Hank Williams,1923-1953: He Wrote Songs About Love and Heartbreak
Nov 23, 2009VOICE ONE:
PEOPLE IN AMERICA -- a program in Special English by the Voice of America.
Every week at this time, we tell you a story about people who played a part in the history of the United States. I'm Tony Riggs. Today, Larry West and I tell the story of country and
western singer and songwriter, Hank Williams.
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VOICE TWO:
That was the record Hank Williams made when he first tried to interest recording companies in his music. None of the companies liked it at the time. But a few years later, the high sharp voice of Hank Williams would cut like a knife through the music world. When he sang his songs, people listened. They are still listening, long after his death.
VOICE ONE:
Hank Williams was born in nineteen twenty-three on a small farm near Mount Olive, Alabama. Like most people at that time in the southern United States, the Williams family was poor. Hank's father could not work. He had been injured in World War One. He spent many years in a hospital when Hank was a boy.
The Williams family did not own many things. But it always had music. Hank sang in church. When he was eight years old, he got an old guitar and taught himself to play. From then on, music would be the most important thing in his life.
VOICE TWO:
By the time Hank was fourteen, he had already put together his own group of musicians. They played at dances and parties. They also played at a small local radio station. They were known as "Hank Williams and his Drifting Cowboys."
For more than ten years, Hank remained popular locally, but was unknown nationally. Then, in nineteen forty-nine, he recorded his first major hit record. The song was "Lovesick Blues."
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Hank Williams and his group performed "Lovesick Blues" on the stage of the Grand Ole Opry house in Nashville, Tennessee. People in the theater would not let him stop singing. They made him sing the song six times. After years of hard work, Hank Williams had become a star.
VOICE ONE:![[insert caption here]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_saIz3RKgrA9jfcUYFeOmitntQyldi7g3gWgNwgVMtc7PyjrkDXhpeNkZb95_WPHm0ebSz9Y2asPrvqlt46W-zrOFyECPJ139ZeUW8TrETVS9SGOOVHH-qL2fJ9jT6fHpjoBC816DmYGSngLkc2oP_0ag=s0-d "[insert caption here]")
Hank Williams wrote both happy songs and sad songs. But the sad songs are remembered best.
When Hank sang a sad song, those who listened knew it was about something that had happened to him. Somehow, he was able to share his feelings in his music. One of the most famous of these sad songs is "Your Cheatin' Heart." One music expert said: "Your Cheatin' Heart" is so sad, it sounds like a judge sentencing somebody to a punishment worse than death itself.”
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"Your Cheatin' Heart" was written in the early nineteen fifties. It has been recorded by more than fifty singers and groups in almost every style of popular music.
VOICE TWO:
Many years after Hank Williams' death, new fans of his music have asked why he could put so much of his life into his songs. There is no easy answer to that question.
Hank Williams had many problems during his life. He and his wife Audrey did not have a happy marriage. Many of his songs seemed to ask: “Why can't we make this marriage work?” Many people knew that when Hank sang this song, "Cold Cold Heart", he was singing about his wife and their problems. Those who had similar problems felt that Hank was singing about them, too.
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VOICE ONE:
Hank Williams drank too much alcohol. Those who knew Hank Williams say he did not have ![[insert caption here]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_uOtRKmnkIqCPtRIQJhBxVASTCuvDQgEHiO3mqoVEtR0pju0Kna8XN3SsvdIP-r4v_ejFwkvr7maTRTHsjv_VPsqUMtyHi2M5X6COMtppbSA6thn0CUHWpCmUNZ89COl-JuPffiSUXWlKcFO3Uj8w=s0-d "[insert caption here]")
Everything seemed to be moving too fast. He could not stop. And he could not escape. He had money and fame. But they did not cure his loneliness, his drinking, or his marriage problems.
Hank was always surrounded by people, especially after he became famous. None, however, could break through the terrible sadness that seemed to follow him everywhere. One song, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", expresses his feelings of loneliness.
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VOICE TWO:
When Hank Williams began to record his songs, country and western music was not popular with most Americans. It was the music of the poor farming areas of the South. However, because Hank's songs told of real-life troubles with such great emotion, something unusual began to happen to his music.
