Nell Gwynne 1650-87

Eleanor or “Nell” Gwynn was well known as one of the first English stage actresses and also as a mistress of Charles II. Not much is known of her early life as she was born in humble circumstances. Her mother was probably a bawdy house keeper, and it’s believed that she was born in either London or Oxford, probably around 1650, during the reign of Cromwell. Nelly and her sister Rose probably grew up in Covent Garden, London, in poverty. Her father was said to be a Captain, but the truth is that nothing is known of him. As a child Nell probably worked at various occupations. It is said that she was a street seller, and also that she worked at her mother’s brothel, serving drinks. Puritan England was a dull place and amusements such as theatre were considered frivolous or immoral, and were banned. But in the early 1660’s with the restoration of Charles II to his throne, he licensed two theater companies and permitted women to act on the stage. Previously, as in Shakespeare’s day, the women’s parts were usually played by boy actors. Nell and her sister Rose started out as orange girls at the theatre Royal, Drury Lane. “Orange Moll”- a former prostitute, had a license to sell oranges and other sweetmeats to the patrons of the theatre, and Nell had a lively personality and a witty tongue, so she soon developed great skill at the selling job. It called for liveliness, quick wit and charm. Soon, she used her connections with the theatre to move into the acting profession. Nell had had no education, as a girl from a slum, but she had a sharp intelligence and in spite of being illiterate, she learned parts quickly and became very popular on the stage. Charles II often attended performances, as did members of his court. 

Nell realized that she was better at comedy than drama and serous theatre, so she found herself cast mostly in comic roles. She also played “breeches parts” where the female character adopts men’s clothes for some reason, and hence was able to show off her figure in male attire. During her early years as an actress, she became the mistress of the well-known actor, Charles Hart, and he nurtured her budding career. A few years later, she left the theatre for a time, to become the mistress of the wit and rake, Lord Buckhurst, who took her away from acting and gave her an income. However, she soon returned to the stage and seems overall to have had very few lovers. It was difficult for a woman to make her way even in the world of theatre, without a male protector but Nell seemed to be reluctant to take many lovers and supported herself. 

In 1667/8, the Duke of Buckingham seems to have interested himself in Nelly, since he wanted to counteract Barbara Castlemaines influence with the King. Barbara was Buckingham’s cousin, but she was a greedy and hot tempered woman. She and he were frequently at odds, and the Duke wanted to get Charles involved with another mistress who would put forward his pint of view. However, Charles was not the man to be faithful to any mistress for long. He and Barbara had been lovers for some years and had several children but the affaire was cooling. He began a short affair with Moll Davies, an actress from another theater. However, he met Nelly and began to take a fancy to her. Her quick wit and saucy tongue attracted him, and her forthright frank manners, the contrast between a girl born in a London slum and court ladies, made her seem charming. In 1670, she bore a son to him, but still returned to the stage for a time. She was less demanding than Barbara Castlemaine but she did have her price. 

  She asked insistently for a house and pension, and honours for her children. Some courtiers commented that Nell, because of her social position, her low birth was not “treated with the decencies of a mistress” but rather like a whore. Charles was not faithful to any of his women, but he was generous with money and they were part of his court and had much more influence there than his wife. Catherine of Braganza was a rather “mousy” young woman, who had been brought up in a restricted conventual culture. She was not sophisticated enough to handle a royal marriage to someone like Charles, or to deal with his many glamorous highly born mistresses who outshone her. As a Roman Catholic, and a wife who was unable to produce children, she became isolated at Court, and Charles, while reasonably kindly to her, mostly ignored her. In the early 1670’s Nell became part of the court and gave up acting. She had another son by Charles; the two boys were called Charles and James Beauclerk. However, Nell had to persist in asking for them to be given titles, as was usual for the children of his mistresses. She was not well born enough to have a lot of influence with him, but he was fond of her. In the 1670s however, he met Louise de Keroualle, a young Frenchwoman who had been one of his beloved sister Minette’s ladies. After Minette’s death, she came to court and after lot of prevarication, became his mistress. Louise was generally regarded as an agent of the King of France, and was not well liked. However Nell was popular, especially among the common people from whom she had sprung. 

