I just found out dude passed away. He was a hell of a songwriter, singer, all around character. Elvis got him his first real gig, then he covered "Little Less Conversation", which Mac has written for Aretha Franklin (how cool would that have been?)...then "In The Ghetto"..... I was always partial to my drunken karaoke versions of "Hard to Be Humble" at the Court Club in Sharpstown, personally.
Mac Davis died? We keep losing people. He used to be on TV a lot, recorded his own music, wrote a lot of songs for others, like Elvis. Another guy from Lubbock. Rest In Peace.
I was just fifteen and out of control lost to James Dean and rock and roll I knew down deep in my country soul that I had to get away Hollywood was a lady in red who danced in my dreams as I tossed in bed I knew I?d wind up in jail or dead if I have to stay I thought happiness was Lubbock Texas in my rearview mirror My mama kept calling me home but I just did not want to hear her And the vision was getting clearer in my dream So I let out one night in June stoned on the glow of the Texas moon Humming an old Buddy Holly tune called Peggy Sue (pretty, pretty Peggy Sue) With my favorite jeans and a cheap guitar I ran off chasing a distant star If Buddy Holly could make it that far then I figured I could too I thought happiness was Lubbock Texas in my rearview mirror My mama kept calling me home but I just did not want to hear her And the vision was getting clearer in my dream But the Hollywood moon didn't smile the same old smile that I?d grown up with The lady in red just wanted my last dime And I cried myself to sleep at night too dumb to run too scared to fight And too proud to admit it at the time So I got me some gigs on Saturday night not much more than orchestrated fights I?d come home drunk and I tried to write but the words came out all wrong Hell bent and bound for a wasted youth too much gin and not enough vermouth And no one to teach me to seek the truth before I put an end to this song I still thought happiness was Lubbock Texas in my rearview mirror My mama kept calling me home but I just could not, would not hear her And the vision was getting clearer in my dream Well I thank God each and every day for giving me the music and the words to say I?d never had made it any other way he was my only friend Now I sleep a little better each night and when I look in the mirror in the morning light The man I see was both wrong and right he's going home again I guessed happiness was Lubbock Texas in my rearview mirror But now happiness was Lubbock Texas growing nearer and dearer And the vision was getting clearer in my dream And I think I finally know just what it means And when I die you can bury me in Lubbock Texas in my jeans
I have a memory of being very young and going to the rodeo at the dome with my family on a night whenMac Davis preformed. The entire stadium was singing "It's Hard to be Humble".
I got a text from a friend about this the other day. I remember him from when I was a kid. I used to sing parts of "It's Hard to Be Humble" as a kid during my country phase, and my parents, being fairly new immigrants, thought I had lost my mind. I didn't know he sang that until I got that text from my friend saying he had died. I always liked "Baby Don't Get Hooked on Me". I also didn't know he had written "In the Ghetto" for Elvis. He was still writing stuff recently for modern artists like Avicii, Weezer, and Bruno Mars. That's incredible. Helen Reddy also died that same day, I think. Or the same friend texted me that she did.
