Remembering The Great Rick Nelson Who Lost His Life On New Years Eve In 1985 :
He was the very first person to be labeled as a teen idol. But make no mistake about it, Rick Nelson was a Rock And Roll legend. To this day it seems that he still doesn’t get the respect he deserves. I’ll never forget being a young boy spending New Years Eve with my family in 1985 and learning from a news report that he had died in a plane crash.
It’s not shocking that early on people didn’t take Rick seriously as a musical artist. After all he was on a television show with his family known as Ozzie And Harriet. Yet April 10, 1957 still remains as one of the landmark dates of rock and roll history when ABC television aired the Ozzie And Harriet episode “Ricky The Drummer” that introduced a young Rick Nelson singing the song “I’m Walkin’” which would change the course of music history forever.
From that point onward Rick would become a teen idol and rock and roll star. Rivaling the popularity of Elvis Presley (arguably even surpassing it for a short time.) Unfortunately once the British Invasion hit he was in many ways considered yesterday’s news. Which is ironic since he was so influential to artists like Paul McCartney.
It would be Paul McCartney who even said that in Britain nobody knew anything about the television show Rick was on in America. There he was famous only because of his music.
Creatively not many gave Rick a chance after his popularity faded, but he didn’t give up eventually embracing a more Country sound by the early 1970s and becoming a very important figure in the Country rock movement with his Stone Canyon Band. The albums he made in those years like “Rudy The Fifth”, “Garden Party” and “Windfall” remain some of the best records of that genre.
And those opportunities were hardly handed to him. He fought tooth and nail for that new respect. A couple of examples being that he asked to play at the famous club the Troubadour and was told no by the owner thinking he no longer mattered.. So Rick swallowed his pride and actually rented the club himself paying for the opportunity to play shows that would slowly return him to relevance. Especially with the release of his now legendary live album “In Concert at the Troubadour, 1969” with the Stone Canyon Band (which included the great Randy Meisner who would go on to form The Eagles.)
Then of course is the story of Rick playing Madison Square Garden in in 1971 during a 1950s rock and roll Rubicam concert where the fans expected a 1958 version of Nelson but got a man with bell bottom jeans and long hair being booed for playing Rolling Stones’ and Bob Dylan songs. (That event would would ironically inspire Rick to write his comeback song “Garden Party”.)
In the last years of his life Rick once again was on the comeback trail. By this time though he was slowly starting to get the recognition he had always yearned for as a musician. Just a few months before the end of his life he was able to meet his idol Carl Perkins, and toured in Britain for the first time in over a decade.
Meeting his idol reinvigorated Rick. His kids said that Christmas was one of the most enjoyable holidays they had with their father. That he seemed content and like a new man. To finish out the year Rick had a show in Orlando, wanted to play shows in Alabama at a club for a friend, then finish in Dallas on New Years Eve 1985.
Sadly Rick never made it. And just like that he was gone.
A tragic loss.
Like Rick said in his song Gypsy Pilot :
When they claim my body
They won't have much to say
Except that he lived a good life
He lived every day
And I know he saw the sunshine
And I know he felt the rain
And he loved everybody
And he hopes you'll do the same
No comments:
Post a Comment