who is leonard?
who flung poo?
but if you have any ideas who Merle is singing about in his "Leonard" song
I'd love to read them.
thanks....hag fan
When LEONARD finally came to California
He was twenty-one years old as I recall
He loved to write a song and pick the guitar
And he came to hang a Gold one on the wall.
The town in which he lived is not important
But you'll know which town I mean by the time I'm thru
He soon became a famous entertainer
But LEONARD was a name he never used
He was on his way to having what he wanted
Just about as close as one could be
Hey! once he even followed Elvis Presley
And he wrote a lot of country songs for me.
But he laid it all aside to follow Jesus
For years he chose to let his music go
But preaching wasn't really meant for LEONARD
But how in the hell was LEONARD s'posed to know.
Well, life began to twist its way around him
And I wondered how he carried such a load
He came back again to try his luck in music
And lost his wife and family on the road.
SPOKEN:
[After that he seemed to bog down even deeper
And I saw what booze and pills could really do
And I wondered if I'd ever see him sober
But I forgot about a Friend that LEONARD knew.]
Well, LEONARD gave me lots of inspiration
He helped teach me how to write a country song
And he even brought around a bag of groceries
Hey! back before Muskogee came along.
Really I'm not trying to hide his showname
Or the town in which this episode began
SPOKEN: [Somehow I had to write a song for old Tommy]
If just to see the smilin' faces in the band.
When LEONARD finally came to California
He was twenty-one years old as I recall
And he loved to write a song and pick the guitar
And he came to hang a Gold one on the wall.
K.F. Raizor
Tommy Collins, who had a few hits on his own ("It Tickles", "Whatcha Gonna
Do Now"), and wrote a number of hits, for Merle ("Carolyn") and others. He
passed away a few years ago.
"who flung poo?" <iflun...@REMOVEhotmail.com> wrote in message
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who flung poo?
"K.F. Raizor" <kfra...@earthlink.net> wrote in message
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hey thanks now that i got the name gonna do some reading up on this fella
found some info here
http://www.nashvillesongwritersfoundation.com/fame/collins.html
F. Gentry
Tim Ausburn
> Maybe I'm too young (38) to know who Leonard is
> but if you have any ideas who Merle is singing about in his "Leonard" song
> I'd love to read them.
Here he is:
Leonard Raymond Sipes, born Sept. 28, 1930 in Bethany, OK.
Moved to California in 1951 and took stage name of Tommy Collins.
Died, March 14, 2000.
Hag recorded a lot of songs that Leonard wrote.
Geesje Vos
Merle Haggard wrote that song as a tribute to songwriter Tommy Collins...
his real name was Leonard Raymond Sipes, born Sep 28, 1930 in Bethany,
Oklahoma, died Mar 14, 2000 in Ashland City, Tennessee.
I added his Bio down below here... hope this helps :)
Along with his contemporary Wynn Stewart, Tommy Collins was one of the first
country musicians to establish a distinctive Bakersfield, California sound.
During the course of the '50s, he released a series of hit singles that
lightened up the tone of honky tonk with bouncing back beats, novelty lyrics
and electric guitars. Collins explored a more serious side with his ballads,
yet they continued to sound slightly different than his peers - though they
weren't as polished as the countrypolitain coming out of Nashville, they
didn't have the grit of honky tonk. Legions of West Coast country
performers - most notably Buck Owens, who played guitar on several of
Tommy's hit singles, and Merle Haggard - built on the sound that Collins
established in the early '50s. Collins wasn't able to cash-in on the
Bakersfield craze of the '60s. By then, he had already quit the music
business once, and was mounting a marginally successful comeback.
Nevertheless, his influence loomed large, particularly on Haggard, who took
Collins' "Carolyn" and "The Roots of My Raising" to the top of the charts in
the early '70s.
Collins (b. Leonard Raymond Sipes) was born just outside of Oklahoma City,
spending his entire childhood in Oklahoma, where his father worked for the
county. As a child, he began to sing and write songs, eventually appearing
on local radio shows. Following his high-school graduation in 1948, he
attended Edmond State Teachers College while he continued to perform music.
During this time, he made a handful of singles for the California-based
record label, Morgan. In the early '50s, he was in the army for a brief
time, before he moved to Bakersfield, California with his friend Wanda
Jackson and her family. Shortly afterward, the Jackson family moved back to
Oklahoma, leaving Tommy Collins alone in Bakersfield.
In a short time, Collins had begun to make friends and contacts within the
city, eventually becoming friends with Ferlin Husky and the pair roomed
together. After recording a handful of Collins' songs, Husky convinced his
record company, Capitol, to offer Tommy a record contract and the fledging
singer/songwriter signed to the label in June of 1953; at the time of
signing, he adopted his stage-name of Tommy Collins, since it sounded more
commercial than Leonard Sipes. Capitol and Tommy immediately assembled a
backing band, which featured a then-unknown Buck Owens on lead guitar.
