Good Lovin'??

Lou celebrates Tammy Wynette's birthday.

Tammy Wynette is my favorite singer, it’s her birthday today. Adelle and I both love her. It was an early bonding point for us. Her songs are, in today’s world, controversial, to say the least. She co-wrote this song Good Lovin’ (my version is available below) and it was clearly meant as a counterpoint to the Feminist movement which was raging at the time (1971). She recorded a song called Don’t Liberate Me (Love Me) at this time too. Perhaps it was a commercial move, perhaps it was how she really felt but Tammy sang some fierce pro-patriarchy tunes.

As the years go by I find myself more saddened by the messages in her already sad songs. It sounded ironic 30 years ago, now it feels too real and tragic.

.

  Tammy stuck to her subservient guns as a performer and, perhaps, spoke to women confused by the social upheaval of the 60s and 70s. In real-life I suspect she kicked a lot of ass. Her story is complicated and so are her songs. Good Lovin’ is my tribute to her today. It’s a strange, sad song, full of paranoia and fear. I probably shouldn’t have sung it.

Tammy passed at the age of 55, married 5 times, and addicted to prescription narcotics.

I snapped these pictures at her Country Music Hall Of Fame exhibit which I was lucky enough to catch in 2010. If her knick-knacks are any indication she was fond of pigs and Pomeranians. Got some pics of her wardrobe and wigs too. She was also an accredited beautician until the day she died.