Coal Miner's Daughter
This weekend I FINALLY got around to reading Loretta Lynn's 1976 autobiography Coal Miner's Daughter. It's a wonderful book, and my favorite of the handful of country singer autobiographies I've read so far. Loretta Lynn worked with a writer named George Vecsey, and while sometimes the "as told to" autobiographies are poorly edited or just plain boring, this one is golden. Loretta Lynn's voice comes through so clearly in the text that the whole time I was reading the book I felt like I was just sitting with her on the front porch shelling beans.
There's not much dirt in this book since Loretta's just too good a person to really fling it, but she does mention the Jesus Freaks controversy with Skeeter Davis and the Olivia Newton John industry flare-up of the mid 70s.
There are some really disturbing parts--I get the impression that Loretta was working hard to make her husband and manager Doolittle sound like a man with rough edges and a heart of gold, but he comes off as a TOTAL PSYCHOTIC, especially when she describes their wedding night (she was fourteen years old and completely ignorant, so he basically assaulted her) and the time he accidentally killed a dog that wouldn't stop barking.
She also discusses some of the death threats she received (who would want to assassinate Loretta Lynn?), and notes that most of her musicians carry guns for protection. One of the major lessons you'll take away from this book is "DON'T MESS WITH LORETTA LYNN."
This was a bestseller, so it should be easy to find. A must read for country lovers, but I think anyone who likes a "in the good old days when times were bad" type story would also enjoy it. I'm totally psyched to read the follow-up autobiography she wrote in the 90s now.
There's not much dirt in this book since Loretta's just too good a person to really fling it, but she does mention the Jesus Freaks controversy with Skeeter Davis and the Olivia Newton John industry flare-up of the mid 70s.
There are some really disturbing parts--I get the impression that Loretta was working hard to make her husband and manager Doolittle sound like a man with rough edges and a heart of gold, but he comes off as a TOTAL PSYCHOTIC, especially when she describes their wedding night (she was fourteen years old and completely ignorant, so he basically assaulted her) and the time he accidentally killed a dog that wouldn't stop barking.
She also discusses some of the death threats she received (who would want to assassinate Loretta Lynn?), and notes that most of her musicians carry guns for protection. One of the major lessons you'll take away from this book is "DON'T MESS WITH LORETTA LYNN."
This was a bestseller, so it should be easy to find. A must read for country lovers, but I think anyone who likes a "in the good old days when times were bad" type story would also enjoy it. I'm totally psyched to read the follow-up autobiography she wrote in the 90s now.