Yet  in spite of her lack of likablity, Charles was deeply in love with Louise, and regarded her as a more important romance than Nelly. 

 Nell was still involved with Charles and used her sharp tongue to put down the haughty French mistress. She remarked that Louise gave herself airs and was always telling the world how many grand relations she had, so “why did she lower herself to be a courtesan?” 

She added that she had had few lovers though she was brought up in a bawdy house and "it was her profession."  She called Louise “Squintabella” because of a slight cast in her eye, and “The Weeping Willow” because of her tendency to cry. When her carriage was attacked by a mob who had mistaken it for De Keroualle’s carriage, she called out “Pray good People, be civil. I am the Protestant whore.” 

As time passed, Charles divided his attentions between a few mistresses, Hortense the Duchess of Mazarin was a favorite, he never entirely broke with Barbara Castlemaine, though their affair had ended... and he had Louise and Nelly. But in 1685, he died suddenly. Among his last words he asked his brother to “Not let poor Nelly starve”, and James II paid off Nell’s debts and gave her a pension. Her son James had died in childhood and her older son Charles had been given the title Duke of St Albans. Two years after Charles’ death, Nelly had a stroke and died, at the age of 37. She is remembered as a talented comedy actress, and a witty lively woman with a kind heart. It is said that she persuaded Charles to donate land for the Chelsea Pensioners hospital.

Mel Tillis 1932-2017

Mel Tillis was born in Tampa Florida in 1932. In the 1950’s he was in the American Air force where he started to write country music. When he left the services, he did a number of jobs and continued to write. However, he had developed a stutter as a child, when he had an attack of malaria. The stutter didn’t affect him while singing but it mean he was less likely to get work as a singer. His songs were hits for other artistes, particularly “Detroit city” which was a big hit for Bobby Bare and also for Tom Jones. Another song that was a success for another artiste was “Ruby Don’t Take your Love to Town”, which he wrote for Kenny Rogers. This is still one of Kenny’s “big songs” and has been associated with him all his life. It is about a Korean War veteran who is injured, and in a wheelchair who is begging his wife not to be unfaithful. Detroit City is also hard edged, about a southerner who (like many men from the south during the 1950s)–has had to leave his family and loved ones, to go to Detroit to look for work, and how he longs to return home. Mel’s songs did very well for other singers but he wanted to perform himself. He also was on shows like Heehaw and began, like many singers, to have an acting career. He had a turn for comedy and used his stutter as a comic device. In later years, he joined with Bobby Bare, Waylon Jennings and Jerry Reed, to form a group called the Old Dogs, who did an album about the funny side of growing older. The songs were written by comedy and writing genius Shel Silverstein. Some of the songs were about male problems, in getting old – “Lord Ain’t it hard when it ain’t” and “Too Old to cut the mustard”, and “Couch Potato” and “She’d rather be homeless”. Mel continued performing and built up a portfolio of business interests, as he grew older. He had several children, including song writer Pam Tillis. His health began to decline in the last year or so but he had a long and productive life. he passed away at the age of 85. May he rest in peace

Mel TIllis RIP

Just heard of the Death of Mel Tillis. One of his biggest hits was the song Detroit City, about a poor Southerner who goes north to Detroit to make cars and wants to come home. Mel was a great singer and song writer. RIP.

