Heard this nice little song on XM and went to youtubewhen I got back to the PC a listened to it again. I even posted it on Facebook as a nice little find. Then I wiki’d him and that linked to a true crime story and … Holey Moley! You couldn’t make this stuff up. I deleted my Facebook post recommending the song as fast as I could.
The quote you included in the text of your post didn’t include the stuff that makes him possibly the most despicable human being to ever attain stardom (well, in the past century or so, anyway).
It’s in the link. The text of what is did is so graphic it borders on sociopathic torture porn and I didn’t want that out there up front.
I think you might at least say he beat his wife to death and went to prison. (The full text of what he did doesn’t seem all that graphic to me but I guess I’ve read too much crime fiction and non-fiction.) And I’m not sure you have to delete all of his music just because he had a bad end.
F’ing Roy Rogers. Some friend he was.
“Spade Cooley”? Is that a real name? Two racial epithets in one name?
Sounds like the name of a boogey man you’d see in a KKK pamphlet. “Spade Cooley” is moving into our neighborhoods! Don’t let “Spade Cooley” near your children!
I know it was before my time, and I’m not a big true crime reader, but reading that article is like reading science fiction. How come I never heard of this guy? Are they making this up out of whole cloth? Like, is this a joke article? It’s a weird feeling.
I haven’t read the article, but I know the story behind it. I can assure you that Spade Cooley was quite real, and enormously popular in his day. Cooley was his real last name; I’m not sure where the nickname came from.
That you haven’t heard of him may not be that surprising. While most everyone, even if they weren’t alive at the time, knows who Glenn Miller or Benny Goodman were, if you weren’t from the South or the West you pretty much lived in ignorance of entertainers who came out of the country tradition — even though these artists sold millions of records and had enormously successful careers. (It should be added that they had musicians in their bands who were easily the equal of players in the better-known big-band and jazz outfits.) They’re sort of the red-headed stepchildren of America’s popular music history.
The link says it came from a poker game in which he filled a spade straight-flush three times in one night.
The link seems to clearly imply that Roy Rogers’ involvement is dubious.
I am a huge fan of old country and Western swing. Spade Cooley did some good music. But yeah, he was a creep. Lots of good entertainers are evil bastards. Bastard coated bastards with bastard filling. You have to decide at some point if enough time has passed to be able to seperate the entertainment from reality. Spade Cooley is dead. Whatever punishment he had coming to him, he’s roasting in it now. The music is still here. Choice of conscience, I guess.
I love the bit about Ronald Reagan at the end. I hope it’s not polemic of me to mention it-- I mean, it did happen, and it seems like the perfect ending to that sordid story.
I’ve heard the name before, but I never knew he torture-murdered his wife. Reagan was a giant scumbag for granting him a pardon.
In general, the fact that an artist was a creep doesn’t prevent me from enjoying their art. But it seems that I have limits. Cooley wasn’t a creep, he was a monster, and I find that that fact dominates my feelings towards the experience of listening to his music. It’s kind of a visceral thing.
He didn’t grant Cooley a pardon.
Cooley was declared eligible for parole - but never was paroled. He died after a performance given during a 3-day furlough, some 3 months before his parole was due to begin.
I hadn’t heard Detour in decades. It was one of the songs my mother and sister used to sing in the car when I was a kid.
I had no idea! I only knew the gentleman from a song that Dr. Demento would occasionally play. It was called “Chew Tobacco Rag” and he credited it to “Spade Cooley and his Fiddlin’ Friends.” Knowing Dr. D., I doubt that he was unaware of Cooley’s sordid story, but he never mentioned it.