As with “Friends,” another artist had staked a claim on “Two Of A Kind, Workin’ On A Full House.” The first time Garth heard the song he knew he wanted to record it. Unfortunately, a friend of his was working on a deal of his own and the song was a part of it. “I wish I’d heard it first,” Garth laughed.
Then, while he was recording No Fences, Garth got a call from his friend. “Do you remember that song I cut that you loved? Well, my deal didn’t work out and I wanted to let you know that the song’s available.” Garth didn’t think twice. “Two Of A Kind, Workin’ On A Full House” was the third single and third number 1 radio hit from No Fences.
Warren Haynes, who was one of the writers on “Two Of A Kind, Workin’ On A Full House,” is a perfect example of the diverse musicians who developed in Nashville through the late ’80s and early ’90s. Named by Rolling Stone as one of rock’s greatest guitarists, Haynes has had one of those careers that successfully bridged rock and country. An exemplary guitarist at a young age, Haynes joined David Allan Coe’s band when he was barely out of his teens. He was capable of switching from mournful country ballads to hard-core honky-tonk to wailing rock ’n’ roll on a dime. He played with many high-profile rock stars, including Dickie Betts, who in 1989 asked Haynes to take the Duane Allman guitar part in the Allman Brothers Show. Haynes went on to found the band Gov’t Mule, and release a string of critically acclaimed albums. But he never lost his respect and affection for country: “One of the things I’m most proud of in my writing career is Garth’s cut of ‘Two Of A Kind,’ ” he told a Nashville journalist. “I love the fact that he can step from one musical style to another with ease and never lose the authenticity of any of it.”
Again, Garth sequenced the album like a live show and placed “The Thunder Rolls” first. This was another song Garth wrote with Pat Alger. “I brought the idea of thunder rolling inside of a marriage and outside at the same time to Pat,” Garth says. “The first thing he did was pick up his guitar and start with this D-minor rolling thing. He was picking and coming up with lines and ideas so fast that I could barely keep up with him.”
Because Garth loved Pat Alger’s original guitar work on “Thunder,” he asked the singer/songwriter to play on the session. “I was in the studio that day and had my 1979 Martin M-36,” Alger explained. “They said, ‘Hey, you wrote it, you want to play on it?’ And I said, ‘Sure!’ We recorded it live, with no click and no overdubs,” Alger recalls. “It was a magic take—we tried to reproduce it later but couldn’t do it.”
Garth and Pat had originally pitched the song to Tanya Tucker, adding an extra verse at the suggestion of Tucker’s producer, Jerry Crutchfield. When Allen Reynolds learned that Tanya was recording the song, he almost fainted. “That’s one of the most powerful songs I’ve ever heard! Why are you giving it away?” he asked.
Tanya’s version didn’t make it on her album, and when Garth began recording No Fences, “The Thunder Rolls” was at the top of their list. Allen Reynolds suggested leaving out the final verse to add some mystery. When they got the cut they wanted, Reynolds recalls Garth sitting in the studio looking thoughtful.
“Garth asked what we’d think of adding the sound of thunder to the recording, and I thought it was a great idea,” Reynolds says. “What made it possible to experiment with this technique was Bowen’s having already approved of us taking chances to help create excitement.
“As it turned out we had actual thunder on tape from a song called ‘Delta Rain’ that Mark Miller and I had produced on the Memphis Boys. When we rolled the multitrack to dub in the thunder, Garth was in charge of turning the sound on. It had to be a ‘feel’ thing, and he nailed it perfectly.”
Critics agreed. As Parry Gettelman wrote in the Orlando Sentinel, “It’s punctuated with thunderclaps—a device that actually works, believe it or not!”
Garth’s video for “The Thunder Rolls” was a dark mini-movie with a spousal abuse theme concluding with the woman striking back. Although the video would ultimately win a CMA award in 1991, it became the object of controversy, banned at first for implied violence. “If I could change anything in my career, it would be the contention over this video,” Garth says. “It’s a good song that got overshadowed by a controversy. It was unfair to the song, and that hurts. I never wanted something like that to draw attention to a song of mine.”
