In 1938, my grandfather was jailed for an eight dollar check forgery... while my grandfather was incarcerated, my grandmother lost the family home... my dad was bullied at school; classmates threw rotten fruit and stuff at him because he was different— he was quiet and he stuttered and they called him a "mama's boy"...

In 1946, my father got his first guitar, and the rest is history... he wound up in Memphis, Tennessee, where dad went to record stores that had jukeboxes and listening booths, playing old records and new releases for hours... my father was an audience member at the all-night black and white "gospel sings" downtown... Memphis Symphony Orchestra concerts at Overton Park were another favorite for my dad, along with the Metropolitan Opera...

my mother grew up in an area in Memphis called Germantown, which was right next to my father's property... people used to climb trees in my mother's yard to peer into my father's property... my mother met my father one day in January of 1962 while she was out for a walk in the neighborhood... my mother saw nothing but stars in my father's eyes, and he seduced her... it was just a one-night-stand... my father was soon on tour, and my mother realized she had become pregnant... she quickly married another man, because back in those days a pregnant single woman was a social taboo...

I was born in Memphis, at a hospital two blocks from the Mississippi River... we did not stay in Memphis for long, so I don't remember much... the man my mother married adopted me as his son, and they did not tell me the truth until I was 12 years old, living far away from my father... I sent my true father many letters, but I never heard from him, and he died about a month before I turned 15 years old, before I was old enough to visit him on my own... rest in peace, father...

love this song...

 

Didn't used to be able to stand Elvis.  I think it was growing up with those terrible movies on TV all the time.  But I find I like him more and more as time goes on.  I appreciate his music much more without all the junk that used to go along with him in the old days.

Elvis Presley - You Will Never Walk Alone (very rare)

Gerry & The Pacemakers - You'll Never Walk Alone (1963)

"You'll Never Walk Alone" had been a favourite of Gerry Marsden's since seeingCarouselgrowing up. It soon became the signature tune of Liverpool Football Club. To this day, the song remains a football anthem, there and elsewhere, a phenomenon due to Gerry Marsden, rather than its Broadway composers.

You'll Never Walk Alone Fans

Liverpool FC You'll Never Walk Alone

When you walk through a storm hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark.
At the end of a storm is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark.
Walk on through the wind,
Walk on through the rain,
Tho' your dreams be tossed and blown.
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone,
You'll never, ever walk alone.

Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone,
You'll never, ever walk alone.

Dad, it is always great to hear you sing... I love you and I miss you...