Alvis Edgar Owens Jr. (August 12, 1929 – March 25, 2006), known professiona… Read Full Bio ↴Alvis Edgar Owens Jr. (August 12, 1929 – March 25, 2006), known professionally as Buck Owens, was an American musician, singer, songwriter, and band leader. He was the lead singer for Buck Owens and the Buckaroos, which had 21 No. 1 hits on the Billboard country music chart. He pioneered what came to be called the Bakersfield sound, named in honor of Bakersfield, California, Owens's adopted home and the city from which he drew inspiration for what he preferred to call "American music".

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.

Think Of Me
Buck Owens Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Think of me when you're lonely
Think of me when you're blue
Think of me when you're far away
For I'll be a-thinkin' of you

Remember all the good times
We shared in days gone by
Remember all the sadness

The day you said goodbye

Think of me when you're lonely
Think of me when you're blue
Think of me when you're far away
For I'll be thinkin' of you

You said that you were leavin'
But you wouldn't be gone too long
With each new day I hope and pray
That you'll come a-travelin' home

Think of me when you're lonely
Think of me when you're blue
Think of me when you're far away
For I'll be thinkin' of you

I watch the mailman comin'
I listen for the phone
I meet the trains at the station
But I spend my nights alone

But now the waitin' is over
And time has set the scene
Yes, God meant me for only you
And He meant you for me

Think of me when you're lonely
Think of me when you're blue
Think of me when you're far away

For I'll be thinkin' of you
I'll be a-thinkin' of you

Overall Meaning

In Buck Owens's song "Think of Me", the artist is pleading with their loved one to keep them in their thoughts during times of loneliness, sadness, and distance apart from one another. The lyrics are crafted in such a way that each verse serves as a reminder of the good times and the sad times shared together, with a constant reminder that even during the times when they're apart, the artist will be thinking of their loved one. The lines "I watch the mailman comin', I listen for the phone, I meet the trains at the station, but I spend my nights alone" convey desperation and anxiety over the possible lack of communication or return from their significant other. However, the song concludes with the optimistic outlook that they were meant for each other and that their love will bring them back together.

One interesting interpretation of this song is that it represents the cultural shift of the time it was written in the 1960s, from the previous decades' focus on a lover's physical attributes or possessions to a more emotional connection, "Think of Me" being a plea to keep a lover's emotional connection alive, rather than just their physical presence. Also, the song was written in the context of the emergence of the Bakersfield Sound, a sub-genre of country music that focused on the electric guitar, bass, and drums rather than traditional country instruments such as the fiddle.

Line by Line Meaning

Think of me when you're lonely
Remember me and our love when you feel alone.

Think of me when you're blue
When you're feeling sad or down, recall my love for you.

Think of me when you're far away
Even though we're not together, remain in my thoughts and heart.

For I'll be a-thinkin' of you
I'll keep you close to me in my mind and heart at all times.

Remember all the good times
Recall the happy memories we shared together in the past.

We shared in days gone by
We enjoyed our time together in the past.

Remember all the sadness
Don't forget the pain and grief of our separation.

The day you said goodbye
The moment we parted ways was a difficult one.

You said that you were leavin'
You told me you were going away.

But you wouldn't be gone too long
You promised you wouldn't be away for very long.

With each new day I hope and pray
Every day, I have faith that you'll come back to me.