Loretta Lynn Part II

Some of her best known songs were about having a difficult husband or marriage, not schmaltzy love ballads. Loretta’s husband was not always faithful and she wrote some of her songs about fighting for her man, or telling him off for drinking and fooling around. They included “Fist City” and “You ain’t woman enough to take my Man”, and “Don’t come home a drinking, with loving on your Mind”. Other songs she wrote or sang were considered scandalous and not played on the radio. She had a wryly comic song, (“One’s on the Way”) written by Shel Silverstein, about a woman, who is stuck at home, with too many kids, a husband who is out with his buddies, and another baby on the way. She was aware of “Women’s Lib” and she wasn’t hostile to it... But she clearly felt that while well to do women were starting to have careers, and comfortable liberated lives, it wasn’t that way for working class women. There were plenty of women in America who were still a long way from “Freedom”. They still married too young, had too many pregnancies, and didn’t have careers. If they worked outside the home, it was probably in a low paid part time job. And Loretta’s songs spoke to these women. Her song “The Pill” was considered shocking and was banned on radio. But she wasn’t afraid to push the boundaries of what a woman artiste could sing about. She spoke up for women, just as Dolly Parton fought for women’s rights to be sexy and free, and not just dutiful housebound housewives. Both women were feisty and feminist, in their way. while in the 50’s women in country were often decried for being sexual, in the 60’s and 70’s, Loretta was singing about women who loved their kids but were tired at times and cross... Or who told off the women who tried to flirt with their husbands. In 1980, Loretta’s first autobiography “Coal Miner’s Daughter” became a hit film with Sissy Spacek In the lead. Tommy Lee Jones played Doolittle. She also formed a singing partnership, with Conway Twitty, and they duetted for many years.

Loretta Lynn Part I

Loretta is one of the women singers, whose career took off, in the 1960s, and who changed the image of women in country. Her life was often stormy and difficult, and yet she has had a successful career and gutsily made her way through hard times. Born in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky, in 1932, she was one of a large family of children born to Theodore “Ted” Webb, who was a coal miner and small farmer. Like Dolly Parton in Tennessee, she was born into poverty, and was never ashamed of it. It gave her material for her songs. One of Dolly’s most heart rending songs is Coat of Many Colours, where she writes about how her mother made her a coat out of rags and bits of cloth, because they couldn’t afford a new one. And how when the kids at school laughed at her coat, Dolly compared it to Joseph’s coat in the Bible. Loretta’s most famous song is Coal Miner’s daughter, about her father and mother and how they reared their family, somehow managing to find enough money to keep them and giving them love in spite of their poverty. Her father gave up mining, and moved to Indiana, where he rang a store, but he died at the age of 52 from “black lung” or “Coal workers' pneumoconiosis”. Loretta was married very young to Oliver Lynn, whom she variously called “Doolittle” or “Mooney”. He was a young working man, who had just returned from World War Two, and when she was 15 or so, they married. Doolittle worked hard, but he was rough and abusive to her, at times and he had alcohol problems. But their marriage endured until he died... Loretta later claimed that “he never hit her but she hit him twice” -. And in spite of all the storms of their life, they stayed together and she nursed him in his later illnesses. They had 6 children in all; the first ones were born when she and Doolittle were an impoverished working class couple, trying to make a living. They moved to Washington a year or so after the marriage, when she was pregnant with their first child. Three more children were born in in the next few years. She loved to sing and Doolittle believed she had talent, so he bought her a guitar and insisted that she learned to play it. In the late 1950s, she started her singing career, with Doolittle pushing and helping to manage her. Her brother played with her in a small band, and in 1960, she cut her first record. She wrote her own songs and they were inspired like Hank Williams and Audrey, by her stormy relationships with Doolittle. Her songs were about the life of impoverished rural women of the time. Women who married young, were poor, and had too many pregnancies, whose husbands were abusive or unfaithful or drank.

