RIP Roy Clark
November 15, 2018 7:01 PM   Subscribe

The legendary guitarist has died at age 85. His starring stint on the at times deliberately corny “Hee Haw” television show belied his stellar musicianship and deep pedigree as a country-music pioneer, particularly the “Bakersfield” sound of the late 1950s and early 1960s in which he was deeply involved with fellow picker Buck Owens, who also appeared on the show. With the later rise of country stars ranging from Emmylou Harris and Dwight Yoakam to Brad Paisley and Keith Urban, Clark’s vast influence has received its proper due.
posted by MovableBookLady (51 comments total) 16 users marked this as a favorite
 
Here's the full press release from 2911 Media: Roy Clark death. I had an album once of his original gospel songs that I always played when cleaning house. And I always loved watching his face when he played as he had a panoply of "looks." I'll miss him.
posted by MovableBookLady at 7:07 PM on November 15, 2018 [4 favorites]


I grew up with Hee Haw and dumb as it was, it introduced me to so much good music. Just this past year I learned a lot more about Clark and his cohort via the fantastic podcast Cocaine and Rhinestones - here is the Buck Owens episode in which Clark figures.

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posted by Miko at 7:27 PM on November 15, 2018 [4 favorites]


I was another person who grew up listening to his music from when I was "this tall."

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posted by fifteen schnitzengruben is my limit at 7:27 PM on November 15, 2018 [1 favorite]


I may be a pickin' but I'm not a grinnin'.
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posted by dannyboybell at 7:30 PM on November 15, 2018 [2 favorites]


Currently jamming up there above.

RIP
posted by parki at 7:30 PM on November 15, 2018 [3 favorites]


Part of my childhood.

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posted by 4ster at 7:35 PM on November 15, 2018


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posted by figurant at 7:41 PM on November 15, 2018


That Spanish style improv that he played on The Odd Couple was pretty cool.
posted by ovvl at 7:46 PM on November 15, 2018 [1 favorite]


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posted by LeLiLo at 7:51 PM on November 15, 2018


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posted by elsietheeel at 7:56 PM on November 15, 2018


ovvl: That was Malagueña which he was well-known for playing at breakneck speed.
posted by MovableBookLady at 8:15 PM on November 15, 2018 [2 favorites]


Is anyone else from that generation of country guitar badasses left standing?
posted by thelonius at 8:22 PM on November 15, 2018 [1 favorite]


Oh my gosh, I loved him so much. So talented. So funny.
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 8:37 PM on November 15, 2018


I actually watched a British guitarist reacting to Roy Clark on the Odd Couple earlier today.

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posted by fings at 8:41 PM on November 15, 2018 [12 favorites]


Aw man, RIP.
posted by shapes that haunt the dusk at 9:08 PM on November 15, 2018 [1 favorite]


I came to post that Odd Couple piece. I’m sure he felt like he didn’t waste his life, but the man had some chops and could have reached a much wider audience if he wasn’t relegated to playing the role of dipshit country guitar strummer. It’s reminiscent of Dick Dale or even Lee Ranaldo.

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posted by Slarty Bartfast at 9:10 PM on November 15, 2018 [2 favorites]


could have reached a much wider audience

He has literally two generations (if not more) who were directly or indirectly inspired by him to become country artists. His audience is wider than his own performances.

I grew up watching Hee Haw (and Lawrence Welk) and they both continue to have ripples in my life far beyond their actual own content. Hee Haw, however, had really great guest performers.

in some ways, Hee Haw is sort of a live-action country themed version of The Muppet Show. Or vice versa. Corny, but with great moments every week.
posted by hippybear at 9:13 PM on November 15, 2018 [10 favorites]


Hee Haw was what SNL would have been if the music were the real point of the show and the comedy was just cornpone filler. My maternal grandfather was your classic oldskool farmer--I almost didn't recognize him out of overalls--and he just sort of ignored the comedy on HH and thought that Clark and Owens were great musicians.
posted by Halloween Jack at 9:23 PM on November 15, 2018 [5 favorites]


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Roy is now in heaven, entertaining God like this -- the only thing God likes better than skee-ball.
posted by zaixfeep at 9:24 PM on November 15, 2018


Hee Haw was explicitly created as a country clone of Laugh-In, and produced/assembled using a similar process.

