Maybe you’ve heard about it, but if you haven’t heard about it from a time traveler, then maybe you aren’t paying close enough attention. You see, when a time traveler tells you something, there is always a wink and a nod… like… I don’t know… like maybe you should pay attention. He can’t say too much because of the time cops, but… Anyway, Johnny Manchild is going to be playing a concert in Brownwood at the Lyric Theater on December 17th. Buy tickets now.
https://www.brownwoodlyrictheatre.com/tickets.html
In the spring of 1955, a young Elvis Presley came and did a concert at the Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Hall in Brownwood, Texas. It was his third concert that day. There is a long story I intend to tell someday about that day, and about another up-and-coming Sun Records rockabilly recording artist from Coleman named Dean Beard (who had a popular record called Rakin’ and Scrapin’) who drove to Brownwood to see his label-mate’s concert. The two young stars drove back to Coleman and hung out that night and cruised around town. Two of the members of Beard’s band would one day be super-famous on their own – Seals and Crofts. They later had some huge hits as a folk duo in the 60s and 70s. Those two guys were probably there too that night. Experiencing the Summer Breeze blowing through the jasmine of their minds. But, that night was bout Elvis and Dean Beard hanging out. Two young stars, cruising around Coleman, making a ruckus, talking about the future.
At that moment and on that night, they were just two kids with stars in their eyes, visions of money and fame, with some singles getting airplay, and the future ahead of them. That night turned out to be one of those nights, starting with the gloaming… electric in it’s potential, a movie we’d all like to see. From that night their careers went in opposite directions, like a fork in the road and you could go either way, but on that night the panorama of potential futures was vast. Can you imagine it?
What would it have been like to be there in Brownwood that night? If you could time travel, would you go? Just to see it? Just to breathe it in? It was a small venue, an intimate crowd of fans. Brownwood was known for being a very conservative town and the Elvis concerts were pretty risqué for the time. Degenerate, some said. But it happened. Some say Elvis had his pink Cadillac there that night, but others say he couldn’t have – because it burned down in May, and he didn’t get another one until a few weeks later in July. Some folks in Coleman say they remember the pink Cadillac convertible driving around town. When I write the story, I’ll tell you what really happened.
The point is that sometimes and somewhere in time there is a nexus of things that means something really cool is going on and only a few will experience it. I’m going to tell the story of the night of the Elvis Presley Brownwood concert someday because it was something to see.
Anyway, not for nuthin’, you should go right now and get tickets to see Johnny Manchild on December 17th. Perhaps you’ll see something cool that is worth seeing. I plan on being there. Go get tickets now:
https://www.brownwoodlyrictheatre.com/tickets.html
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Michael Bunker is a local columnist for BrownwoodNews.com whose columns appear periodically on the website.
