Loretta Lynn: on the death of the country singer

On the death of country music legend Loretta Lynn

Loretta Lynn was not fooled by the machos of the music business.

Courtesy Everett Collection / www.imago-images.de

It was American rock star Jack White of the White Stripes who brought her back into the limelight in 2004. “Van Lear Rose” was the name of the album produced by White that introduced Loretta Lynn to a younger audience for the first time. She may not even have realized who this 72-year-old elderly lady was: the queen of country music.

In fact, next to Dolly Pardon, Lynn was the best-known and most important country singer. Her last album was released a year ago and once again contained many of the songs that once made her famous, intoned with an amazingly firm voice. Loretta Lynn passed away on Tuesday at the age of 90 in her sleep on her ranch in Tennessee.

Butcher Hollow in Kentucky

Loretta Lynn didn’t have to piece together an adventurous biography like other country singers (such as Patsy Montana). She really came from the American South, from the small mining town of Butcher Hollow in Kentucky, and she really had grown up in the poorest of circumstances. Her father was a miner and struggled to support the large family. That’s why he ran a small farm on the side, and it went without saying that the children helped out. The family’s wooden house had no running water with a draw well in the garden.

Not yet 16 years old, Loretta Lynn married and – heavily pregnant – moved with her 22-year-old husband 4000 kilometers northwest to a small logging town in the state of Washington. The first of six children was born here. After three more births, the 21-year-old bought a guitar and began performing with the band The Trailblazers in the area’s bars and taverns, mostly just for the applause and a few drinks.

Her husband, who was trying to be her manager, convinced country music star Buck Owens to let her appear on his television show. That led to the breakthrough: Loretta Lynn got a permanent spot on the Saturday talent show and a fee of $5 every week.

A businessman who saw them on TV funded their first studio recording in 1960 and released the single on his specially formed label. The song was in a modern honky tonk style, used electric guitars and drums, and became a hit.

In order to be close to the action, Lynn moved to Nashville, Tennessee, the country music capital, where she was included in the legendary radio show “The Grand Ole Opry” in 1962. A long string of hits followed, which she wrote herself and sang in a duo with Conway Twitty in the 1970s.

A shocking song

Loretta Lynn didn’t let the male music business push her around. She struck a new tone with a number of her songs, especially with regard to the lyrics, which dealt critically with the male world and its macho escapades. Songs like “The Squaw Is On The Warpath” and “I Wanna Be Free” set the direction in terms of content. Lynn then completely shocked the conservative fan base with the song “The Pill”, as the song tackled the taboo of birth control for the first time, which caused several radio stations to drop the song from the program.

The Oscar-winning film adaptation of her autobiography, Coal Miner’s Daughter, established Loretta Lynn as a definitive legend while also becoming a role model for a younger generation of country singers who adored her as a pioneer, including Reba McEntire, Carrie Underwood, Tanya Tucker and Margo Price insisted on singing a duet with her idol on the last album – as a nod to one of country music’s greats.

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