I awakened early this morning with the sound of the Everly Brothers rolling around inside my head. Do you remember their #1 hit, “Cathy’s Clown”? The year was 1960. The opening verse immediately draws one’s attention: “Don’t want your love anymore Don’t want your kisses, that’s for sure I die each time I hear this sound Here he comes, that’s Cathy’s clown”.
They were ages 20 and 18 when they recorded their first song in 1957. The song was “Bye Bye Love.” Perhaps you remember the lyrics:
Bye-bye love
Bye-bye happiness
Hello loneliness
I think I’m gonna cry
Bye-bye love
Bye-bye sweet caress
Hello emptiness
I feel like I could die
Bye-bye my love, goodbye
There goes my baby with someone new
She sure looks happy, I sure am blue
She was my baby ’til he stepped in
Goodbye to romance that might’ve been
I was just a little kid back then. On the other hand, I was also half grown. At the age of ten, I liked the sound of the Everly Brothers. I also like the look of the 57 Chevrolet 2-door hardtop.
Life was simple in 1957. At the age of 10, I enjoyed putting plastic model cars together and Ronnie put plastic model airplanes together. That was back in a day when 10-year-olds could purchase glue to put models together. It never occurred to us that glue could be used as a form of substance abuse.
I don’t remember that being ten years old posed any particular problems. I liked school. I even enjoyed writing in cursive. I had many friends and was part of a closeknit family. Our lives were fairly routine. As fifth graders, we walked with our brother, Larry (age 7) to Rusk Elementary. Back then, Ronnie and I always dressed alike. Mother picked out our clothes. We were a matched pair.
We each carried a lunch box to school. When we got home from school, as a first order of business, we changed into our play clothes. Back then, we had school clothes, play clothes and church clothes.
Getting our homework done was a requirement before we could play. Fortunately, we didn’t have a lot of homework. We were not often deprived of play time. We went to church twice on Sundays and on Wednesday nights. Somehow the weeks seemed to go by quickly.
Like I said, I was a just a kid back then, but I was also half grown. In the next decade and a half, life became far more challenging. Ronnie’s plane went down in the Christmas Bombing Raids over North Vietnam in 1972.
Things didn’t fare well for the Everly Brothers during that time frame either. According to Wikipedia, “The Everlys announced their final performance would take place on July 14, 1973, at Knott’s Berry Farm in Buena Park, California, but tensions between the two surfaced and Don told a reporter he was tired of being an Everly Brother. During the show, Phil smashed his guitar and walked off. Don performed solo the following night, commenting to the audience ‘The Everly Brothers died ten years ago’. The two would not reunite musically for more than ten years.”
All My Best!
Don
Carpe Diem 