June Carter Cash 1929-2003

(Valerie) June Carter was born into the Carter family, in 1929…in Virginia. Her father being Ezra Carter and her mother Maybelle, who was a seminal figure in collating and recording folk and country songs. From childhood she -with her sisters Anita and Helen - was part of the Carter family act. However, she felt that her gift was for comedy rather than music, in her early years. In 1952 she married her first husband, singer Carl Smith, by whom she had a daughter, Carlene, who performed as Carlene Carter. Her second marriage was to a policeman, “Rip” Nix, by whom she had another daughter, Rosie. During her second marriage, she and her family became part of the Johnny Cash act, and June and he fell in love. Johnny was married to the mother of his four daughters, Vivien Liberto....who was reluctant to give him a divorce. He also had drug problems, which made June nervous about committing to him, though she loved him.
 One of her admirers was Elvis Presley who fell in love with her, and she later said that Johnny had been jealous of her friendship with the young rock star. June was always well liked, in the country world, as a warm hearted sincere woman. She was involved in charity work, in Nashville and in Jamaica where the family also lived. She was godmother to Hank Williams Junior. She had a strong, earthy and powerful voice, rather than a sweet or girlish one. She was fun loving and was a talented comedienne. In 1955, she decided to take some time to study acting, and she moved to New York, working under Lee Strasberg. She did take on several acting roles, in later life, often in TV movies with Johnny... as he also had a moderate career in TV movies, television and also some movies.
 In “The Last Days of Frank and Jesse James”, June played Jesse James’ Mother,.  In Dr Quinn Medicine Woman, she had a regular role as the wife of Johnny’s retired gunfighter, who moves into the town. She also played Johnny’s wife, when he played a bogus evangelist, in Little House on the Prairie. In the 1960s, she wrote a song which later became a hit for Johnny, “Ring of Fire” with her cousin and friend Merle Kilgore. It was about the passion of a forbidden love. In 1968, June finally agreed to marry Johnny, and they remained married from then until her death in 2003.
 In 1970, they had their only child, a son, John Carter Cash. Their marriage had its ups and downs, but he depended on her for support and companionship. He never fully overcame the drug and drink problems though he kept on struggling with them, with his wife’s help and also depending on his Christian faith. He also developed severe health problems as he grew older. With his tendency towards addiction, when he was ill and need pain relief, he was always in danger of becoming addicted to the pain medications. June was devoted to him, and to an extent put her own career to one side, to be there for him. She usually toured with him, and they would always perform their duet hit, Jackson, and a few other songs together. June was a talented dancer, and would sometimes perform country style dances during the act.
 As Johnny’s health grew worse, he still kept on working, as much as he could. He and June were pleased about plans for the making of the film “Ring of Fire” about their life, with Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix. June and Johnny spent more time in Jamaica, where they had a property, for him to enjoy warm weather and to relax. However, he was determined to work as long as he could even if touring was out of the question. In 2002/3 June’s health got poorer, and she had lost her two sisters, Anita and Helen, in the late 90s. In 2003, she had what was meant to be routine surgery to repair a heart valve but she died. Johnny was devastated, as he was now in very poor health and had lost the woman who had been by his side for almost 40 years.
 He missed her terribly and only survived her by 4 months. June had been working on an album, for the first time in years, which was later produced by her son John Carter (Wildwood Flower)… But her legacy isn’t just in country music. It lies in her love for her family and especially for her husband, and her warmth and kindness.

Dolly Parton Part III

In the 1970’s like many other country artistes, Dolly turned to a more “pop” sound in her songs. She made a concerted effort to have “crossover hits” and was usually high in the charts. In 1980 she began a movie career, as one of the leads in the very popular film “Nine to Five”. Her next big film was “Best Little Whorehouse in Texas” with Burt Reynolds and she began to duet with Kenny Rogers, with whom she had a good deal of chemistry. Their song “Islands in the Stream”, made it to the top of the charts. Dolly’s records still performed well, but as she grew older, like most of the singers of her generation, some record companies saw her as a back number. However, her acting, song writing and business activities kept her before the public eye and she was immensely rich. Much of her work was critically acclaimed… such as her 1987 Album, Trio, with Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris. In 1998/99, she returned to her roots with bluegrass music, and an album “Hungry Again”.
 Some years ago when she was performing in London -my partner went to see her and was very disappointed that there were such crowds, he didn’t get a chance to speak to her. But she came and apologised to the people who hadn’t had the chance...which I think was very typical of her. She was warm and approachable and worked hard for her fans. She is involved in charity work, in her native Tennessee, encouraging young girls to stay in education. Although she is now getting older, she is still lively, beautiful and sexy and full of energy…