Radio stations that had never played country and western music began to play Hank Williams' songs. Famous recording stars who never sang country and western music began recording songs written by Hank Williams. He had created a collection of music that stretched far past himself and his times.
Hank Williams' life and career were brief. He died on New Year's Day, nineteen fifty-three. He was twenty-nine years old.
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VOICE ONE:
You have been listening to PEOPLE IN AMERICA, a program in Special English by the Voice of America. Your narrators were Larry West and Tony Riggs. PEOPLE IN AMERICA was written by Paul Thompson.
Words and Their Stories: Ace in the Hole
Now, Words and Their Stories, a program in Special English by the Voice of America.
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It is surprising how many expressions that Americans use every day came from the card game of poker. For example, you hear the expression, ace in the hole, used by many people who would never think of going near a poker table. An ace in the hole is an argument, plan or thing kept hidden until needed. It is used especially when it can turn failure into success.
In poker and most card games, the ace is the highest and most valuable card. It is often a winning card. In one kind of poker game, the first card to each player is given face down. A player does not show this card to the other players. The other cards are dealt face up. The players bet money each time they receive another card.
No one knows until the end of the game whose hidden card is the winner. Often, the ace in the hole wins the game.
Smart card players, especially those who play for large amounts of money, closely watch the person who deals the cards. They are watching to make sure he is dealing honestly. They want to be sure that he is not dealing off the bottom of the stack of cards. A dealer who is doing that has stacked the deck. He has fixed the cards so that he will get higher cards. He will win and you will lose.
The expression, dealing off the bottom, now means cheating in business, as well as in cards. And when someone tells you that the cards are stacked against you, he is saying you do not have a chance to succeed.
In a poker game you do not want to let your opponents know if your cards are good or bad. So having a poker face is important. A poker face never shows any emotion, never expresses either good or bad feelings. No one can learn – by looking at your face – if your cards are good or bad.
People now use poker face in everyday speech to describe someone who shows no emotion.
Someone who has a poker face usually is good at bluffing. Bluffing is trying to trick a person into believing something about you that is not true.
In poker, you bluff when you bet heavily on a poor hand. The idea is make the other players believe you have strong cards and are sure to win. If they believe you have strong cards and are sure to win. If they believe you, they are likely to drop out of the game. This means you win the money they have bet.
You can do a better job of bluffing if you hold your cards close to your vest. You hold your cards close to you so no one can see what you have. In everyday speech, holding your cards close to your vest means not letting other know what you are doing or thinking. You are keeping you plans secret.
We are not bluffing when we say we hope you have enjoyed today’s program.
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This Special English program, Words and Their Stories, was written by Marilyn Rice Christiano. This is Bob Doughty.
Results of UN Food Summit Seen as Disappointing
This is the VOA Special English Development Report.
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United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon speaks at the World Summit on Food Security
Last week, the United Nations held a World Summit on Food Security. But the three-day meeting in Rome produced only limited measures to fight rising hunger. The U.N. World Food Program says more than a billion people -- one in six worldwide -- do not get enough food to be healthy.
The troubled world economy is not the only cause of recent increases. The poorest countries continue to face high food prices, which have fallen elsewhere. The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says more than thirty nations continue to need emergency food assistance.
Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said the food crisis has forced millions of families into poverty and hunger. He said six million children die of hunger every year. And he warned that food security is closely connected to the issue of climate change.
BAN KI-MOON: "At a time when the global population is growing, our global climate is changing. By twenty fifty we will need to grow seventy percent more food. Yet weather is becoming more extreme and unpredictable."
The delegates in Rome promised to continue efforts to reduce by half the number of hungry people by two thousand fifteen. But critics pointed out that world leaders made a similar promise more than ten years ago.
Several countries promised to increase aid for agriculture, to help developing nations become more independent.
Still, critics deplored a lack of greater action. Leaders from more than sixty countries were in Rome. But Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was the only leader from a major industrial nation in the Group of Eight. An official from Kenya, Adam Barre Duale, said it showed a lack of unity in the fight against hunger.
