Patsy Cline by Patsy Cline
by Lana Fleischli
It’s that time of year! Instead of sunny beaches, we cozy up in front of the fire. Instead of tank tops, we wear coats-- well for most people at least. I mean I live in California, so I can technically do all of those opposing things at the same time, but I like to fool myself and pretend that it isn’t 78 degrees out. Anyway, what I’m getting at is that the holidays are just around the corner! Even though this time of year is often really hard, music helps me still have that child-like view of what the holidays are: gifts and family and coziness; as opposed to work, and the end of the year, and seasonal depression.
I have always loved the holidays, and I do enjoy holiday music, but also just old music in general that gives me the holiday music feel. That’s how I feel about Patsy Cline. Her voice makes me think of a time long before my own. It is enchanting and reminds me of the holidays. I listened to her album named after her, Patsy Cline. In her song “That Wonderful Someone,” everything from the backup “Oohs” and “Ahhs” to her powerful voice just feels comforting. She had a true talent as an artist.
As I kept listening to the album, I noticed how each song was about (what I’m assuming is) a different guy. The stories range from saying how amazing he is, to knowing that she is just one of the many. At first, I didn’t think much of this, but then I realized how badass it is. A woman in the fifties called out a bunch of dudes. Then I did some research about her and learned that according to Midwest Today, her first husband tried to keep her from being a performer and asked her to stop, but she didn’t!
In her song “Too Many Secrets,” where she calls out a guy for keeping “too many secrets” about his old flames. There’s even some girl power in there! “I didn't want to listen. But. As she told me more. I learned more about you. Than I'd ever known before.” She trusts the woman who spoke to her and believed when she told her all the red flags about Patsy’s beau. However, going back to just calling people out, she decides to be one step ahead of this guy and she knows that she is probably one of his secrets too, so she calls him out-- very publicly in a song.
On the other hand, in her songs like “I Don’t Wanta” she is incredibly vulnerable (and I know I say that a lot, but that’s because good music is vulnerable). She pours out her feelings to a point that might embarrass a lot of people, but she does it with class. She is known as a country singer, which surprises me, but that comes through in this song in the backup vocals.
I was attracted to Patsy Cline’s music because of her talent and flare that goes into it, but after listening to it and learning about how cool she was to go against her husbands wishes to pursue her dreams in the 1950’s, and call out men that screwed her over, I have a new outlook on why her music is great. She was a trailblazer in combining pop and country in the 20th century. She died when she was 30 in a plane crash, but was able to accomplish so much in her lifetime.