Following one unsuccessful single, Collins' released the jaunty "You Better
Not Do That," which became a huge hit in early 1954, spendind seven weeks at
number two on the country charts. Since the song was a success, Collins
continued to pursue a light-hearted, near-novelty direction with his
subsequent hits and the formula initially worked. Between the fall of 1954
and the spring of 1955, he had three Top 10 hits - "Whatcha Gonna Do Now,"
"Untied," "It Tickles" - and in the fall of 1955, the double A-sided single
"I Guess I'm Crazy" and "You Oughta See Pickles Now," which both reached the
Top 15. In addition to these hit singles, Faron Young had a huge hit with
Tommy's "If You Ain't Lovin'," which was one of many songs that Collins
wrote but didn't record that became hits.
Collins was on the fast road to major success, but it stopped just as soon
as it began. Tommy had a religious conversion in early 1956, and much of the
material he recorded that year was sacred music; occasionally, he recorded
duets with his wife Wanda Lucille Shahan as well. In 1957, Collins enrolled
in the Golden Gate Baptist Seminary with the intention of becoming a
minister. Two years later, he became a pastor. During all of his religious
teachings, Collins continued to record for Capitol, but neither himself or
the label were much interested in promoting his records, and he had no hits.
When his contract with the label expired in 1960, he stopped recording and
enrolled as a student at Sacramento State College. For the next two years,
he studied at the university.
In early 1963, Collins decided he was unfulfilled by the ministry, so he
left the church and headed back to Bakersfield with the intention of
re-entering the music business. Capitol agreed to re-sign him and in 1964,
he returned to the lower reaches of the charts with "I Can Do That," a duet
with his wife Wanda.
With the help of Johnny Cash, Collins switched labels and signed with
Columbia in 1965; the following year, he had a Top 10 hit with "I Can't
Bite, Don't Growl." For the next few years, he had a string of minor hit
singles, none of which cracked the country Top 40. During this time, he also
toured with his protegees, Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, acting as their
opening act. By the early '70s, both Collins' professional and personal
lives were on the verge of collapse, due to his increasing dependency on
drugs and alcohol. In 1971, Wanda filed for a divorce, sending Tommy into a
deep depression.
Collins began to recover by continuing to write songs, many of which were
recorded by Merle Haggard, including the 1972 number one hit single
"Carolyn." In 1976, Tommy moved to Nashville, where he was able to secure a
contract with Starday Records. Later that year, he released Tommy Collins
Callin', a collection of his own versions of songs he had provided for other
artists. Following the album's reelase, Tommy turned almost entirely to
professional songwriting. In 1981, Merle Haggard had a hit single with
"Leonard," his tribute to Collins. After the release of "Leonard," the
spotlight again turned to Collins, who was now sober. Tommy signed a
songwriting contract with Sawgrass Music, where his most notable success was
Mel Tillis' Top 10 1984 hit, "New Patches."
Throughout the '80s, Collins kept a low profile, though his songs continued
to be recorded. George Strait recorded no less than two of Tommy's
compositions during the decade, taking his new version of "If You Ain't
Lovin'" to number one on the country charts. European record companies like
Bear Family began reissuing his recordings, which led to an appearance at
the 1988 Wembley Country Music Festival in England. In 1993, Collins signed
a new publishing contract with Ricky Skaggs Music and continued to write
songs professionally throughout the mid-'90s, dying at his home in Ashland
City, TN on March 14, 2000. - Stephen Thomas Erlewine
~Geesje~
(a Dutch country music DJ who works voluntary to keep the music alive at
least locally... )
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Larry Davis
"Geesje Vos" <dutchg...@keyaccess.nl> wrote in message
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> With the help of Johnny Cash, Collins switched labels and signed with
> Columbia in 1965; the following year, he had a Top 10 hit with "I Can't
> Bite, Don't Growl."
The correct title here is "If You Can't Bite, Don't Growl".
Excellent bio you posted Geesje. Also of interest is that Tommy's hit "I
Guess I'm Crazy" was covered in 1964 by Jim Reeves and went to #1. It wasn't
a Collins' composition though, it came from Werly Fairburn.
Larry Davis
Geesje Vos
writer.. >blush<
I'm intending to show off another man's feathers here... Bio was written by
Stephen Thomas Erlewine and I agree, he did a good job on it.
~Geesje~
Larry Davis <larry...@earthlink.net> schreef in berichtnieuws
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Geesje Vos
Geesje Vos <foxon...@countrykeys.com> schreef in berichtnieuws
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metoo
one time; he was just about 5 years old or so. He sang that
song "Little Tom". I figured he'd grow up to be a singer but I
haven't heard of him since and that must have been in the 60's
maybe.
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