Garth Brooks megalomaniac?

Give in to the Garth. No shame in it at all.

 

I saw Garth in 95 in Birmingham. Three nights sold out. You'd think Jesus Christ had walked into a room of Evangelicals. That man was over big back then. I saw other big shows at the time, like Clint Black, Travis Tritt, Brooks & Dunn, George Strait, but none of them came close to Garth's level of fandom. You had to be there to get it, whipper snapper.

 

That's the stat I remember, him competing with Elvis for top-selling solo artist. And that's about all I know about Garth Brooks, though I suppose I now have heard two songs by him, "Friends in Low Places" and "The Dance." That's enough for me. Neither was familiar in the least.

For perspective, I have not heard of any of these people. I assume they are well known. I grew up in a city. The country artists I had even heard of by, say, 2003 were Brooks, Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Hank Williams Jr., Faith Hill, Shania Twain, the Dixie Chicks, Tim McGraw, Toby Keith, Kenny Chesney, Reba McEntire and Wilco, whom I didn't realize counted as country.

Of that group, I still can't name a song by Chesney or McEntire and probably only know one song each by Williams Jr. (Monday Night Football theme), Hill (Sunday Night Football theme) and McGraw ("Over and Over" because of Nelly). I only knew "Wide Open Spaces" by the Dixie Chicks until we had that thread. I exposed myself to Cash and Williams in my teens because they were considered so important to music history. I still enjoy some of Cash's stuff, mostly the slower and darker songs, but can't get into Williams.

I guess my point in the context of this thread is that it's much easier to put a block on an entire genre of music than it is to ignore a major actor acting in major movies and winning major awards.

 

Maybe it's because I grew up in the South, but I'm kind of blown away at your admission, Verse. From 1990 to 1995 or so, he was a huge crossover star. He had a one-hour NBC special a week before the Super Bowl. He had an HBO special at Central Park. He was on the cover of "Time." He was on the cover of "Rolling Stone." 68 million(!) records sold.

"The Dance" was (is) played at tens of thousands of proms and homecomings, although maybe that was just where I'm from. The

gained new life on the Internet after 9/11. (This was pre-YouTube, of course.)

I've heard "Friends in Low Places" at sporting events for the last 20 years. (Playing high school baseball, that was one of our go-to postgame bus ride singalongs after a big road victory. Yes, I said I'm from the South.) Shit, I just heard it between innings at a Diamondbacks game on Friday night.

 

I grew up on Garth, still my favourite. My goal in life is to see him live. Pissed me off, the year I finally moved away from Alberta, he comes out of semi-retirement to play the 100th anniversary of the Calgary Stampede. What made it worse was reading Facebook statuses of friends who didn't give a rats ass about Garth Brooks bragging about being at the show.

 

Still one of my favourites. Will probably be played at my funeral when the time comes.

Right there, though, is The Change, Standing outside the fire -- listened to that song before every game of hockey I played growing up -- If Tomorrow Never Comes, We Shall Be Free, Shameless, Ireland . . . shit I could go on and on.

He had hit after hit after hit in the 90s. My understanding is he is supposedly going to be coming out of retirement once his daughters are finished high school. God I hope it's true. I have little to no interest in going to Vegas to watch him play.

 

I'm not surprised that people haven't listened to any Garth, because he had a different kind of fame. I don't think Garth has much of a historical impact or will be remembered outside of country, other than the sheer volume of albums sold and the cash he made. He was the right musical act at the right place in the right time. Even if he comes out of retirement, he doesn't touch those heights again.

And the others I mentioned aside from Strait won't be remembered in an important, historical context like Cash, Williams, or even Willie Nelson, but they were the top grossers of that mid-90s era along with Garth, and his numbers put them to shame. They were big, but he was massive.

 

His Wikipedia says he has a bachelor's and an MBA from Oklahoma State. And how in the hell was he ever a track athlete? Onetime bouncer, I'll buy.

 

He was actually on a track scholarship for javelin. Then he became the fat man in a hat.

And Verse, I think you may be surprised how Garth will be remembered by history. If/when he comes out of retirement, it will be huge, and he will sellout football stadiums again. He may never reach the heights he once was at, but neither will the Stones or U2 or any other historically big act. He was the shit, and one of the few acts that successfully crossed over from the country charts into the mainstream for a long, sustained period of time. He, more than anybody, is responsible for the boom that "New Country" went through in the 90s, some may say for the worse, but he was still better than anyone out there. He was an entertainer almost above anything else -- taking his cues from bands like Kiss and and other rock bands -- and his music was just damn good. He found a way to really meld country and rock successfully and it worked. There were many people who tried to ride on his coattails, but no one managed to replicate him or his success. He also dealt with a lot of topics beyond a broken heart, a broken truck and a dead dog.

 

Yes, there was rodeo, too.

 

. . . and spurs and latigo.

 

As a dyed in the wool Garth honk about 20 years ago (still have my black hat upstairs that I had steamed to match his), I have to think Brooks will be well remembered in music history.