Thank you, Don Everly and the Everly Brothers
Don Everly of the Everly Brothers died last Saturday at the age of 84.
I was going to start this post with the sentence: “I loved the Everly Brothers.” But then I checked the post I published on the death of his younger brother Phil in January of 2014, and I saw that it began with that very same sentence: “I loved the Everly Brothers.”
So I guess it can safely be said that I loved the Everly Brothers.
That love wasn’t romantic, though; personally, I was never attracted to them in terms of sex appeal. It was their music that I loved, and my love was pure. I was a child rather than a teenager when I first heard them on the radio or saw them on television – don’t remember which it was – and theirs was the first rock and roll that ever really drew me in (although “rock and roll” is probably not exactly the right term; it was a blend of country and rock I suppose, but let’s not get technical) .
For whatever reason, I was never an Elvis fan at all. It was the Everly Brothers for me, and it was their sound that got me. In those days I didn’t have records; I used to listen to the radio and wait for the countdown of top 20 hits to come to theirs.
It was partly that sibling harmony that attracted me, of course – male sibling harmony at that, which I’ve always particularly loved. But it wasn’t just the sibling harmony. Both of Don and Phil’s voices had a great beauty and purity, as well as simplicity. It’s hard to explain to people who weren’t around then how different they sounded from what had gone before, at least to my ears. They influenced almost every later pop and rock musician who sang harmony: the Beatles, the Bee Gees, Simon and Garfunkel, and a host of others. They echoed down the decades in the most beautiful way.
They had sibling rivalry that became quite bitter as they aged, although they reconciled somewhat in later years and even performed together on occasion. But nothing can take away the greatness of those early days.
Don was the brother with the lower voice.
Here they are in one of their earliest hits, the upbeat and ever-so-slightly-risque (for its times, anyway) “Wake Up, Little Susie”:
Much much later:
This next one was my favorite as a child. This was the one I would wait for on the radio most impatiently of all. Its wistful yearning beauty still shines through:
Much much later:
RIP Don and Phil, and thank you for all the beautiful beautiful music.
All I have To Do, Is Dream, is like Elvis’ I Can’t Help, Falling In Love With You. You are required to sing along, when it comes on the radio.
SCOTTtheBADGER:
Yes, but do you sing along with Don, or sing along with Phil?
I loved their music. RIP.
They had sibling rivalry that became quite bitter as they aged,
That it tended to get worse as they aged strikes me as quite retrograde. Sort of reminds me of Ann Landers and Dear Abby, who didn’t speak to each other for 10 years and were on-again, off-again for the next 35 years. The resentment extended to their daughters.
“On the Wings of a Nightingale” – another of their many masterpieces.
The Everly Brothers did a song about my home town. “Bowling Green”
Their father Ike was from Bowling Green, I believe. Anyway, Ike taught guitar to Merle Travis while the family lived in Muhlenburg County, in western Kentucky. Don was born there. This was coal mining country. Where John Prine’s Paradise lays.
Hurin3 on August 23, 2021 at 7:31 pm said:
Hurin3 will already know this, and many here have probably seen it linked to before.
You need only listen to about the first minute. Atkins starts off talking but Travis chimes in shortly.
From a well-known album; the specific cut: “Nine pound hammer”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P76MmSHLSkA&list=OLAK5uy_lHPQFE9wGQeAXUjnQV4vS1ab77GLS2BAc
My favorite was “The Price of Love.”
“Beauty and purity”
The exact words I thought of to describe the magical sound of their voices together. Everything they did was wonderful of course, but it was on the slow ballads like “Let It Be Me”, “Devoted To You” and “So Sad To Watch Good Love Go Bad” that they generated the most intense emotion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZYpa7u28WU
RIP Don. And Phil.
My love of the Everly Brothers is similar to yours, Neo, except I had a brother to sing with. OF COURSE we emulated them as much as we could, musically, and personally glimpsed how siblings can harmonize in such an amazing way. RIP, Don & Phil.
Neo, I try and be fair, so I switch back and forth, every other word.
Didn’t listen to a lot of radio, growing up but others did and it was hard to get through a day without an hour’s worth of somebody else’s radio playing the popular stuff.
I think I was in high school when I read some of the lyrics to the songs the guys were singing and thought of them as pretty good young-love-gets-sad poems. Not that I was in a position to be a good judge.Lots of those around. Weren’t improved by the singing.
They stood up well over time.
The Good Old Days.
Not like the garbage we are constantly exposed to today.
Another RIP for Charlie Watts, 80.
Cicero, yes, I think their recordings hold up exceptionally well and sound less dated than most of those from that era. Except perhaps in the homespun sentiments which sadly seem quaint in this cynical age.
I suspect the producers knew what they had in those voices and simply got out of the way. Very little fluff in their records, just those beautiful harmonies.