“The Thunder Rolls” was the fourth number 1 single from No Fences, and took home honors as the Favorite Country Single at the 1992 American Music Awards.
When word drifted back to Capitol that Garth was using fiddles on “Mr. Blue,” the old Fleetwoods swing hit, more than a few eyebrows were raised. Even the song’s writer, DeWayne Blackwell, questioned the approach. But when he heard the final mix, Blackwell got tears in his eyes. “I feel like it’s 1959 again,” he said.
Despite concerns, “Mr. Blue” was a favorite among critics. The Orlando Sentinel called it “an absolute winner. There’s just the right amount of fiddle and piano in the arrangement, allowing Brooks’s lovely voice plenty of room to stretch out.” The St. Petersburg Times called Garth’s vocal “inspired.” And the Los Angeles Times added, “[Brooks] reveals a canny sense of style in a witty swing treatment.”
No Fences was stylistically sweeping. In addition to the down-and-dirty “Friends,” the menacing “Thunder,” reflective “Unanswered Prayers,” and spine-tingling “Wolves,” there was swing (“Mr. Blue”), acoustic (“Same Old Story”), and rodeo (“Wild Horses”).
A deliberative listen makes Warren Haynes’s point about authenticity. The songs flow seamlessly, but each one takes on its own musical style and mood—a tribute to the studio musicians, artist, and producer. There is another individual whose influence is felt on all of Garth’s albums, yet is seldom mentioned: engineer Mark Miller. “No one can make great records without a great engineer,” Reynolds once reflected. “Especially when you record without all the studio tricks. People sometimes think of engineering as a technical skill. But when it’s done right, it’s an art form. The engineer has to understand the music, artist, the producer, the players, and have the best ear in the building—Mark does.”
The album was one of the most critically acclaimed of the year. Time magazine said, “Brooks makes a direct assault on the heartstrings.” USA Today said that No Fences showed that there was “no limit for Brooks.” The Syracuse Post-Standard called it “a work of art.” Journalists compared No Fences to defining albums like Thriller and Rumours. One critic said that Garth’s debut “was so powerful that even his champions feared his follow-up couldn’t match it. It has.”
No Fences was released on August 27, 1990, and sold 700,000 copies in the first ten days. Keeping Garth’s first album visible while No Fences was in the spotlight paid off. That October, Garth Brooks reached a million copies sold five days before No Fences was also certified platinum. When the sales were tabulated in December the two albums had sold five and a half million records.
Writing in Request, Rick Mitchell pointed to the effect of a new generation of artists: “The numbers don’t lie. In 1984, at the depths of the country-pop era, there were only seven country albums certified gold (indicating sales of 500,000 or more). Billboard’s end-of-the-year chart for 1990 showed thirty-three gold albums. By reminding listeners of what made country music great, these young artists have attracted a whole new generation of country fans.”
Despite Jimmy Bowen’s dire warnings that Garth and Allen needed to slick up production or else, the label head loved No Fences, calling the album “fabulous” and “Friends In Low Places” a “killer.” In one staff meeting he praised Garth for his appreciation of Nashville’s songwriters and understanding that songs were what made the industry tick.
Bowen described a scene of Joe Mansfield analyzing the sales trends, and momentum, then predicting the album’s full potential:
“We’re at four million on Fences. It’s unbelievable. It’s gonna hit ten million,” Mansfield told his boss.
“From your lips to God’s ears, now, what was that you said—and why?”
“That’s right. Ten million.”
“Well, we’ll just ride this baby as long and as hard as we can,” Bowen answered. “We got us a gusher here.”
To another trusted executive, Bowen said he thought he was going to be able to relive his glory days, when he worked with Frank Sinatra at the superstar’s label, Reprise. But the executive was concerned, because Sinatra had been at a completely different stage of his professional life. There was no reason for Sinatra to try to protect his already legendary career from label machinations.
The spring of 1991 started out like it had been scripted for prime time. On March 16, Garth returned home to Yukon, Oklahoma, for the dedication of a new sign on the town’s water tower: “Home of Garth Brooks.” On April 6, “Two Of A Kind, Workin’ On A Full House” hit number 1. The following day, Garth performed a free “Yellow Ribbon” concert in Norfolk, Virginia, to salute Operation Desert Storm families.
