Celebrity Jukebox #80: Faron Young

I've made the argument before that certain celebrities are better known (in certain circles, at least) for the song that's named after them than for their own individual renown. I certainly discovered Faron Young through a song that took his name... though his fame (and notoriety) influenced many others, including Peanuts creator Charles Schultz who gave the name Faron to a cat in his long-running comic strip.

Iffypedia (and a number of other websites that have lifted their info straight off iffypedia) reports that: "A country song by Tex Garrison mentions Faron Young in his opening lyrics with the lines 'Got a stack of records when I was one, listened to Hank Williams and Faron Young.'" This, however, appears to be a good example of why we shouldn't believe everything we read on the interweb, since I can't find any other reference to that lyric... or the singer Tex Garrison... anywhere online. It appears to be a load of bunkum... unless you know differently.

Because country musicians love name-checking the great and good of their community, there are loads of records that do mention Faron... alongside the likes of Willie, Waylon and the rest. Here are a few examples...

Johnny Cash - Let There Be Country

Red Sovine - Freightliner Fever

Dale Watson - Nashville Rash

Tim Wilson - Acid Country

Jay Lee Webb - Tootsie's Wall

Then there's a couple than are a little more specific...

WD Miller - Barroom For A Shelter

They got a jukebox and a bar that's full of drinkers
But Faron Young's the only voice I hear
If misery loves company then why do I feel so lonely
With a broken heart as a souvenir

Summer Dean - Queen of the Clowns

The jukebox played Faron
And she started to think
If Faron Young were here
He would buy me a drink

Next, we have the Bottle Rockets, with a song all about choices...

Sometimes open sometimes closed
Sometimes young sometimes old
Sometimes begging sometimes proud

However, when they get to Faron... there doesn't appear to be any alternative.

Sometimes Faron... Faron Young.

The Bottle Rockets - Sometimes Found

But if country music isn't your thing... well, if country music isn't your thing then you're probably not reading this. Still, here's the modestly monikered One Star...

One Star - Astrolama (Faron Young Mix)

And now, the one you've all been waiting for: Paddy. But is Paddy a fan, that's the question? Well, clearly he's a country music fan, since the name "Prefab Sprout" came from mishearing the lyrics to Jackson: he really should have called his band "Peppered Sprout". But the song Faron Young isn't really about Faron. It's more about his biggest hit, Four In The Morning, and how things like that can become so ubiquitous they lose their original intent. In the song, Paddy is driving through America looking for something real, something new, something he's never experienced before... but all he finds are the clichés.

You offer infrared instead of sun
You offer bubble gum
You give me Faron Young, 
Four in the morning

Initially, Paddy had written the tune but didn't have a lyric. He asked the band's drummer, Michael Salmon, to give him a word to base the song on, and Salmon suggest "antiques". Which is why the lyric begins thus...

Antiques!
Every other sentiment's an antique
As obsolete as warships in the Baltic

Four In The Morning was a hit from 1971, yet it was still everywhere in the mid-80s... it was the first music video played on Country Music Television in 1983. So I guess it was an antique by then, and a perfect metaphor for what Paddy was saying. Perhaps Faron Young felt the same. By 1996, he felt so abandoned by the world of country music that he took his own life. 

Faron Young had the lowest chart placing of any of the singles released from Prefab Sprout's Steve McQueen album. But it's still a classic.

Postscript...

In 2016, The Blazing Zoos finally gave Four In The Morning the sequel it deserves...

It's four in the morning and I'm listening to Four In The Morning
Faron Young never sung anything quite like he sung this one
Don't string her along, Don't treat her wrong
Guilt pays you back in the end

You can see I'm past caring
Please tell me, Faron
Why am I still up at five?

The Blazing Zoos - Still Up At Five