Search - Don Gibson :: The Singer -- The Songwriter: 1966-1969

Don Gibson The Singer-The Songwriter 1966-1969: The Very Be

V. A. Peek | Summerville, SC | 10/31/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I asked myself "Why am I spending this much money for a CD??" I thought I must be absolutely crazy. Well, I received it in the mail yesterday, and I no longer think I'm crazy. It is soooooooo good. I have a lot of these songs on LPs (yes, from way back when!!) but I'm getting in to this modern world (I'm afraid very late) and I wanted them on CD, and I thought this CD would be good to have. I only wish that I'd bought it years ago, if it were available. Don Gibson was my favorite singer and still is. I had a few CDs already and I play them constantly. He was originally from Shelby NC and I was from Gastonia, about 20 miles away, and I remember him from those very early years. He was only a few years older than I. It had been hard to find CDs by him until someone suggested I go on Amazon looking for them. I guess The Bear Family produced this box set. I had never heard of them before I read another review of one of their products. Thank you so much, Bear Family. The writings about Don are invaluable to me, especially since he mentioned being at a movie theater in Gastonia. (Just think, I might have sat in that same seat.) I've always wondered about his life back then. I had heard about his involvement with alcohol early on in his career, but not the drugs. Well, I have mixed emotions here: If he was on drugs/alcohol when he recorded these songs, and that's what I get from the story, then I can certainly overlook that. Not that I'm condoning them, I certainly am not. I am very uplifted and happy that he cleaned himself up. My father was an alcoholic and I grew up in a hellish home, but I don't know that Don ever sang better, before or after. And perhaps his addictions, and overcoming them, helped him in a way he couldn't have been helped otherwise. My father never overcame his alcoholism until the day he died at age 72 in 1985. I still believe that he made it to heaven because he was a good man otherwise, when he wasn't drinking. I think Don may be up there as well. Maybe they know each other by now. And maybe they both can say "Vickie loved me".

Oh but I'm getting away from my review. I've heard that alcohol and drugs can improve a person's singing voice and I don't know if that is true, but they certainly didn't hurt Don's voice as far as I can tell. I think he just got better with age. Now I can't wait to get the other box sets from '49-'60 and from '60('61?)-'66. Alas, since I am old and existing on retirement and social security, I have to wait until I can save up the money, but I will be pinching my pennies until they scream and holler. I hope they will be equally as good as this one.

The book was an unexpected joy. The photos are glorious, however, the only thing I can complain about would be that the studio musicians weren't identified on the pictures as was the other performers in the back of the book. My memory escapes me a lot and so I can't put names to them.

Well, CD #4 was a pleasant surprise. I just had to hear the very first track of it to realize that I heard those programs back then. I was living in Newport, RI at the time and my husband was away in Europe with the US Navy and those radio shows was about the only source I had for country music of any kind except from my little 45 rpm records, and I, being still very young (summer of 1958), didn't have very many, however, I had some by Don Gibson and they are still stored here at my house somewhere. Country music back then seemed to bring me closer to my husband, and something in common, while he was away on long lonely cruises with the Navy. All else I had to help with the loneliness was our brand new baby, born while he was away and whom he didn't see for 6 months.

Thank you again Bear Family and to the one who did the last interview with Don. It was wonderful. I could just hear him telling the stories. And I can understand where he got a lot of his inspiration/ideas to write his songs. From true heartbreak at times. I've heard that only a person who has experienced it can write about it.

I just recently found out that Don has passed away (when I looked him up on the internet), and I am so sad about that. My heart goes out to his wife of 36 years. God Bless You, Bobbi. I am sure you made those 36 years a much better life for him. I think that he didn't write so many sad songs after that.

My husband and I have been married for 50+ years and we've survived a lot as well. 25 years of Navy life and a year and a half of it during the Vietnam war. He was there in 1967 and 1968. And that's when I got a lot of my Don Gibson albums. The ones I'm trying to find on CD now. And a lot of those are on these CDs in this box set. They bring back such memories to me.

Thanks so much to Amazon for allowing an old woman to ramble on with this, my very glowing review of this box set. It is next to perfect. Well I did give it 5 stars and would have given it 9 and 9/10s if you'd allow me. And the other tenth is for not identifying the studio musicians above their pictures.

I recommend it to ANYONE who EVER heard of Don Gibson and his music. And even to those who didn't. You might just like some of it if not all of it."

30,000,000 and counting

V. A. Peek | Summerville, SC | 08/12/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"My title refers to how many times his "I Can't Stop Loving You" has been played. It has been recorded by over 700 singers and as of yesterday when I looked it up on the internet (Google "Don Gibson's Story") 30 million times it's been played. And factor that with minutes in a day and it being played over and over, it would take 22 years for it to be played that many times. According to Google. And I don't even think that's the best one he ever wrote. That's just how brilliant he was. So he didn't use 10-letter words. He didn't need to. His "simple" words (according to him) and picking and singing just projected geniusness. Every word was with deep feeling. In his writing, his picking, and his singing.

Oh yes, I finally got all 3 box sets and no one could pry them from me. You couldn't pay me enough to sell them. He is absolutely the most under-appreciated singer/songwriter/guitar picker ever. And self-taught. Seeing as how he decided school was boring and so in the 2nd grade (he was 8) he told his mama he wasn't going back and so he didn't. He proved himself. I'd like to know if any of his teachers (well, I guess there probably were only 2 or maybe 1 in those days) ever wrote a song or 2. I have a pretty good education and I couldn't even come up with a song title much less write lyrics for one.

He was just great. I miss him so much. I would just love to have DVD's of him performing at the Grand Ole Opry and other places. Someone, somewhere must have old film of him. They have film of other old, old people. If I had half the brain he had, I'd start right now, digging for film of him and make a DVD."