Also, here's the Odd Couple clip.
posted by zaixfeep at 9:30 PM on November 15, 2018 [7 favorites]


Which is amazing...

Seriously, watch the clip.
posted by Windopaene at 9:32 PM on November 15, 2018 [4 favorites]


Redneck Cred: Neither of my parents grew up in a house with indoor plumbing.

I grew up in the 80s, my folks loved country music, oldies (which in those days were the 50s & Elvis nostalgia was rampant).

I remember, Saturday nights, having bath-time and around that time, Hee-Haw was on. Buck, Clark, Minnie Pearl and the others...

I never got into country like my dad did. But I still have a strong respect for these folks...

RIP Roy.

PS. I hate to shit on the dead, but Heinz is superior.
posted by symbioid at 10:15 PM on November 15, 2018 [2 favorites]


OK - holy shit, I hadn't heard Malaguena before, but OK, *bows*.
posted by symbioid at 10:21 PM on November 15, 2018 [2 favorites]


in some ways, Hee Haw is sort of a live-action country themed version of The Muppet Show.

Muppets you say? With Roy Clark? Sure, here you go.


posted by BigHeartedGuy at 10:59 PM on November 15, 2018 [8 favorites]


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posted by hap_hazard at 11:56 PM on November 15, 2018


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posted by lapolla at 12:42 AM on November 16, 2018


Man could play anything with strings, and play brilliantly.

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posted by kinnakeet at 1:56 AM on November 16, 2018 [1 favorite]


Roy Clark and Glen Campbell- Ghost Riders in the Sky is one of the most joyous expressions of sheer talent I've ever seen. RIP to another legend.
posted by I_Love_Bananas at 2:31 AM on November 16, 2018 [7 favorites]


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posted by heatvision at 3:05 AM on November 16, 2018


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posted by nolabasashi at 3:38 AM on November 16, 2018


> ...could have reached a much wider audience if he wasn’t relegated to playing the role of dipshit country guitar strummer.

I’d argue the opposite: Hee Haw deliberately played into country folk stereotypes, and by doing that managed to some of the best musicians out in front of people who were only tuning in to laugh at the corny tropes.

The music segments never made me a country music fan, but i learned (in hindsight, at least), that virtuosic performances don’t have to be full of classical (or prog rock) pompousness or angsty-wanky heavy metal grimacing. It’s possible to grin or even laugh out loud from the pleasure of it, and I think that’s a good thing to know.
posted by ardgedee at 4:11 AM on November 16, 2018 [3 favorites]


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posted by Thorzdad at 4:37 AM on November 16, 2018


I have dim memories of watching Hee-Haw as a kid, it wasn't a staple in our house but it was on from time to time - maybe when there wasn't anything else on that took priority, or maybe when they had a guest star like Johnny Cash my parents wanted to see in particular.

As a kid I usually tuned out the musical numbers but thought the in-between bits were funny. I always remembered Roy Clark kind of like a distant relative who was full of "dad" jokes and good humor.

May your pleasures be many, your troubles be few. So long, Mr. Clark.
posted by jzb at 4:41 AM on November 16, 2018


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posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 4:54 AM on November 16, 2018


Gloom, despair, and agony on me
Deep, dark depression, excessive misery
If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all
Gloom, despair, and agony on me

—Buck Owens & Roy Clark

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posted by valkane at 5:21 AM on November 16, 2018 [10 favorites]


Such a talented musician, such an engaging entertainer. Watched a lot of Hee-Haw when I was young. There was AFAIK zero love of country music in my household, but my dad was not far removed from his farm roots and I think he connected with it on that level (he was also just a general fan of bad corny humor). I wonder in a weird way that is one of the reasons I eventually came back around to a love of bluegrass, americana, alt.country and other non-Nashville sounds (shit, I even went through a straight-up Nashville country phase in a particularly dark period of my life). So long, and thanks for the good times, Roy.
posted by drlith at 5:25 AM on November 16, 2018 [1 favorite]


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A sign of his talent was how relatively effortless he made his playing look.
posted by Samizdata at 5:39 AM on November 16, 2018 [3 favorites]


A nice tribute from the good people at Austin City Limits.