ADAM BARRE DUALE: "We need both the developed world and the developing countries to come together and to give and support a global initiative in the war against hunger."
The Food and Agriculture Organization says more than forty billion dollars a year needs to be invested in agriculture to defeat world hunger. The growing problem has affected developing countries, but also industrialized nations.
The government estimates that forty-nine million people in the United States were "food insecure" last year. That means their households, at some time during the year, had difficulty providing enough food for all members because of a lack of resources. Almost fifteen percent of all households were in that situation. And the Agriculture Department says the numbers may be even higher this year.
What Thanksgiving Day Means to People in US
22 November 2009
listenning to Radio
VOICE ONE:
Welcome to THIS IS AMERICA. I'm Faith Lapidus. This Thursday is a day for families and friends to share a special holiday meal and think about what they are thankful for. This week on our program, we ask some people to share their favorite memories of Thanksgiving Day.
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VOICE ONE:
Special English reporters June Simms and Dana Demange talked to people about the holiday.
JIM OLDHAM: "My name is Jim Oldham and I'm from Nashville, Tennessee. I remember my father drove a bus and my mother was a waitress, and so we often didn't get to have Thanksgiving together. And I remember when I was about twelve, her work and his work permitted us all to do that. And we had brothers and sisters, and the traditional turkey and all the trimmings. We always had pumpkin pie, and if we were really lucky, a little bit of whipped cream on top. And it was just a wonderful day."
ANN GEIGER: "I'm Ann Geiger from Tucson, Arizona. Thanksgiving is special for our family because like so many families our adult children live around the country. And we usually get at least part of them together for Thanksgiving."
REPORTER: "And what is one of your fondest Thanksgiving Day memories?"
ANN GEIGER: "Oh, I think a recent Thanksgiving when my son and I had a turkey cook-off. He brined his turkey and I didn't brine mine. And we decided which one was the best."
REPORTER: "Who won?"
ANN GEIGER: "He did."
VOICE ONE:
Brining is a way to prepare meat in a salt solution, whether for a competitive "cook-off" or just any meal. Traditionally the meat served on Thanksgiving is turkey. The bird is usually served with side dishes including a mixture known either as stuffing or dressing.
Many families also bring out their finest table settings -- the "good china" -- for Thanksgiving.
JOEL UPTON: "My name is Joel Upton. I'm from Livingston, Tennessee. Thanksgiving at my family was always a time when brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, cousins, we all got together. And someone would bring different dishes. Someone would bring the sweet potatoes. Someone would bring the meat. Someone would bring the dressing. And we would all sort of combine the efforts to have a family Thanksgiving dinner and bring out the good china for that particular event.
And Thanksgiving also, in my early days when I was a child, the kids would all get to play, maybe we hadn't seen each other for a while. The men would always watch a football game on TV. And Thanksgiving was just a really, really special time. And, of course, we had in mind the Pilgrims and what it was all about too. But it was a family time."
VOICE ONE:
The Pilgrims first arrived in America in sixteen twenty. They were separatists from the Church of England and other settlers. The ship that brought the first group was the Mayflower.
An exploring party landed at Plymouth, in what became the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The state is named after an American Indian tribe -- a recognition of the groups that came long before the Pilgrims.
The first Pilgrims established a village. Those who survived the first difficult years held harvest festivals and religious celebrations of thanksgiving. These events formed the basis of the holiday that Americans now celebrate.
But there are no official "rules" for a Thanksgiving meal. Some people like to find ways to do things a little differently.
BUTCH HUNSINGER: "Butch Hunsinger from Williamsport, Pennsylvania."
REPORTER: "The bird. What are you going to do differently this year?"
BUTCH HUNSINGER: "Try to shoot it myself, instead of go to the store to buy it. Go to the family cabin, and hunt on the family land and try to call in a turkey and fire away."
REPORTER: "And who's the better shot in the family?"
BUTCH: "Oh my son, by far."
REPORTER: "What about your worst Thanksgiving memory?"
