Jimmy Swan
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James Eldon Swan(November 18, 1912 – 29 October 1995) was an Americancountry musician[1][2][3]and later, a segregationist political candidate.
Early life
[edit]Birth and childhood
[edit]James Edgar Swan was born on November 18, 1912, in the Sand Hill area ofCullman County,Alabama.After his father left the family, Swan moved with his mother toBirminghamin 1922.[4]
Marriage and musical firsts
[edit]At age 15, he won a talent show at an Alabama radio station, but didn't make anything of it at first. He married at age 17 with Grace Armour, abeauty queen,and quickly had three children, Charles, Wanda, and Randy, and was unable to put together a band until the beginning of the 1940s, due to him having to provide for his family.[1]
Later in his musical career he metHank Locklin,and hadHank Williamsplay with him at various venues across Mississippi and Louisiana.
Move to Mississippi
[edit]Musical career
[edit]He moved toHattiesburg, Mississippi,and worked in local radio as well as thehonky tonkcircuit. Disappointed with the drunken, violent lifestyle of honky tonk bars, he quit music to become adisc jockeyin 1948, returning only in 1952 after an offer fromTrumpet Records.Swan saw success with "I Had a Dream" and "The Last Letter", the latter a tribute to Hank Williams, who had died in 1953.
He signed withMGM Recordsand was groomed to be a successor act to Hank Williams, but he chafed at the more pop-oriented music the label wanted him to record in favor of a morehillbilly musicsound. Still one of Swan's biggest nationwide hits was his hillbilly-country single "Good and Lonesome" written by his partner Bobby Enlow a Chet Atkins style guitarist and songwriter from Foxworth, Mississippi.
The song Good and Lonesome was written by Enlow for his sweetheart and future wife Billie Jean Kennedy who lived a few counties over inMagnolia, Mississippi.Bobby Enlow recorded into the 1960s but quickly fell from national view after suffering a broken neck in an automobile accident that left him paralyzed for six months. After that Enlow did regain his musical talent but not his desire to play music seven nights a week. The end of the wildly popular Swann/Enlow partnership was coming to an end.
In 1966, Swan was more concerned with his radio station inHattiesburg,WBKH, than about his singing.[1]
Swan's first issue on CD was withBear Family Recordsin 1993.
Politics
[edit]Swan also fell from the national stage and in Swan's later life, he retired from music completely and went intopolitics,running forsheriffof Hattiesburg and then running for the Democratic primary forgovernor of Mississippiin1967and1971,which he both lost.
Democratic primary for Governor of Mississippi
[edit]1967 election
[edit]In 1967, he ran in the Democratic primary for the governorship of Mississippi on aWhite supremacyplatform, wearing a white suit to stress his political program.[5]His campaign bodyguard Pat Massengale was a member of the Knights of the Green Forrest, aKu Klux Klanorganization.[6]
He supported school segregation and the creation of “FREE, private, SEGREGATED SCHOOLS for every white child in the State of Mississippi" in the first twelve months of his term, or else he would resign and publicly apologize, and called to save Mississippi "from the moral degeneracy of total mass integration thatWashingtonhas decreed for our children this fall ", when schools were to be integrated by theHEW.[7][8]
He supported White supremacy, telling that granting equality to theAfrican Americanswas to make savagery the equal of civilization.[7]About the urban riots of this year, he described them as a part of a "Communist-inspired revolution", promising to use extreme force if such riots occurred in Mississippi.[9]
He managed to attract segregationists who disagreed with howRoss Barnettmanaged theOle Miss riot of 1962,finding him too moderate.[7]
Finally, he called to "put the Bible, prayer and patriotism back in the schools.[5]"
He finished third, with 18.18% of the vote.
