go honky-tonkin'

Have I told you lately that I love you --

...well darling
I'm tell - in' you now.

------------------
Can - not
get
that song
out
of
my
head.

In the film Coal Miner's Daughter, you don't hear the whole song, only part of it, so I still don't know how that awkward third line, or phrase, which seems too long -- fits in.

In the movie you hear Sissy Spacek (playing the part of real-life country singer Loretta Lynn) sing part of "Have I told you" -- in three consecutive scenes we see her learning to play her guitar and learning to sing that song -- in the first scene, on the porch by the washing machine, she picks the strings & reaches around tentatively for the notes and sings in short phrases, as she figures it out.

In the next scene she sings more smoothly, and plays the guitar well, & she sings to her four small children, interrupting herself to cry firmly, "You boys stop fighting [fatt-in'] and listen-t' me sing!"

Then in the third scene, she plays & sings like the natural genius she is yet with her trademark earnest humility, sitting casually at her kitchen table while her husband Doolittle Lynn (played by Tommy Lee Jones) applies his fit, strong, masculine talents to washing the dinner dishes.

You have a sense that she would have been the one washing those dishes while he went outside to smoke, if she hadn't been singing.  He took over some kitchen chores in order to allow her time to sing.

He turns to her and says, "Loretta, what d'you say Saturday night we get us one of them baby-sitters and -- go honky-tonkin'?"

"You mean together?"

(with a laugh), "Yeah, together."

"OK."

------------------ From that brief exchange, we picture a married life that's long on daily cares and chores & short on "date-nights."

Some people, when they saw that movie, thought Doolittle Lynn was somewhat beastly -- but I actually think he's a real good husband.  When he gives her the guitar as an anniversary present she says, "What'd you get me a guitar (gih'-tarr) for?"

"'Cause I like the way you sing."

(thinks a long moment):  "You really think I sing good?"

"Baby I know you do."

--------- And when they go to make a record of her first original song, & she struggles to get comfortable in the studio, Doolittle takes the four kids in there & turns the microphone to face them & says "I want you to sing to these babies, just like you's at home."

"You sure?"

"I'm positive."

--------------------------
"You think?"
"I know."
"You sure?"
"I'm positive."

He's a leader.

-30-