While the Buckaroos originally featured a fiddle and retained pedal steel guitar into the 1970s, their sound on records and onstage was always more stripped-down and elemental. The band's signature style was based on simple story lines, infectious choruses, a twangy electric guitar, an insistent rhythm supplied by a prominent drum track, and high, two-part vocal harmonies featuring Owens and his guitarist Don Rich.
From 1969 to 1986, Owens co-hosted the popular CBS television variety show Hee Haw with Roy Clark (syndicated beginning in 1971). According to his son Buddy Alan (Owens), the accidental 1974 death of Rich, his best friend, devastated him for years and impacted his creative efforts until he performed with Dwight Yoakam in 1988.
Owens is a member of both the Country Music Hall of Fame and Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
Owens was born on a farm in Sherman, Texas, United States, to Alvis Edgar Owens Sr. and Maicie Azel (née Ellington) Owens.
In the biography About Buck., Rich Kienzle writes: "'Buck' was a donkey on the Owens farm." "When Alvis Jr. was three or four years old, he walked into the house and announced that his name also was "Buck." That was fine with the family, and the boy's name became "Buck" from then on."He attended public school for grades 1–3 in Garland, Texas.
Owens' family moved to Mesa, Arizona, in 1937 during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression. While attending school in Arizona, Owens found that while he disliked formal schoolwork, he could often satisfy class requirements by singing or performing in school plays. A self-taught musician and singer, Owens became proficient on guitar, mandolin, horns, and drums. When he obtained his first electric steel guitar, he taught himself to play it after his father adapted an old radio into an amplifier. Owens quit school in the ninth grade in order to help work on his father's farm and pursue a music career.
Owens had three sons: Buddy Alan (who charted several hits as a Capitol recording artist in the early 1970s and appeared with his father numerous times on Hee Haw), Johnny, and Michael Owens.
Owens successfully recovered from oral cancer in the early 1990s, but had additional health problems near the end of the 1990s and the early 2000s, including pneumonia and a minor stroke in 2004. These health problems had forced him to curtail his regular weekly performances with the Buckaroos at his Crystal Palace. Owens died in his sleep of an apparent heart attack at his ranch just north of Bakersfield on March 25, 2006, only hours after performing at his club. He was 76 years old.
Owens was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996. He was ranked No. 12 in CMT's 40 Greatest Men of Country Music in 2003. In addition, CMT also ranked the Buckaroos No. 2 in the network's 20 Greatest Bands in 2005. He was also inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
The stretch of US Highway 82 in Sherman, Texas, is named the Buck Owens Freeway in his honor.
Close Up The Honky Tonks
Buck Owens Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
She's dancing where the music's loud and lights're low
In a crowded bar she likes to hang around
And as long as there's a honky tonk she'll never settle down
So close up the honky tonks lock all the doors
Don't let the one I love go there anymore
Close up the honky tonks throw away the key
Then maybe the one I love will come back to me
I wish I had the power to turn back the time
And live again the hours when she was all mine
But it hurts to see her running with that crowd downtown
And as long as there's a honky tonk she'll never settle down
So close up the honky tonks...
The lyrics of Buck Owens's song Close Up The Honky Tonks are about a man who is missing someone he loves who he thinks is in a honky tonk. He knows that this woman loves hanging out at crowded, noisy bars with loud music and dim lights. He laments that as long as there are honky tonks around, she will never settle down with him, and begs for the honky tonks to be closed so she won't keep going there. He wishes he could turn back time and have her all to himself again. But instead of bemoaning his situation, he decides to take action and pleads for the honky tonks to be closed so that the one he loves will return to him.
At its core, Close Up The Honky Tonks is a classic country song about lost love and the seedy side of life. It paints a picture of a woman who is running wild in the city, living it up in the honky tonks and never settling down. The honky tonks are a symbol of her freedom and independence, as well as her escape from the constraints of society. The man in the song is hoping that by closing up the honky tonks, he can somehow bring this woman back to him, but as the lyrics suggest, it's not likely to happen anytime soon.
Line by Line Meaning
She's in some honky tonk tonight I know
I am aware that she is in a honky tonk tonight
She's dancing where the music's loud and lights're low
She is dancing in a place where the music is loud and the lighting is dim
In a crowded bar she likes to hang around
She enjoys spending time in a busy bar
And as long as there's a honky tonk she'll never settle down
As long as there are honky tonks, she will never be content with settling down
So close up the honky tonks lock all the doors
Close the honky tonks and secure all the doors
Don't let the one I love go there anymore
Do not permit the person I love to go there anymore
Close up the honky tonks throw away the key
Shut down and eliminate any possibility of reopening the honky tonks
Then maybe the one I love will come back to me
Perhaps the person I love will return to me
I wish I had the power to turn back the time
I desire the ability to travel back in time
And live again the hours when she was all mine
To experience once again the time when she was exclusively mine
But it hurts to see her running with that crowd downtown
It pains me to see her running with the group downtown
Lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: JOE C SIMPSON, C SIMPSON JOE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Punk
I'd love for this sound to come back to country music!!! It's missed so much!!!
Trey Stewart
I agree with my grandparents raised me on the classic country and I'm goin to play!
David Preston
Hello Sarah, how're you doing, I hope you are doing fine. I'm David from Houston, Texas. Where are you from? You seems like a real Country girl😊🌹
Bruce Boyer
Check out Elijah Ocean.
William Warren Conkright
Its on bands playlist but hard times now. Cant find bass or drummer. Plans to be a producer and bring in bands real country sounds but people are brokeb who is going to concerts... Young people starting into classics now is a good sign. God bless
Dad Nelson
@William Warren Conkright Sly County Revelers from Alberta are keeping the classic sound alive. ..as with other real country acts , just gotta dig em out
Charles
This the real country sound. Given way to some awful pop noise. Love this sound. Bring it back. 💖🎸🙏🎶
Norman Coulman
I totally agree Charles!
Kathy Yithmog
I wish I have the power to turn back the time....I love everything about this guy. His songs n music's is perfect.
Adrian Goede
Don Rich’s high harmony vocals were nothing short of awesome on all their songs. Especially on Loves Gonna Live Here. Pure gold.