Turns out that Roy Clark on Hee Haw was my gateway drug for country music. I will be forever thankful. Godspeed, Roy.
posted by Capt. Renault at 6:46 AM on November 16, 2018


> ...could have reached a much wider audience if he wasn’t relegated to playing the role of dipshit country guitar strummer.

Respectfully, I think you have that exactly wrong. It was linked in the FPP obit, but it really bears repeating: Go back and read what Roy Clark himself wrote in the Huffington Post three years ago. He considered that his life's work had been to take country music-- a minor, regional folk music tradition that like most was probably going to disappear in the face of globalism-- and help it become consumed and enjoyed around the world, second only to Rock and Roll.

Reading all of these obits, I also realized I have been unfairly judging Roy Clark all these years. Of the duo, I always thought of Buck Owens as the real "talent", and all that stuff about him being a musician's musician, and musicians from all genres of music coming from all over the world to his house in Bakersfield to jam with him meant he was the more talented one. Now I know Roy Clark was at the very least his equal, with an astonishing facility not only in country music, but rock and jazz and reggae. That Odd Couple clip alone should have clued me in, but sometimes it takes multiple tries to get me to question a belief I've held since childhood.

Hee Haw was a staple for my parents, and one of the most appreciated gifts I was able to give my Dad were DVDs of the show that he could watch in the years after it went off the air.

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posted by seasparrow at 6:51 AM on November 16, 2018 [5 favorites]


I actually watched a British guitarist reacting to Roy Clark on the Odd Couple yt earlier today.

That would be Fil, who's done a bunch of fun appreciations of various artists. (Serious rabbit hole for guitar enthusiasts - you've been warned.)

Fil's done Mr. Clark more than once. A fine sampling of Clark in action can be had here.
posted by BWA at 6:52 AM on November 16, 2018 [2 favorites]


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posted by Splunge at 7:37 AM on November 16, 2018


I'm so glad to see this post. Roy was an amazing guitarist who transcended styles, yet so many only remember him from Hee Haw.

I would love to see he was an inspiration on my own playing but he was so far beyond me that there was no sense trying to emulate him.
posted by tommasz at 8:02 AM on November 16, 2018


Oh, I'm so glad someone made this FPP. I discovered him relatively late in musical life; his song "Heart to Heart" is absolutely my go-to when I need some life affirmation.

Heart to heart, we can make it, we can make it if it's real
Heart to heart, we can make it, just by saying what we feel
We can learn to share our trouble
We can love each other double
Heart to heart, we can make it if we try.

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posted by Melismata at 8:26 AM on November 16, 2018 [1 favorite]


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posted by filtergik at 8:27 AM on November 16, 2018


Comedy Folsom Prison Blues
posted by elsietheeel at 9:51 AM on November 16, 2018 [2 favorites]


My father (who was born in a small town in Texas) loved Hee-Haw and we watched regularly when I was young. It was a lot of fun and we always sang along with the regular songs. I was too young to really appreciate the musicianship on display, but a few years later when I became friends with a couple of brothers who were serious guitar players I came to appreciate how good Roy Clark and Buck Owens were. RIP, Mr. Clark.
posted by TedW at 10:05 AM on November 16, 2018


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posted by the sobsister at 10:17 AM on November 16, 2018


Yesterday, when he was young...

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posted by bryon at 11:52 AM on November 16, 2018


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posted by Token Meme at 2:28 PM on November 16, 2018


Top 5 guitarist on my personal list. Watched a bunch of Roy Clark videos a few months ago, just to hear some of that pickin' (I grew up on Hee-Haw as well). Let me tell you, his oeuvre wasn't restricted to country or tricksy crowd-pleasing tunes like Malaguena. Watch this.

Y'all.

I mean, y'all. Look at that. LISTEN to that.

The entire stage teeming with legends, not least of them Mr. Clark.

🎸
posted by droplet at 2:56 PM on November 16, 2018 [6 favorites]


"Damn those boys from Bakersfield,
How'd they find out how I feel."
posted by the Real Dan at 10:01 AM on November 18, 2018


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