On April 24, 1991, Garth dominated the Academy of Country Music (ACM) Awards by taking home a record-breaking six top honors: Entertainer, Male Vocalist, Best Song and Best Video (“The Dance”), Best Single (“Friends In Low Places”), and Top Album for No Fences. He might have won all nominations but for the fact that “The Dance” and “Friends In Low Places” were competing against each other for Best Song. When Alan Jackson took the stage to collect his Top New Male Vocalist trophy, he quipped, “First off, I’d like to thank Garth Brooks for not being nominated in this category.” Garth told the press, “I’m happy, scared, and embarrassed all at the same time.”
Garth’s video for “The Thunder Rolls” had been released to The Nashville Network (TNN) and Country Music Television (CMT). Although the lines were not performed, the video utilized the concept of the third verse Garth and Pat Alger had written for the song. In that verse, the “thunder” is domestic violence.
“Allen Reynolds was uncomfortable with the third verse, so we didn’t include it on the recording,” Garth said. “When we made the video, we’d been playing ‘The Thunder Rolls’ in concert for about a year. One night on a whim, I included that third verse, with the line ‘tonight will be the last time she’ll wonder where he’d been.’ The audience response was immediate. It was just amazing. So when we started talking about a video, I wanted to include the concept, even though we wouldn’t be singing that verse. It was a way to tie the two performances together—the recorded version and the one we were doing in concert. I decided to play the role of the husband because I wanted to make sure he was so despicable that the whole viewing audience wanted to shoot him!”
By April 30 Garth’s single for “The Thunder Rolls” was making big news at radio. One hundred and eighty-three stations immediately added the song, the most in Radio& Records country chart history, and the number 25 chart debut was the highest in R&R rotational reporting era. His video had been added to CMT as a Pick Hit.
The real storm hit the following day.
CHAPTER SEVEN
Good times roll just ahead of the thunder
It was May 1, and Capitol’s head of public relations, Cathy Gurley, was thrilled with the media cards she’d been dealt. Garth Brooks was fresh off six big wins at the Academy of Country Music Awards, No Fences was the hottest album in the nation, and that success was helping piggyback other artists to national television spots and magazine coverage.
Despite some early concerns about Garth’s video for “The Thunder Rolls,” it appeared to have great acceptance. Because of the implied spousal abuse, Cathy had called together a group of industry women and professionals to view the film clip prior to its release. The response was unanimous. It was a ground-breaking piece that could not only stand as a work of video art, but could have a beneficial effect on society as well. One of the women in the panel had lost a sister to domestic violence. She said it was one of the most powerful statements she’d ever seen. When Country Music Television made it a Pick Hit, Cathy knew it was on its way to taking video into new territory.
She was sitting at her desk going over a stack of press requests when her assistant buzzed in.
“Garth’s on the phone.”
“Congratulations,” she said, picking up the phone. “I guess you know ‘Thunder’ made R&R history!”
“Cathy, I need your help on something,” Garth said. “Could you come with me out to The Nashville Network?”
“Of course,” she said. “What’s going on?”
“They want me to add a message to the end of the video, and I’m uncomfortable with it. I don’t want it to look like I’m trying to use abuse as some marketing ploy.”
“But why?” She asked. “I don’t understand.”
Garth paused. “Well, the video has been pulled. They’ve banned it.”
LATER THAT DAY TNN issued a statement in which the network’s Paul Corbin said he was left with a “horrible, helpless feeling” that he’d just witnessed a beating and a murder. CMT also pulled “Thunder” off the air. CMT’s Bob Baker said the channel was “in business to entertain, not to promote or condone gratuitous violence or social issues.”
“I was told that the ban was initiated by two executives at TNN,” recalls Cathy Gurley. “There was no company-wide consensus—just the opinions of two people. And I also heard that a number of female employees disagreed vehemently with the network’s decision. Right away they offered a ‘compromise.’ If Garth would tape a disclaimer to be added as a tag, they’d play the video.”
