Final Word: Emmylou stays true all these years

I have been in love with Emmylou Harris longer than I care to remember. Decades. Since the '70s.

• 

  By Suzy Parker, USA TODAY

  
  

By Suzy Parker, USA TODAY

Unlike other loves, she has never disappointed me, she has never left me, she has never let me down.

Not once.

I'll confess I fell for her name first. Emmylou. How could you not fall in love with a gal named Emmylou?

And then, somewhere long ago, I heard her voice. In a dorm room perhaps, or maybe it was in my spartan first apartment, where my only other company was James Taylor.

I always thought the two would make the perfect couple, but I'm glad that never happened. I would have been green with jealousy. Her country-folk, her bluegrass, her honky-tonk ways were all mine.

• 
  

  GALLERY: Photos of his lady love

  
  

Although she has evolved as an artist over the years — as all good artists do — I'm happy to report her voice remains as distinctive as ever. I'm not sure how to describe it. The New York Times' Jon Pareles called it "slender but tangy and determined" the other day.

That sounds about right to me.

I might add a tad melancholy, too, which matched perfectly with my confusing post-college years.

Harris' newest album, Hard Bargain, was released last week and, like all her others, will take a place of honor on my living room shelf.

And its songs, the majority written by Harris, will soon become part of my Emmylou Harris repertoire.

Like many of you, I'm sure, I sing along with my favorite artists. Only when alone, of course. I don't need to be in the shower. I sing when I'm doing the dishes. I sing when I'm ironing. I sing when I'm making the bed.

You would not confuse my voice for Emmylou's, which is always in the background actually carrying the tune. The Trio album she made with Linda Ronstadt and Dolly Parton becomes a quartet at our house. Lucky girls, I know. Lucky me.

Our dinner guests are accustomed to sitting through the two-CD Emmylou Harris Anthology, which covers her formative years from 1975 to 1990. If I Needed You with Don Williams, One of These Days, Save the Last Dance for Me.

I always have and always will.

Every now and then my partner, Jack, will suggest we mix it up a bit, perhaps have someone other than Emmylou serenade us during cocktail hour. But why would we do that, I ask?

Emmylou, with her glorious silver hair, just turned 64. I'll be 62 in October.

It's not too late to get together.

You know. Maybe make a little music.

E-mail cwilson@usatoday.com.

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Archie, teen angst and 70 years of sexual subtext

The modern concept of the teenager — that awkward stage between clueless happiness and scowling Miss Grundy — began at midcentury with Andy Hardy movies, the Baby Boomers and the comics' Archie Andrews.

• 
  
  

  Archie has eyes for Veronica, and Betty has eyes only for Archie, throughout Archie: A Celebration of America's Favorite Teenagers by Craig Yoe.

Archie has eyes for Veronica, and Betty has eyes only for Archie, throughout Archie: A Celebration of America's Favorite Teenagers by Craig Yoe.

Now, 70 years after he was introduced, comes Archie: A Celebration of America's Favorite Teenagers (IDW Publishing, 224 pp., $49.99), a tell-all history of the creation and durability of not only Archie but of Betty, Veronica, Jughead, Reggie and Moose.

"Archie was everyman," says author and comic historian Craig Yoe. "Or everyman's fantasy, anyway, having two gorgeous girls — one blonde, one brunette — hotly vying for his affections."

That sexual subtext — "Betty or Veronica?" is a common fanboy question — runs throughout Archie's history, up to the recent "imaginary" story lines in which Archie marries Veronica in one story, and Betty in the next.

"The breast size and cleavage factor of Betty and Veronica changed through the years," Yoe says. "I wasn't able to precisely correlate the rising and the falling of these matters to the stock market or I'd be a wealthy man instead of a cartoonist and comics historian.

"But there's no denying that there is indeed a teen sexual subtext to the stories and art. I instinctively knew this when I read Archie as an adolescent. This sizzle helps sell the steak, I'm sure."

Yoe's hardcover history includes rare covers, unpublished and sometimes racy artwork and Archie Comics co-founder John Goldwater's never-before-printed autobiography.

"I would reverse the common wisdom," Goldwater says of his inspiration for Archie in the 1940s. "Instead of 'boy chasing girl,' I would have the girl chasing the boy — and usually not getting him. Eureka!"

The origins of Archie's pals and gals has sometimes been disputed, but Yoe concludes that "Goldwater had the beginning of the idea," later fleshed out by artist Bob Montana and writer Vic Bloom in Pep Comics #22 in December 1941. Archie Comics #1 followed soon after.

Many of Archie's creators modeled characters on high school friends and relatives.

"There's even a picture Montana drew of himself with a broad grin, a gap between his teeth, checkered orange pants and a bow tie — just like the first years of Archie," Yoe says.

The decades that followed found Archie reflecting every teenage fad and fantasy, from Elvis to The Beatles, disco and cellphones.

"Today Archie is putting references to Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga in their stories," Yoe says. "And the beat goes on."

