Dwight Yoakam is a multi-platinum recording artist with many number one albums and singles, as well as multiple Grammy wins. But despite all his accomplishments as a musician, including his new album Brighter Days, Dwight is just as comfortable being a music historian. Dwight helps Marc chart the movement of country music to California, with Americana music of the mid-20th Century blending with rock and punk to create a unique sound that Dwight was a distinct part of. They talk all about The Byrds, Creedence, The Blasters and many more, in addition to Dwight’s new adventures as a first-time dad. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Chapter 1: Who is Dwight Yoakam and what are his achievements?
Ja.
Und als Erwachsener bemerkte ich, wie glücklich das Teil meines Lebens war. Es waren keine Geniuses, keine Rocketscientisten. Aber gute Leute. Ja. Really decent. I really, really, really thank fate for delivering me there and not somewhere else as I grew to know their people and their experiences. As a young adult, you start to know. Especially over the years.
Ja, anyway. Well, so that's a touching thing, he made that sacrifice.
Well, so anyway. Where's that song? So at eight years old. Well, I haven't actually written about that.
It seems like a natural country tag. My dad pawned a shotgun, so I got my first guitar.
I never really literally did. I wrote something, the first thing I ever wrote when I was about eight years old was called How Far Is Heaven? And the first line, it was... Wir sahen jeden Abend, wie Walter Cronkite noch im Wohnzimmer war und die ersten Bilder der Vietnameskriege kamen an. Reispatties, Helikopter und Menschen, die gestorben sind.
And I wrote this song, a fictitious account, and I didn't really finish it. It was a verse and a bit of a chorus. It was called How Far Is Heaven? And it started with, my daddy got killed over in Vietnam, and here's just a few things that I don't understand. So I began, and my father was a little disturbed. I would write something about a father. He'd sit in my... Was denkst du?
Willst du, dass ich getötet werde? Nein, ich bin nicht weggegangen. Du bist ein Songwriter. Du bist fiktiv. Das Konzept war ein bisschen überraschend für ihn. Schau mich an, ich war acht Jahre alt. Das ist interessant. Ich habe nur ein paar Chords gelernt.
Welche Musik hat dich dazu inspiriert, das zu schreiben?
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Chapter 2: How did country music evolve in California?
Und wir fuhren und endeten in Long Beach, Kalifornien. Und er hatte eine Familie in Tustin, in Orange County. Und ich habe gesagt, na gut, wir sind so weit gekommen. Lass uns irgendwo auf der Straße oder in Hollywood finden. Und wir haben in Santa Monica angefangen und konnten nichts hinzufügen, bis wir nach Long Beach kamen. Es war etwas, was wir wahrscheinlich nicht hinzufügen konnten.
Wir endeten dort. Er hat bis zum 4. Juli geblieben. Das war im Frühjahr. Ja. Ja. Ja. Yeah. Like who? Well... I met a guy named Boo Bernstein, who became an executive at Capitol Records later, but he was a steel guitar player, just various guys, and you start to try to put a band together, and I finally did, through a guy from Tulsa, Oklahoma, named Stuart Deeming.
I don't know if you remember these names. Yeah. This guy, and he knew a drummer named Richard Coffey. And Richard believed in me enough that he started playing with me in a place called The Corral out here in Lakeview Terrace. Yeah. Right up the road here from where you are in Glendale. Yeah. Where Foothill and Osborne meet. Oh yeah. Right? Yeah. It's no longer there. It's gone. There's like a...
Civic Center, a library or something for kids. So you're tapping into what is country here? Yeah. It's been here since the Tom Joad Road, the Dust Bowl. They brought with them the Okies, the Arkies, and the Texans. Right, but what's going on in... 70s, 1978, yeah. So the punk started to happen. Yeah, all the punk scenes, because L.A. punk happens really in 79 with X. But it's going on, but I'm...
suited to do what I do. I'm doing Bill Monroe and Merle Haggard. You got a mandolin player? No, but I've got just hillbilly me on the guitar, lead guitarist, bass and drums. And we're playing, I couldn't, I look back and I thought, well, I wasn't good enough to play the Thursday, Friday, Saturday slot at the corral. But I was good enough to do the Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday.
So I was doing the off nights. And I was driving air freight in the daytime, go out there at night and start at nine. Playing covers? Nine till two. But my covers were hardcore country. And it's right ahead of the whole urban cowboy thing that happened. Ich glaube, das war 1979 oder so.
Aber du spielst nur, was du für Country-Audienzen nimmst?
Ja, aber ich würde nicht die Top-40-Version von Country machen. Ich habe nicht Looking for Love oder Urban Cowboys gemacht. Ich habe Haggard gemacht, George Jones, all diese Sachen. Aber die Leute wollten daran tanzen und es liebten sie. Und ich habe ein Jahr da drin gespart. Ein solches Jahr mit den Off-Notes. Fünf Sets pro Nacht. Und, äh, du weißt, du wächst dich auf.
Ich habe andere Musiker getroffen und war dort am Tag, an dem John Lennon getötet wurde. Ich erinnere mich an Delaney Bramlett. Ja. Äh, der war einer der großartigen Musiker in Kalifornien. Er kam aus dem Süden. Er und Leon Russell formten die Band für Shindig.
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