Loretta Lynn_ Coal Miner's Daughter - Loretta Lynn [67]
Since then, I’ve made hundreds of appearances on the Opry whenever I’m around Nashville on a Saturday. After I was in show business a while, it was the only place where I’d get nervous. Just standing around backstage with all my heroes was enough to make me shaky. But it was a good family feeling, joking with all the stagehands.
That was in the old Opry building, the Ryman Auditorium downtown, which was too old and crowded for television shows and stuff, but which felt like the good, old-time music halls. I was sorry when they decided to build Opryland out east of town and move the show to the new Opry building.
Since they’ve moved the show, I’ve got to admit that the new building is beautiful, with red brick and wood in a style to look like the old church building that the Ryman was. They’ve put in a section of the old Opry stage, right in the center of the new stage, for good luck. And they gave all of us members a present of one brick from the old Ryman, with our names printed in gold. The new building has modern dressing rooms and a huge backstage and lots of lights for television, and they’re packing ’em in weekends, with three or four shows. But I don’t get the same feeling from the new Opry. To me, it’s just another new arena, just like the other cities have. When I go on stage at the new Opry, I ain’t even nervous anymore.
20
Songwriter
Liquor and Love, they just don’t mix,
Leave the bottle or me behind.…
—“Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (with Lovin’ on Your Mind),”
by Peggy Sue Wells and Loretta Lynn
I don’t know what it’s like for a book writer or a doctor or a teacher as they work to get established in their jobs. But for a singer, you’ve got to continue to grow or else you’re just like last night’s cornbread—stale and dry.
I’d say material is 80 percent of a singer’s career. You can have a great voice, but you’d also better have a new song that fits your style. And the best way is to write the songs yourself.
People forget that I’m a songwriter. They think of me as just a lady up on the stage, with a band backing her up. Well, let me tell you, I’ve sat in my room all night, scratching out most of my songs, going all the way back to those sorry little songs I wrote back in Washington.
People say I can’t read or write, but what about “Coal Miner’s Daughter”? I wrote every line, just from things I remember from my childhood.
The way most of my songs got started was I’d hear a good line or make one up. When I get a good first line, I’ll scribble it down on a piece of paper, hotel stationery, paper bag, or whatever, and slip it into my purse. Usually I write my songs at night. When I get ’em written down, I’m relaxed and I go to sleep. In the morning, I finish the song and try to find a tune for it, just starting with the first line and humming to myself. After I get the tune, I get somebody else to write down the notes for me because I still can’t read music after all these years. But I don’t think many country musicians are good at reading music. You go to one of our recording sessions and somebody will say, “Hey, how about doing it this way?” And he’ll rip off a few notes on the guitar. And somebody else will say, “Oh, you mean like this?” And he’ll rip off a few more notes. It’s like they communicate with their own music language. Those studio musicians don’t need written notes.
When I first started writing songs, Teddy Wilburn used to work with me, suggesting the next line or changing something. Since we’ve had that split-up, Teddy tells people he was to me like Fred Rose was to Hank Williams, only he didn’t get any of the credit for it. Well, I don’t know how Rose and Williams worked together because I never did meet Hank Williams. He was before my time.
I’ll say this: Teddy Wilburn did work with me on lines for some of my songs. But they were my songs. And if he wants credit for a line here and there, why, I’ve worked with lots of other singers, giving ’em advice, changing tunes, writing a line,