Garth and Cathy went to TNN, where Garth attempted to comply, reading from a script the network provided.
“Hi, I’m Garth Brooks. What you’ve just seen, though very sad, is very real. Unfortunately, domestic violence is very much alive in our society.” The script went on to ask men, women, and children involved in domestic violence situations to seek professional help.
As Cathy Gurley watched Garth try to comply, she could see him becoming increasingly tense. Before he even told her, she knew he would refuse to film the disclaimer. “They completely underestimated Garth’s feelings about the whole thing,” Cathy said. “He felt the script they gave him was, in effect, pandering. And I guess they didn’t realize he couldn’t be pushed into something he didn’t believe in.”
“It felt wrong,” Garth said. “I thought it looked like I was trying to use a controversy to promote a video. And while I anticipated the video making an impact, I certainly didn’t foresee this.”
Manager Pam Lewis agreed, saying, “If there’s a problem with the video and if TNN feels there’s something they want to say about it, that’s fine. If they want to run an 800 number, or have someone from a women’s group do it, feel free. But we don’t feel it’s Garth’s place to do it.”
Garth also talked about his thought process when it came to making videos: “I refuse to do a video that is ordinary. It wastes the viewer’s time and mine, and my label’s money. My videos are real life, and they’re meant to add another dimension to the song.”
Most of America had no idea just what was being banned, because “The Thunder Rolls” had only aired briefly. That quickly changed. Radio stations, country dance clubs, television, and print outlets across the country requested copies in an effort to make up their own minds—and to let their listeners make up theirs.
For example, on Friday, May 3, WCOS in Columbia, South Carolina, set up a video player at a local shopping center. According to WCOS disc jockeys Gary Dixon and Rob Mason, the viewing public saw the clip as a snapshot of real life, and likely to help raise awareness of a social problem. WCOS used the viewing event to raise money for Sistercare, an organization that aids battered women.
In San Angelo, Texas, one country venue premiered the video for club patrons and raised money for Assault Victim Services and the ICD Family Shelter. According to the San Angelo Times, response was so strong that KGKL radio decided to replay the video continuously at its studio the following night, where more money
was raised for battered women’s shelters.
WSIX in Nashville ran the video at the Wrangler and the city’s locally produced television show Down Home, Down Under began airing the clip on WXMT-Channel 30 as part of a focus on domestic violence. And Nashville’s Tower Records played the video nonstop from 4:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. from May 6 to May 11.
Women’s shelters began to contact Capitol detailing ways the video had helped them raise awareness. For example, the Genesis Shelter in Dallas wrote to a Capitol representative: “The Genesis Shelter phone number was tagged each time ‘The Thunder Rolls’ was aired on Channel 27 resulting in many hot line calls, as well as many calls in support of the video itself. We feel public education is a critical step in combating domestic violence. Each of us has the opportunity and the obligation to help break the cycle of violence. Please extend to Mr. Brooks our appreciation as he joins us, and shelters all over the nation, in impacting the cycle of violence.”
Colleen Brooks had this to say: “Wife abuse has been pushed aside by a predominantly male society for too long. Maybe this will give some woman the courage to get out. Or, if this helps one man stop what he is doing, it’s worth it.”
TNN’s and CMT’s actions perplexed virtually all those who reviewed the video.
“The themes in that song are not new to country,” said Tom Rivers, program director of Tampa Bay area country station WQYK-FM. “The video simply shows nuts-and-bolts reality.”
Most agreed with Loretta Macias of the San Angelo Times, who wrote, “Country music has a real shot to delve into some social commentary, maybe cast a realistic light on a tragic societal condition and perhaps even help a few folks.”
David Medzerian, writing in the Orange County Register, put it this way: “What’s the big deal? I’ve seen the controversial video for Garth Brooks’ hit ‘The Thunder Rolls,’ and it’s a dramatic, mesmerizing piece of work. By banning it, the only thing two cable channels have accomplished is to deprive their audiences of this riveting interpretation of a haunting song.
The Garth Factor Page 10
