RICKY NELSON APPRECIATION and TRIBUTE thread

[SixToedPete]

I don't know if the youngins even know who Ricky Nelson was.

[Hockey Guy]

I'm old & he was even before my time so........whatever.

[TUFFTURF]

I am so thankful that my parents grew up on doo wop. So many good memories, at a time when life was much simpler. The music of the 50's is still better than most of the crap they put on the radio today.

:SADBUTTRUE

[SixToedPete]

I am so thankful that my parents grew up on doo wop. So many good memories, at a time when life was much simpler. The music of the 50's is still better than most of the crap they put on the radio today.

:SADBUTTRUE

Great song and wisdom, ty TUFFTURF.

[SixToedPete]

I'm old & he was even before my time so........whatever.

Your disrespectful post reminded me of when Ricky Nelson wrote a song about being booed during a Madison Square Garden reunion concert.

It became a huge hit.



A Staff Report from the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board
In Ricky Nelson's "Garden Party," who is Mr. Hughes?
August 10, 2004

Dear Straight Dope:

In Ricky Nelson's song "Garden Party," there is mention of a Mr. Hughes who "hid in Dylan's shoes." Who the heck is this guy? I've searched and searched but I have no idea. --Josh

— Josh

Ah yes, one of my favorite songs from the 70s. I used to listen for the point about two-thirds of the way through when, instead of going to a 1-4 chord change, Nelson went to a 1-4m9 change--rather dramatic for a musician. But I digress. You're not talking about the music, you're talking about the lyrics.

Symbolism abounds in this song. Eric Hilliard Nelson, better known as Ricky, joined the cast of his parent's ABC sitcom "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" in 1952 at age 11. A fall 1956 episode had him organizing a rock 'n' roll band in high school. Then in an April 1957 telecast he was drafted to perform with a local band and sang a currently popular Fats Domino hit, "I'm Walkin'"--which, backed with "A Teenager's Romance," promptly became a real-life million-selling record for him. Ricky went on to be one of the biggest stars of the early rock and roll era.

His star faded in the mid 1960s. He tried valiantly to regain the top of the charts, but it seemed the British invasion was thwarting him at every turn. Ironically, however, a song he wrote in the early 1970s about his disillusionment with the music industry was his biggest hit.

In October 1971 Rick was invited to play in a reunion show at Madison Square Garden, alongside such early rock luminaries as Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Little Richard and others. By this time his hair had grown shoulder length and he was heavily into the country rock genre. When he mixed in new material with his old music, the audience began to boo. Whether it was really their reaction to their idol's new look and sound, or, as one report states, ". . . there were reports that police were in the back moving people out, and in the political spirit of the early 70's the crowd was actually booing the police activity," Rick felt the crowd was booing him. He wrote about the experience: "I went to a garden party to reminisce with my old friends / A chance to share old memories and play our songs again. / When I got to the garden party, they all knew my name / No one recognized me, I didn't look the same."

Rick realized at that point that he had to be true to himself. Hence the chorus of the song: "I learned my lesson well. You see, you can't please everyone, so you got to please yourself."

"Garden Party" was pounced on by the pundits and dissected unmercifully. Some clues were obvious. For instance, "Yoko brought her walrus"--John Lennon and Yoko Ono were at the concert. Lennon, of course, was responsible for the Beatles song "I Am The Walrus."

The lyric you ask about, "Mr. Hughes hid in Dylan's shoes wearing his disguise," is more difficult to interpret, but I finally found it for you. ""Mr Hughes" isn't Howard Hughes, as most people think, but refers to George Harrison, the ex-Beatle. Rick Nelson was good friends and next-door neighbor to Harrison, and was also a good friend of Bob Dylan. "Mr. Hughes" was the alias Harrison used while traveling, and "hid in Dylan's shoes" apparently refers to an album of Bob Dylan covers Harrison was planning that never came to fruition. "Wearing his disguise" is more obscure, but presumably had something to do with Harrison's habit of traveling incognito.

"Garden Party" was one of my favorite songs as a teen. I still remember that line:

You can't please everyone, so you got to please yourself . . .

Powerful stuff, at least for a 13 year old.

Sources:

http://books.dreambook.com/canyo nflower/main.html

http://www.sitcomsonline.com/th eadv...andharriet.html

http://www.ricknelson.com/bio.htm

— Rico

[Hockey Guy]

I'm old & he was even before my time so........whatever.

Your disrespectful post.........

Sorry if you took my post to be disrespectful.

It was meant to say that I'm probably one of the older posters on this board & this was well before I was even born so you're probably not going to get much response. Probably get a better response in "Songs You Like" thread but like I said......whatever.

[Dan Druff]

I remember spending the night at my best friend's house on December 31, 1985, waiting for the New Year's Ball to drop.

That's when we saw the tragic news report about the plane crash that killed Ricky Nelson.



His sons formed the short-lived hair band "Nelson" in 1990. They didn't really survive the hair band implosion of 1992 (when Grunge took over), but they are technically still active.

[PLOL]

Awesome, another guy I've literally never heard of.

[Dan Druff]

Awesome, another guy I've literally never heard of.

There is a similar age difference between me and you as there is between me and SixToedPete, and yet it seems like my generation gap with him is less.

Damnit.

[Fergie72]

Interesting story behind this song.. Don Dokken was supposed to the singer on this song but he didn't show up at the studio. Mathew and Gunnar Nelson just happen to be recording in the same studios, George asked them to sit in on this song and had it recorded in an hour..

[LLL]

"Lonesome Town" was on the wildly successful Pulp Fiction soundtrack. That was 18 years ago though so I guess there are a ton of people who don't even know that movie very well either.

[BCR]

I like Ricky Nelson. It's funny though that there is talk of a simpler time and today's music. I agree today's music mostly sucks, but Ricky Nelson took a path much like that of the crappy Disney/Nickelodeon kid star turned pop phenom that has all his music written for him. He basically was a pioneer of that path with Ozzie and Harriet. When he first hit, he didn't write the music or lyrics for any of that shit. Just another pretty faced creation of the music machine back then who would churn out stuff with staff writers.

As I said, I like his stuff, and he had a great voice, but once serious artists who created their own work started coming out, he was pretty much done with the exception of that song he wrote that Pete linked. Honestly, I don't like that song at all, it feels like he was trying to be deep because that was in and it fell short, but it was successful, so at least he had a success with something he actually created.

I remember Dylan mentioning him in Chronicles, and I found the quote, ""Ricky had a smooth touch… His voice was sort of mysterious and put you in a certain mood… but that type of music was on its way out."

I thought the quote was kind of interesting given Dylan and other true artists spelled the end of Nelson as relevant, but he still dug his style. I feel that way about a lot of those singers from back then. I liked the songs a lot, but I have a hard time taking rent-a-singers serious. Still, Poor Little Fool and a few others are fantastic and he had a great sound.

[tony bagadonuts]

Some of you may remember this little ditty from Pulp Fiction.

[BCR]

Oh, and someone should have stabbed his sons repeatedly with a dull knife. In an era of horrible hair bands, they might have been the worst of them all. That Christian Stryper band and them should have had to fight until they were all dead.

[LLL]

Some of you may remember this little ditty from Pulp Fiction.

"Lonesome Town" was on the wildly successful Pulp Fiction soundtrack. That was 18 years ago though so I guess there are a ton of people who don't even know that movie very well either.