Live Fast, Love Hard: The Faron Young Story

8. "Hello Walls," Goodbye Capitol Records

8 “Hello Walls,” Goodbye Capitol Records The false-front, violet-colored building on Nashville’s Lower Broadway still houses Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge, so named when Tootsie Bess purchased the tavern in 1960. Today’s country music fans enter from street level to buy food and liquor and listen to singers hoping for stardom. Tourists climb the stairs to the back room made famous by Opry stars and assorted musicians who hung out there in the 1960s. The rear exit opens into the alley and opposite the stage door of the Ryman Auditorium. When the Ryman housed the Grand Ole Opry, Faron and the other performers routinely crossed the alley to have a drink between shows. They wanted to escape the heat of the auditorium and the congestion caused by a lack of dressing live fast, love hard 0 rooms. Tootsie’s became a gathering spot all during the week, not just on Opry nights. Faron experienced a series of significant events in his career while Tootsie Bess worked to build her business in the early 1960s. One resulted from meeting Willie Nelson, who moved his family to Nashville in 1960 and got a job as a songwriter with Pamper Music. One day Nelson and another songwriter were working in Pamper’s sound studio, a converted garage with one window and no telephone. When his partner left to take a call, Nelson sat alone with his guitar and started talking to the walls. He grabbed a piece of cardboard and wrote “Hello Walls.”1 Nelson has described Tootsie’s as the place where he “hung out with the other broke pickers who were trying to sell songs.”2 One evening he approached Faron, who recognized him as a Texas songwriter with whom he’d had a few drinks. Nelson sang “Hello Walls,” explaining that he’d pitched it to everybody in town and no one wanted it. “I heard it,” Faron recalled, “and it just flipped me.” Then Willie sang “Congratulations,” and Faron said he would take that one, too, although he considered “Hello Walls” the better song and with greater hit potential. In addition to being almost the same age, the two men possessed a similar singing style. As Faron described it, “We sing way behind the beat and we catch up at the end.”3 Rex Allen Jr., who sang a tribute to Faron on a 1993 television show, worked hard on those tunes because Faron was such an unusual stylist. He’d be singing one bar and the band had already gone on to the next. The public remembers Faron’s style, Allen says, but doesn’t know he’s singing behind the beat. “For other singers to try to sound like him,” Allen states, “it was hard—the hardest thing I ever did.”4 Faron recorded Nelson’s two songs on January 7, 1961, at the Bradley studio in Nashville. Although Ken Nelson produced all of Faron’s Capitol records to this point and usually receives credit for this session, studio pianist Marvin Hughes was the actual producer.5 According to Faron, the studio musicians liked “Congratulations” but made fun of “Hello Walls.” They said, “‘Hello, guitar. Hello there, microphone. Hello, chair.’ Everybody was just dyin’ laughin’ because they thought this song was so stupid,” Faron recalled. “I said, ‘That’s the reason that song’s gonna be a hit, because it sticks in your mind.’” Hal Smith, the owner of Pamper Music, called to thank Faron for cutting two Pamper songs and offered “Hello Walls” for Faron’s publishing company. “I think ‘Hello Walls’ is going to be the hit side of this record,” 1 Faron said. Smith disagreed. He thought “Congratulations” would be the hit. “You just keep them both,” Faron told him. “You and Velma have always been friends of mine, and I do not want to take [them].” The songs, he thought, would help Smith’s relatively new publishing company.6 Perhaps the ability to provide assistance made Faron feel useful and important. He usually cared about helping friends and strangers in need, and he wanted the public to appreciate his good side. Money for its own sake didn’t seem to interest him. “Hello Walls” debuted on the Billboard country chart three weeks after its February 27 release and reached the top on May 8. It stayed number one for nine weeks and also charted number one with Cash...