Stay all night, stay a little longer, dance all night, dance a little longer, Pull off your coat, throw it in the corner, don't see why you don't stay a little longer. ('Stay All Night, Stay A Little Longer' by Bob Wills and Tommy Duncan)

Bob Wills The King of Western Swing

James Robert "Bob" Wills was born in Kosse, Texas in 1905.  Story has it that when he
was ten years old in 1915, he played the fiddle at his first dance after he was called up
to set in for his drunk dad.  He had worked at odd jobs before taking his work as a
musician serious.  He was working steady at a barber shop, when he moved to Fort
Worth, Texas.

In 1929, he got a job fiddling in a Medicine Show where he painted his face black.  He
had gotten much of the soul to his music growing up in the South where he was exposed
to the blacks working in the cotton fields of  Texas.  He was a big fan of the blues
singer Bessie Smith, and rode 50 miles on a horse to hear her sing one night.

Known now as "The King of Western Swing," he was not the inventor of the style of
music, but he no doubt perfected Western Swing and took it too the world up until 1969.
In 1933, he played with the Light Crust Doughboys.  In 1933, he left the group and moved
to Waco, Texas.  Bob Wills and The Texas Playboys became a nightly act in the Cain's
Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma and aired on KVOO.  He was a hoe-down fiddler, but his
love of the blues gave him a unique sound.  He also rounded up a group of musicians that
were all great blues and jazz players.  In 1935, he recorded for the first time.

He was inspired by Jimmie Rodgers and Emmett Miller and was well known as a great
band leader and a showman.  His blend of the music of the Southwest, Mexico, jazz,
western and country music made him a very unique musician.  Many of his songs were
great standard fiddle tunes that he added his own style.  In 1938, he recorded "San
Antonio Rose" as a instrumental, and in 1940 it was recorded with lyrics performed
by Tommy Duncan.  Throughout the '40s, his band was one of the top groups in the
country and his band was always known for the quality of the muscians of the time.

During his day Mr. Wills was seen as somewhat of a rebel or by today's standards a
music outlaw.  First, he had fiddles in his band, and in certain areas of Texas and the
country the fiddle was still considered the "Devil's Instrument."  The fiddle would get
the girls to dancing and the "swing" music of the era was frowned upon because the
girls would twirl around and their dress would come up and their petty coats would
show.  Al Strickland, who was Bob's famous piano player told me that folks would
go into a record store and buy a Bob Will's record and would carry it out in a brown
paper bag so they could hide the purchase, somewhat like one would hide a "Playboy
Magazine."

Story has it that Bob Wills was not allowed to play at the Grand Ole Opry because
he had a trap set of drum in his band, and the Opry had never allowed a set of drums
on the stage.  They called it the "pop" sound..."pop" music, or the pop sound.  After
"San Antonio Rose" sold over one million copies he was asked to play.

In 1950, he had two hits,  "Ida Red Likes the Boogie" and "Faded Love,"  which
went on to become  a country standard.  For the rest of the decade he had money and
health problems.  In 1962, Wills had a heart attack, in 1964, another hear attack
forced him out of the business for awhile and the Playboys broke up.  In 1968, he
was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.  After a massive stroke while
working on a reunion album with the help of Merle Haggard,  the stroke left him
camatose and he died May 15, 1995

In 1983, I was backstage at the State Women's Chili Cookoff in Texas, where I was a
judge.  The entertainment for the day was Bob Will's original band the Texas Playboys
and Roy Rogers' old band, The Sons of The Pioneers.  Welper,  I was in journalistic
hog heaven.  While I was setting there listen to my ole pal Al Strickland, who played
piano for Bob Wills tell stories with Dale Warren of the Sons of the Pioneers...
I thought...Oh my God, you guys started it all...Al said you know here in Texas when
folks bought a Bob Wills record the record store would put it in a bag like a "Playboy
Magazine,"  cause you know that swing music got the girls up dancing and them
petty coats would show and the girls were twrilling aboud the dance floor

There I was with the King of Swing's original band and talking with the boys that toured
the country barnstorming the nation during the forties.  Story tells it that the Grand ole
Opry would not let Bob Wills play there because he had a trap set of drums in the band,
called it the "pop" sound.  Then in 1940, his song San Antonio Rose sold a million
copies and they had to let the King of Swing take to the stage.  His old piano player,
Al Strickland, God rest his soul, told me that back in those days if you bought a Bob
Wills record they put it in a brown paper bag so you could sneak it out of the store as
if it was a Playboy Magazine or something.  Funny how times change our ways..

Some of his hits were:

Faded Love
Take Me Back to Tulsa
Lone Star Rag
Cotton-Eyed Joe
San Antonio Rose

We would love your help continuing this story...if you have any important dates or
information that helps us tell the story of the evolution of  the music and
entertainment business send them to us and we will add to KICKIN' UP DUST