Vintage Rock – September-October 2019

WANDA JACKSON

DIDN’T APPEAR ON

THE GRAND OLE

OPRY AGAIN

UNTIL 2011

a writer of No.1 hits, plus American Idol

contestant and Sugarland hit-maker Vanessa

Olivarez, one result was the composition

Treat Me Like A Lady. This song alone sums

up Wanda’s enduring persona as an artist.

She was encouraged by parents who said

that it was “fi ne to be different” but at the

same time to “always be a lady”. Which

meant no suggestive onstage antics and

heeding her father’s sage advice “to keep

my legs together while performing”. It’s a

philosophy that’s stuck fast and since earned

the feminine fi rebrand the title “the sweet

lady with the nasty voice”.

One-off Wanda’s signature sound was

undeniably wild and raw, evidenced by

kick-ass rocking numbers such as Mean,

Mean Man, Let’s Have A Party, Riot In Cell

Block No.9, Funnel Of Love, Rock Your Baby,

and Fujiyama Mama. Prior to her rocking

breakout, she wanted to be the “Marilyn

Monroe of country”. First to break the

staid, so-called “gingham barrier”, she was

soon lauded as the “fi rst female sex symbol

of country”. Famously after her initial

appearance on 26 March, 1955, she didn’t

appear on the Grand Ole Opry again until

2011 (with ex-White Stripes singer Jack

White). The 56-year impasse followed an

exchange with show host Ernest Tubb pre-

performance. He asked her to get dressed

for her spot. She said she was dressed – in

a strappy cocktail number. Bare shoulders

considered a no-no, she had to appear

with a costume covered by a jacket. Like

Elvis she felt out of her element there. In

an-all-too often conservative music genre,

her style combined much-needed vocal grit

and visual glamour: high hair and heels and

winsome fringed wiggle dresses. Also like

Elvis, she was ahead of her time in terms

of race relations. She naturally promoted

integration at a tense time of racial

segregation in the US south. By 1957, she

Wanda Jackson

hired as her backing band Bobby Poe And

The Poe Kats, which featured talented black

piano player ‘Big’ Al Downing. Up till then,

outside of jazz, it was unusual for black and

white musicians to mix.

HAVING MOVED HOME from

Oklahoma to California, only child Wanda

grew up on the liberal West Coast. She was

greatly impacted by the Saturday night

dances her doting parents took her along

to. At the Venice and Santa Monica Pier

ballrooms, she recalls seeing Bob Wills And

His Texas Playboys, Tex Williams, Spade

Cooley and his band, plus The Maddox

Brothers featuring Rose – an early infl uence.

Apart from country singer Patsy Montana,

there was no discernible rootsy ‘girl singer’

template for her to follow. Taught guitar by

her father and playing small events on her

church circuit, she was soon encouraged

to enter talent contests and won a slot on

KLPR radio.

Aged 14, Wanda’s fi rst professional

performance took place with her country

music idol Hank Thompson along with The

Brazos Valley Boys, at the Trianon Ballroom,

Oklahoma City. A stint soon ensued with

western swing bandleader Merl Lindsay and

his band The Oklahoma Night Riders. With

this ‘country music college’ education, the

fast learner graduated from there, and, she

said, “fl ew by the seat of my pants”. In 1953,

she cut her fi rst demo, the ballad Heartbreak

Wanda Jackson, the

so-called “sweet lady

with the nasty voice”

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