1971 election
[edit]Swan ran for the Democratic nomination for governor on a segregationist platform, the lone one alongside JudgeMarshall Perryof Grenada.[10]
Although he somewhat tried to soften his rhetoric, he still praisedTheodore Bilbo,brandishing in public his bookTake Your Choice: Separation Or Mongrelization.[11][12]
Personal life
[edit]![[icon]](/translate/en.wikipedia.org?u=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FFile%3AWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg&t=hv){kind=small} | This section is empty.You can help byadding to it.(July 2019) |
Discography
[edit]| Year | Title | Record label |
|---|---|---|
| 1952 | Juke Joint Mama / I Had A Dream | Trumpet Records |
| 1952 | Triflin’ On Me / I Love You Too Much | Trumpet Records |
| 1953 | The Last Letter / The Little Church | MGM Records |
| 1953 | Losers Weepers / Mark Of Shame | Trumpet Records |
| 1954 | Lonesome Daddy Blues / One More Time | Trumpet Records |
| 1955 | Frost On My Roof / It’s Your Turn To Cry | MGM Records |
| 1956 | Hey, Baby Baby/Why Did You Change Your Mind? | MGM Records |
| 1956 | Country Cattin’/The Way That You’re Living | MGM Records |
| 1957 | Lonesome Man / Good and Lonesome | MGM Records |
| 1960 | No One Loves A Broken Heart / Don’t Conceal Your Wedding Ring | Decca Records |
| 1965 | Honky Tonkin’ / I Love You Too Much | JB Records |
| 1965 | Rattlesnake Daddy / It Takes A Lonesome Man | JB Records |
| 1966 | Walkin’ My Dog / Asleep In The Deep | JB Records |
| 1968 | Good and Lonesome / Why Did You Change Your Mind? | Big Howdy Records |
Notes and references
[edit]- ^abc"Jimmy Swan," Honky Tonkin' in Mississippi "".bopping.2009-11-22.Retrieved2019-06-16.
- ^"mus-coh_swanj_Transcript.pdf | Digital Collections at The University of Southern Mississippi".digitalcollections.usm.edu.Archived fromthe originalon 2019-06-16.Retrieved2019-06-16.
- ^"Jimmy Swan - Library of Congress".id.loc.gov.Retrieved28 December2021.
- ^Ryan 2004,p. 79.
- ^abMcCain, William David (2008).The Journal of Mississippi History.Mississippi historical society. p. 386.
- ^Newton, Michael (2009-12-21).The Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi: A History.McFarland. p. 174.ISBN9780786457045.
- ^abcJ., B. (August 8, 1967)."The Mississippi Election Today".The Harvard Crimson.Retrieved2019-05-23.
- ^Hawkins, James K. (2010-03-11).A Case Study of the Educational Reform Efforts of Former Mississippi Governor William F. Winter.Universal-Publishers. p. 50.ISBN9781599423111.
- ^Wilkie, Curtis (2002-05-16).Dixie: A Personal Osyssey Through Historic Events That Shaped the Modern South.Simon and Schuster. p. 170.ISBN9780743226042.
- ^Reed, Roy (1971-08-05)."Mississippi Rebuffs Anti-Negro Politics".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.Retrieved2019-06-16.
- ^Reed, Roy (1971-08-04)."Moderate Leads in Mississippi Race for Governor".The New York Times.ISSN0362-4331.Retrieved2019-06-16.
- ^Billington, Monroe Lee (1975).The political South in the twentieth century.Scribner. pp.128.ISBN9780684139869.
jimmy swan 1971 bilbo.
Works cited
[edit]- Ryan, Marc (2004).Trumpet Records.University of Mississippi Press.ISBN9781617035258.
See also
[edit]| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Artists | |
- 1912 births
- 1995 deaths
- American country singer-songwriters
- MGM Records artists
- Decca Records artists
- 20th-century American singer-songwriters
- Musicians from Birmingham, Alabama
- People from Hattiesburg, Mississippi
- Country musicians from Alabama
- Country musicians from Mississippi
- Mississippi Democrats
- American segregationists
- Trumpet Records artists
- Singer-songwriters from Alabama
- Singer-songwriters from Mississippi