BUTCH: "Worst…[Laughter] The worst was also the funnest, 'cause I got up early Thanksgiving day and we went to the Burwick Marathon, but it's a nine-mile road race. Just a crusher." [Laughter]
HUGUETTE MBELLA: "Hi, my name is Huguette Mbella. And I was born in Cameroon and grew up in France. And I live now in the United States in Washington, D.C. The whole concept of Thanksgiving was a little bit bizarre. In France, the main celebration is Christmas, not Thanksgiving."
REPORTER: "Can you think of one of your most fond Thanksgiving memories?"
HUGUETTE MBELLA: "I would say my first one. It was in New York. Suddenly the turkey comes on the table, and I was amazed by the size. It was huge! The first thing that came to my mind was actually that's a lot of food!"
ELIZABETH BRINKMAN: "My name is Elizabeth Brinkman and I'm from Cleveland, Ohio. It was always a day that my mother did all the cooking. And we had turkey and I got to chop the vegetables for the dressing. And we got out the good china."
GORDON GEIGER: "Gordon Geiger from Tucson, Arizona. We used to get together at my parents' house and all of my relatives would come over and we'd have a big dinner. And after dinner we would watch football games on the television.
I think it's probably really the most important holiday in the United States because it is a day that is not tied to a particular religion. It is not tied as much to commercial activities. It's more a reflection of the fact that we've had a good life and we appreciate it."
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VOICE ONE:
This Thanksgiving, Americans can be thankful that the Great Recession may be over. But the job market faces a long recovery. Unemployment is now above ten percent. And if the underemployed are added, the rate is seventeen and a half percent. The underemployed are people no longer searching for work or only able to find part time jobs.
Last week, the United States Department of Agriculture released its "household food security" report for two thousand eight. The study found that families in seventeen million households had difficulty getting enough food at times during the year. That was almost fifteen percent -- up from eleven percent in two thousand seven. It was the highest level since the current surveys began in nineteen ninety-five.
The Agriculture Department says poverty is the main cause of food insecurity and hunger in the United States.
President Obama, in a statement, called the report unsettling. Especially troubling, he said, is that there were more than five hundred thousand families in which a child experienced hunger multiple times during the year.
He said the first task is to renew job growth, but added that his administration is taking other steps to prevent hunger. These include an increase in aid for people in the government's nutrition assistance program, commonly known as food stamps.
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VOICE ONE:
The Continental Congress wrote the first national Thanksgiving proclamation in seventeen seventy-seven, during the Revolutionary War. George Washington issued the first presidential Thanksgiving proclamation in seventeen eighty-nine. Here is part of what he wrote.
READER:
Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of almighty God, to obey his will, to be grateful for his benefits, and humbly to implore his protection and favor -- and whereas both houses of Congress have by their joint committee requested me "to recommend to the people of the United States a day of public thanksgiving and prayer to be observed by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many signal favors of Almighty God, especially by affording them an opportunity peaceably to establish a form of government for their safety and happiness."
Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the twenty-sixth day of November next to be devoted by the people of these states to the service of that great and glorious being, who is the beneficent author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be ...
VOICE ONE:
Sarah Josepha Hale was a magazine editor and writer who campaigned for a Thanksgiving holiday. That way, there would be "two great American national festivals," she said, the other being Independence Day on the Fourth of July.
In September of eighteen sixty-three, Sarah Josepha Hale appealed to President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln had made proclamations in the spring of eighteen sixty-two and sixty-three. But these gave thanks for victories in battle during the Civil War.
Then came another proclamation on October third, eighteen sixty-three. It gave more general thanks for the blessings of the year. This is part of what it said:
READER:
In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign states to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere, except in the theater of military conflict, while that theater has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.
Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defense have not arrested the plow, the shuttle, or the ship; the ax has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. ...
I do therefore invite my fellow-citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next as a day of thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.
VOICE ONE:
Lincoln's proclamation began a tradition. Presidents have issued Thanksgiving proclamations every year since eighteen sixty-three. All can be found on the Web site of the Pilgrim Hall Museum in Plymouth.
In nineteen forty-one, Franklin Roosevelt was president. Roosevelt approved a resolution by Congress. It established, by law, the fourth Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.
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Our program was produced by Caty Weaver. I'm Faith Lapidus. Join us again next week for THIS IS AMERICA in VOA Special English.