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Patsy Cline was really ballsy, very sure of herself and her voice. She became one of the most successful artists of all time, but it took her a long time. She grew up poor in Virginia. Her mother and father didn’t have a good relationship and she told a couple of her friends that her father had sexually molested her. When she was 13, she was hospitalised with a nearly fatal infection, and afterwards had this hoarseness which gave her a really booming voice.
After singing in the church choir with her mother, Cline sang in contests and begged to get backstage and meet people so that she could audition for them. She had a lot of conviction in her talents and what she wanted to do, and fought for it. She ended up moving to Nashville to work with 4 Star, a small record company, where she released her first couple of minor hits, including A Church, A Courtroom and then Goodbye.
She was able to go on TV and won a contest with Walkin’ After Midnight, which became a huge hit. After a horrible, almost fatal car accident, Cline got another big hit with I Fall to Pieces. She found herself in a sort of old boys’ club, but she was strong enough to assert herself.
In 1957, Cline married Charlie Dick, but they had a very difficult relationship. They had two kids together, Julie and Randy. She gradually became a giant star before she died tragically in an aeroplane accident, flying from Kansas City to Nashville. So it’s just a 10-year period from when she was performing in contests and fighting to be seen. And then it was all gone, very quickly.
Cline has stood the test of time, and her music has influenced millions of people. She lived through a lot of heartache and you can really feel that in her songs – a really beautiful mixture of melancholy, sweetness and strength.
If I Could Only Stay Asleep
This beautiful, melancholy ballad is one of the songs I discovered late in my obsession with Patsy Cline. It’s got the gorgeous sparse piano, which sounds like the leaves floating down from the tree in her lyrics: “Dead leaves swirling around my feet like memories from the past/ Each leaf reminds me of a dream, a dream that wouldn’t last”. Those lyrics really spoke to the romantic in me. She didn’t have great luck when it came to love, her relationships were quite troubled, and I identified with that longing. As always, her voice is the star, and this type of ballad really showcases its beauty. She’s not doing a lot of crazy tricks, but her timbre really shines. She can sing quite delicately but it’s very dynamic: she goes from very soft in the verses to really belting it out, but there’s still a lot of tenderness in there. It’s a beautiful combination.
There He Goes
In this song, Cline sings about a guy leaving her, with this meandering double bass line driving it. It’s interesting because the pace of the song kind of belies the content: it sounds positive but it’s actually about screwing up and losing somebody that you really love. Here she says: “If I hadn’t cheated, if I hadn’t lied, I’d be the one walking by his side.” It’s that spirit of melancholy that I love in this music in particular – you can really hear that influence in my own.
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Sweet Dreams (Of You)
This song is a real Henry Mancini affair: it’s got a beautiful, swelling string section and lots of drama. Like in If I Could Only Stay Asleep, there’s this real melancholy as she talks about wishing she could be with this person in real life instead of just in her dreams. Even when I discovered the song, which was probably in 1986 or 87, it would be another 10 years before I could really talk openly about being gay, so I suppose it connects to my own personal story. It’s pretty exquisite, and it hasn’t lost any of its power today. It’s still lush, rich and velvety.
Leavin’ on Your Mind
“Don’t leave me here in a world filled with dreams that might have been/ Hurt me now, get it over, I may learn to love again” has one of the most beautiful melodies. The lyrics cut straight through all the buildup of a lifetime, the perceptions of who you believe you are and how you believe you matter in this world, and how you believe you fit in. Singing something like this subverts the feeling of longing, turning it into something beautiful. It’s one of those songs that makes me feel seen, and it’s one I still find myself singing over and over.
I Fall to Pieces
This is one of the first Patsy Cline tracks I discovered. It’s one of her best-known hits, but it’s also one of her most beautiful. It peaked at No 1 on the Billboard country chart and reached No 12 on the pop chart in 1961. It’s about being in the presence of beauty and not being able to have it, another elegant song with that shuffle, plodding bassline and twangy guitar. The seemingly incongruous marrying of killer melodies tricks you into the realm of beauty, of feeling upbeat and excited when the subject is very dark.