Dolly Parton Part II

In the 1960s, Dolly had a regular slot on Porter Wagoner’s TV show as “Miss Dolly”, and this added to her growing success as an artiste. However, while she and Porter worked well together, she had always envisaged a solo career and did not want to be seen as his support act. They duetted together and were very popular. Dolly’s “sexy” image was a little unusual for country singers at the time and she was outspoken about how sex and sexiness were important to her. She often mentioned in interviews, how as a kid she had wanted to be like the local “bad woman”, because she thought that wearing make up and flashy clothes were beautiful, not tawdry or shocking.
 One of her early hits was a song called “Dumb Blonde” - and many people thought of her as being  “a dumb and pretty sexpot” –as per the image. She dressed gaudily, wore wigs and had a glitzy look which emphasized her sexuality.
But Dolly was no dumb blonde. She wasn’t highly educated, having only just finished high school. But she was intelligent and shrewd and very hard working. She loved country music but she was determined to be successful, in terms of making money as well. She showed that a woman artiste can be both a creative song writer and a smart businesswoman who could handle her finances well. And have a sexy image as well. In spite of her over the top look, curvaceous figure and flirty manner, I’ve always found that women seem to like and admire Dolly, even women who aren’t particularly into her music. She comes across as warm, lively and funny and as she’s grown older, it is very clear that she is indeed shrewd, clever and a real businesswoman.

Dolly Parton Girl Singer Part I

Dolly Parton was born in 1946 in rural Tennessee. She has been known to joke that she was the “only person who left the Smokey mountains and took them with her”, because of her large bosom. I’ve written a lot about country artists in this blog but so far, I haven’t mentioned the female ones. Women were considered of less importance in certain country circles, in its earliest days. Although Sara and Maybelle Carter of the Carter Family were two seminal figures, women were often “put down” as “girl singers” and considered to be just eye candy or at best pretty singers.
 The conservatism of country meant that women were supposed to be mothers and home makers. There are plenty of schmaltzy country songs about Motherhood! But if they stepped outside that path, to become career women or to have unconventional sex lives, they were often criticised.
 In the 1950s Kitty Wells’ song “It wasn’t God Who made honky-tonk angels” was a defence of women who were attacked for sleeping around, when men did the same thing. Dolly however is one of the most famous women in country music. In addition she has had great success with her cross- over hits in the Pop charts. She is a keen businesswoman, making a fortune from her theme Park “Dollywood”. She has also had a career as an actress.
Born just after World War Two, she came to maturity and became famous in the early 60s when roles for women were changing and she took advantage of this. She came from a poor and large family but she had a strong singing voice, and at an early age music was very important to her family. At the age of ten she was singing on local radio and TV programs. In 1964 at the age of 18, she moved to Nashville and had an initial success as a song writer. She worked with her uncle Bill Owen and her songs did well. In 1966 she married Carl Dean whom she met soon after her move to Nashville, when she was washing her clothes in a laundromat.
 Carl has always been determined to avoid publicity. He is rarely seen but he and Dolly have now been married for over 50 years, in spite of gossip about their marriage. She also began to sing, but at first was felt to be suited to light and pop type songs. Her voice, while good, was not as exceptional as many other women singers. But her heart was always in country and in the early 70s, she recorded one of her most famous and heart felt songs, Coat of Many Colours” based on a childhood incident where her family were too poor to buy her a new coat.