write me a song called ?Bubbles in my Beer? and she did. So he wasn?t a songwriter in the sense that we know nowadays. He would give them ideas and then people would write songs and that?s how it went. Also, in those days, sometimes his name would appear on songs he had nothing to do because the bandleader was the recipient of the song. And the guys in the band told me that they were making $100 a week when most people were making $30 a week. And they considered it?well hell, if I wrote a song, I was under the employ of Bob Wills so therefore it is?and that was very standard throughout the industry.

LET?S HEAR THE BAND PLAY ?BUBBLES IN MY BEER.?

Music: Bubbles in my Beer

?BUBBLES IN MY BEER? PERFORMED BY BOB WILLS AND HIS TEXAS PLAYBOYS.

I?M LAURA CANTRELL, AND YOU?RE LISTENING TO ?BOB WILLS: THE KING OF TEXAS SWING.?

RAY BENSON OF THE BAND ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL.

RB: But he was a colorful figure, let?s put it that way. He had a problem with alcohol at times. He was a binge drinker sometimes. Certain years, he was sober for a number of years in a row and sometimes he would miss 50 dates a year because he was drunk.

FIDDLER JOHNNY GIMBLE EXPERIENCED THAT FROM THE START.

JG: Hired when Bob was on drinking bender

THAT EXCESS COULD BE FOUND IN BOB WILLS PERSONAL LIFE, TOO.

ROSETTA WILLS IS BOB?S DAUGHTER.

RW: marriages

Music: The Kind of Love I Can?t Forget

?THE KIND OF LOVE I CAN?T FORGET? PERFORMED BY BOB WILLS AND HIS TEXAS PLAYBOYS.

BOB WILLS DEALT WITH A LOT OF CHANGES IN HIS LONG CAREER, BUT SOME WERE HARDER THAN OTHERS.

RAY BENSON WROTE THE PLAY ?A RIDE WITH BOB.?

RB: What happened was, first of all, by 1956, Rock ?n Roll had knocked out Western S wing. So, you know, that?s what happens in popular music. In 19- I think ?56 or ?7, I don?t know somewhere around there, he lost the name the Texas Playboys because he owed money to the IRS and a guy in East Texas bought the name from him and Bob Wills couldn?t go out as ob Wills and hid Texas Playboys anymore. Leon Rouch took a band called Leon Rouch and his Texas Playboys. Leon had sung with Bob in the 50s so Bob would go out with a guy named Tag Lambert and he and Tag, who was a great guitar player and a singer, would go and do exactly that. The house band would play and sometimes it was pitiful and sometimes it was great. But he was done by ?67. He had a heart attack, I think, and by 1969 he was finished.

BOB?S DAUGHTER, ROSETTA WILLS.

RW: too generous, ruin

ALTHOUGH ROCK AND ROLL TOOK AWAY A LOT OF THE TEXAS SWING CROWD, BOB WILLS STILL LOVED IT.

ROSETTA WILLS.

RW He recently in 1999 was inducted in to the Rock ?n? Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland and I was at first kind of surprised but then I realized he was put in as a early influence and sure enough there was a great quote from him one time in a newspaper that said, ?Hey we been playing rock ?n? roll since 1928. We just didn?t call it that.? Since he was one of the first to add drums and the rhythm was always important to him he always had a real tight rhythm section so I think that was one reason.

Music: Cadillac in Model ?A?

?CADILLAC IN MODEL ?A?? , INSPIRED BY THE R&B SOUND OF THE MID 1950?S AND PERFORMED BY BOB WILLS AND HIS TEXAS PLAYBOYS.

Music: Bob Wills Boogie (under)

?BOB WILLS: THE KING OF TEXAS SWING? WAS PRODUCED BY JOYRIDE MEDIA, PAUL CHUFFO AND JOSHUA JACKSON ARE THE PRODUCERS.

OUR EXECUTIVE PRODUCER IS JOHN VERNILE.

ALL SONGS ON THIS PROGRAM CAN BE FOUND ON THE COLUMBIA/ LEGACY SET ?LEGENDS OF COUNTRY MUSIC: BOB WILLS AND HIS TEXAS PLAYBOYS.?

ROSETTA WILLS BIOGRAPHY ?BOB WILLS REMEMBERED: THE KING OF TEXAS SWING CAN BE FOUND THROUGH MAIL ORDER AT WWW.TEXASPLAYBOYS.NET.

SPECIAL THANKS GO TO JEFF JONES, ADAM BLOCK, RICH KIENZLE, JOHN JACKSON, ERIC MOLK, TOM CORDING, STEVE BERKOWITZ, SHANNON MUELLER, DERRICK GINTER, MIKE LEE, DAN SKARBEK, NADINE NASSAR AND ANDY CAHN.

I?M LAURA CANTRELL, AND THANKS FOR LISTENING.

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