070122_TT_AllPages

THETRUCKER.COM PERSPECTIVE
JULY 2022 • 9
Mickey Gilley leads two country music cultural shifts
RHYTHM OF
THE ROAD
KRIS RUTHERFORD
krisr@thetruckermedia.com
By the late 1970s, Mickey Gilley was a bona fide
country music headliner. But he couldn’t have imagined
what lay in store for him as the decade ended,
even as a hint of the success he was about to enjoy
came from a 1977 song by his famous cousin Jerry
Lee Lewis.
The next to the last of Lewis’ string of Top 5 singles
came by way of his No. 4 hit “Middle-Age Crazy.”
The plot of the lyrics revolves around a successful
businessman’s mid-life crisis. Despite his success,
something is missing from his life. To deal with
growing older, he remakes himself. As Lewis sang,
he traded his business suit for “jeans and high boots
with an embroidered star.”
Neither Lewis nor Gilley realized that the minor
hit set the stage for a cultural shift in the U.S. “Middle-Age
Crazy” was released as a movie starring
Bruce Dern in early 1980, but it largely failed at the
box office. However, the motion picture’s theme was
about to become ingrained in American culture.
The “cowboy look” soon became the American
style of the early 1980s — only it wasn’t Lewis who
helped bring cowboy dress to the forefront. Instead,
it was Gilley, with a healthy dose of John Travolta,
who led the revolution.
When producers of the movie “Urban Cowboy”
looked for a location to shoot their film, they knew
they needed a country nightclub, and a big one.
The so-called largest honky-tonk in the U.S., Gilley’s
Club in Pasadena, Texas, offered the perfect backdrop.
John Travolta, who was fresh off starring in
the anything-but-country motion pictures “Grease”
and “Saturday Night Fever,” found himself cast in the
role of country boy Bud Davis, a young man who relocates
to the Houston area and starts frequenting
Gilley’s club.
Looking back over four decades, the plot of “Urban
Cowboy” is easily forgotten. But for those who
lived through the era it ushered in, the movie’s impact
is hard to forget.
Gilley and several nightclub employees had
parts in the movie, and Gilley’s band provided much
of the soundtrack. Gilley himself was featured on the
soundtrack album. “Here Comes the Hurt Again”
brought Gilley a lot of air play — but it was his countryfied
rendition of the soul song “Stand by Me” that
elevated him from being an occasional hit maker to
one of the 1980s most prolific artists.
Likewise, it was Gilley’s style — cowboy boots,
western hats with feathered grommets, and just
a general western style of dress — that became all
the rage. Areas of the country like New England,
where few followed country music and only a handful
of true cowboys lived, were suddenly overrun by
Yankees donning the “Urban Cowboy” style. The period
did much to increase the popularity of country
music nationwide, and western retailers popped up
from coast to coast.
In short order, the image of the “Urban Cowboy”
shifted from John Travolta’s character to the real-life
Gilley. Gilley’s nightclub became a sensation and
spawned the opening of similar country clubs across
the nation. It also created an environment in which
one of country music’s most popular female singers,
Barbara Mandrell, could record her signature song,
“I was Country (When Country wasn’t Cool).”
By the time Gilley’s career slowed down, he had
charted 39 Top 10 singles, 17 of which reached No.
1. The likes of “You Don’t Know Me,” “That’s All that
Matters to Me” and “True Love Ways” became classics
of the 1980s country era. As the decade passed,
Gilley shifted his music to a more orchestrated style,
featuring strings and his iconic piano in his recordings
rather than the hard-driving piano of his earlier
sons like “The Girls All Get Prettier at Closing Time.”
This fresh Gilley style was largely inspired by the
crossover success many country artists experienced
during the decade. The change in his music also reflected
a change in Gilley’s persona. The man who
had ridden a nightclub to fame made himself over
for a new audience. He sold his nightclub and relocated
to a new spot in the U.S. where country music
was taking off — Branson, Missouri.
Branson was a growing community that centered
around country music-related entertainment.
For a performer like Gilley, the area was a godsend.
The city became packed with theaters and boasted
as many current and former stars per square mile
than anywhere other than Nashville. And the town
became a saving grace for more than one artist’s
career.
“Branson works because it provides the best
conditions for the fans and the entertainers,” Gilley
said. “The fans get to see us under the best setting
possible … theaters have good seats, and we have
the best stage setups.”
What’s more, performers in Branson often
owned their theaters. They didn’t have to deal with
the daily grind of putting together and tearing down
a stage show. The grueling pace of touring didn’t
wear down the performers, most of whom owned
homes not far from their theaters. Throughout the
1990s, Branson grew, and Gilley found himself at the
center of another seismic shift on the country music
scene. He became one of Branson’s most popular
stars, raking in profits from hundreds of fans who’d
visit for both afternoon and evening shows held
year-round.
While the new hits stopped coming when Gilley
shifted to Branson, the audiences his show attracted
didn’t seem to care. Promoters marketed Branson
toward an older crowd — people who remembered
the likes of Andy Williams, Floyd Kramer, Mel Tillis
and numerous comedy and variety shows. These
people didn’t expect or want to hear new material
from the performers whose shows they frequented;
they wanted to hear the hit songs of days gone by.
Gilley’s former popularity provided enough hit
songs to fill a show, and recording wasn’t as important
as it had been earlier in his career. Branson became
a prime retirement area for people looking for
a nice place to live, and it served semi-retired performers
as well.
For the most part, Gilley played out his life in
Branson. His shows were among the most popular
in the city. Gilley’s name became as much a part of
Branson as the ever-popular theme park Silver Dollar
City. And it provided an iconic setting for a popular
artist to complete a career that headlined two of
the most noted contributions to late 20th century
country music.
Until next time, don’t wear a cowboy hat in a
Ford Focus. It just ain’t right. 8
Aim your camera
Find the best
truck-driving
jobs
as well news, videos and job
resources ... all in one place!
at the code to
find jobs.