Arts Don Williams
While driving me from chore to chore, my father played on the car stereo his favorite country singer, Don Williams. Williams is on the margins in America but hugely popular in Africa, especially in the rural areas.
To my father: “Why is Williams big with Africans?”
My father to me: “It is because they understand what he is saying.”
To my father: “It doesn’t have to do with his themes? Some of his songs are so sad, so full of fate.”
My father to me: “He speaks clearly. Africans like clarity.”
Here are the lyrics for one of Don Williams’ biggest African hits, Amanda:
I’ve held it all inward, Lord knows I’ve tried.
It’s an awful awakening in a country boy’s life.
To look in the mirror in total surprise,
At the hair on your shoulders and the age in your eyes.Amanda, light of my life,
Fate should have made you a gentleman’s wife.
Amanda, light of my life,
Fate should have made you a gentleman’s wife.Well, a measure of people don’t understand,
The pleasures of life in a hillbilly band.
I got my first guitar when I was fourteen,
Now I’m crowding thirty and still wearing jeans.Amanda, light of my life,
Fate should have made you a gentleman’s wife.
Amanda, light of my life,
Fate should have made you a gentleman’s wife.
Two gems: one, “…the hair on your shoulders and the age in your eyes”; two, “Now I’m crowding thirty and still wearing jeans.” With impressive clarity, both lines capture the misery of a man who is caught between the dreams of his youth and the realities of growing old. And captured in the chorus is the man’s awareness that his failure, and refusal to give up his youth, has come at the price of his wife’s happiness. The lives of two hillbillies are destroyed, and Africans want to hear more.
From Down the Road:
Guess there’s not much I can do or say Saw my baby with another guy today Though I love her and I try to tell her so It’s hello blues and down the road I goWell I’ve never seen that guy before today
He held my baby in close this way
And the way she snuggled close to him I know
It’s hello blues and down the road I goWell it seemed our thoughts were much alike,
Our likes were much the same
We even had our future planned
‘Til in the town he came
It’s hello blues and down the road I go
When Don Williams sings, “It’s hello blues and down the road I go,” my father laughs. But it’s not a cruel laugh, but one of understanding, of empathy. Who has not been in this situation? He has been there. He has made plans with a woman, and those plans were unexpectedly dashed. That is why he loves Williams. For us Africans, he says it like it is.
Unlike you, he says it like it is, that is.