Posted | Updated

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View the original article here

Archie, teen angst and 70 years of sexual subtext

The modern concept of the teenager — that awkward stage between clueless happiness and scowling Miss Grundy — began at midcentury with Andy Hardy movies, the Baby Boomers and the comics' Archie Andrews.

• 
  
  

  Archie has eyes for Veronica, and Betty has eyes only for Archie, throughout Archie: A Celebration of America's Favorite Teenagers by Craig Yoe.

Archie has eyes for Veronica, and Betty has eyes only for Archie, throughout Archie: A Celebration of America's Favorite Teenagers by Craig Yoe.

Now, 70 years after he was introduced, comes Archie: A Celebration of America's Favorite Teenagers (IDW Publishing, 224 pp., $49.99), a tell-all history of the creation and durability of not only Archie but of Betty, Veronica, Jughead, Reggie and Moose.

"Archie was everyman," says author and comic historian Craig Yoe. "Or everyman's fantasy, anyway, having two gorgeous girls — one blonde, one brunette — hotly vying for his affections."

That sexual subtext — "Betty or Veronica?" is a common fanboy question — runs throughout Archie's history, up to the recent "imaginary" story lines in which Archie marries Veronica in one story, and Betty in the next.

"The breast size and cleavage factor of Betty and Veronica changed through the years," Yoe says. "I wasn't able to precisely correlate the rising and the falling of these matters to the stock market or I'd be a wealthy man instead of a cartoonist and comics historian.

"But there's no denying that there is indeed a teen sexual subtext to the stories and art. I instinctively knew this when I read Archie as an adolescent. This sizzle helps sell the steak, I'm sure."

Yoe's hardcover history includes rare covers, unpublished and sometimes racy artwork and Archie Comics co-founder John Goldwater's never-before-printed autobiography.

"I would reverse the common wisdom," Goldwater says of his inspiration for Archie in the 1940s. "Instead of 'boy chasing girl,' I would have the girl chasing the boy — and usually not getting him. Eureka!"

The origins of Archie's pals and gals has sometimes been disputed, but Yoe concludes that "Goldwater had the beginning of the idea," later fleshed out by artist Bob Montana and writer Vic Bloom in Pep Comics #22 in December 1941. Archie Comics #1 followed soon after.

Many of Archie's creators modeled characters on high school friends and relatives.

"There's even a picture Montana drew of himself with a broad grin, a gap between his teeth, checkered orange pants and a bow tie — just like the first years of Archie," Yoe says.

The decades that followed found Archie reflecting every teenage fad and fantasy, from Elvis to The Beatles, disco and cellphones.

"Today Archie is putting references to Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga in their stories," Yoe says. "And the beat goes on."

Posted | Updated

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Final Word: Emmylou stays true all these years

I have been in love with Emmylou Harris longer than I care to remember. Decades. Since the '70s.

• 

  By Suzy Parker, USA TODAY

  
  

By Suzy Parker, USA TODAY

Unlike other loves, she has never disappointed me, she has never left me, she has never let me down.

Not once.

I'll confess I fell for her name first. Emmylou. How could you not fall in love with a gal named Emmylou?

And then, somewhere long ago, I heard her voice. In a dorm room perhaps, or maybe it was in my spartan first apartment, where my only other company was James Taylor.

I always thought the two would make the perfect couple, but I'm glad that never happened. I would have been green with jealousy. Her country-folk, her bluegrass, her honky-tonk ways were all mine.

• 
  

  GALLERY: Photos of his lady love

  
  

Although she has evolved as an artist over the years — as all good artists do — I'm happy to report her voice remains as distinctive as ever. I'm not sure how to describe it. The New York Times' Jon Pareles called it "slender but tangy and determined" the other day.

That sounds about right to me.

I might add a tad melancholy, too, which matched perfectly with my confusing post-college years.

Harris' newest album, Hard Bargain, was released last week and, like all her others, will take a place of honor on my living room shelf.

And its songs, the majority written by Harris, will soon become part of my Emmylou Harris repertoire.

Like many of you, I'm sure, I sing along with my favorite artists. Only when alone, of course. I don't need to be in the shower. I sing when I'm doing the dishes. I sing when I'm ironing. I sing when I'm making the bed.

You would not confuse my voice for Emmylou's, which is always in the background actually carrying the tune. The Trio album she made with Linda Ronstadt and Dolly Parton becomes a quartet at our house. Lucky girls, I know. Lucky me.

Our dinner guests are accustomed to sitting through the two-CD Emmylou Harris Anthology, which covers her formative years from 1975 to 1990. If I Needed You with Don Williams, One of These Days, Save the Last Dance for Me.

I always have and always will.

Every now and then my partner, Jack, will suggest we mix it up a bit, perhaps have someone other than Emmylou serenade us during cocktail hour. But why would we do that, I ask?

Emmylou, with her glorious silver hair, just turned 64. I'll be 62 in October.

It's not too late to get together.

You know. Maybe make a little music.

E-mail cwilson@usatoday.com.

Posted | Updated

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