A satisfied mind
Porter Wagoner died on Sunday in Nashville at the age of 80. He had an illustrious career as a country western performer. In addition to his fabled partnership with Dolly Parton, Wagoner was a talented songwriter and performer in his own right. The colorful New York Times obituary recalls the dissolution of his partnership with Parton:
After Ms. Parton left his show in 1974, there were lawsuits and countersuits between the two in a six-year legal tangle over business interests that produced not a few tabloid headlines. One reported that Mr. Wagoner’s wife had found him and Ms. Parton in bed and had shot both.The measured Allmusic profile of Wagoner says of his songs:“There wasn’t nothing to that,” Mr. Wagoner told The Tennessean in 2000 (“with a wink,” the newspaper said). “She didn’t even hit Dolly.”
As for his music, since signing with RCA in 1952 he has produced a wealth of superb hard country, and just as much of the most wretchedly oversentimentalized tripe you'll ever want to hear. The latter, of course, is half the reason he's loved.Tom Spaulding recalls a few of the highlights from Wagoner's catalogue, my favorite of which is "A Satisfied Mind" (above). The Byrds gave it a beautiful ride on "Turn! Turn! Turn!" in 1966. It's a song Wagoner wrote before he hit 30, and it contributed to Wagoner's own worldly success that is otherwise disparaged by the singer of that song. In the last verse the singer contemplates his death:
When my life is ended, my time has run outRIP.
My trials and my loved ones, I'll leave them no doubt
But one thing's for certain, when it comes my time
I'll leave this old world with a satisfied mind.
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