Grand Ole Opry: Porter Wagoner's 50th Anniversary

friday night at 9 8 central duncan patty loveless dolly parton and porter wagoner celebrating 50 years at the opry on grand ole opry live please give a big brand delivery live welcome to your host for the evening opry star marty stewart and his fabulous superlatives [Music] yes sir all right welcome to grand ole opry live hi there everybody i'm your host nan kelly tonight is a very special opry as we celebrate the music and influence of one of the greatest living legends in country music dolly parton patty loveless and marty stewart who opened our show for us are all here to pay tribute to him on his 50th anniversary as a member of the grand ole opry well it was 50 years ago in 1957 the space race's headlines with the soviet union's launch of sputnik american bandstand is a hit on network tv with the new host dick clark and a young man from missouri with really flashy suits is a new cast member of the grand ole opry and he is here tonight we are honoring him you all say hello to the one and only the legendary porter wagoner hello porter hello great to see you sir thank you good morning you are being honored here tonight how does it feel to be a guest on the front row and watching this show well it's a wonderful wonderful feeling i've never had this feeling before and it's terrific and then all of my family is here with me to celebrate this evening and it's a wonderful time would you like to say hello to your family and introduce us to them absolutely my this is my sister and uh lorraine is her name hello everybody and uh and who else do you have with you porter and uh my son richard hello richard he's the rock of our family hello my other daughter deborah and uh my other daughter denise it works for bass pro shops i'm i'm so proud to have all of them here tonight and god bless them for coming we are glad to have your family here would you you have been one of the most popular hosts in television today would you kindly do us the favor and introduce our host on the grand ole opry stage absolutely he's one of the finest men i've ever known in my life marty stewart hey honored to be with you welcome welcome to the grand ole opry ladies and gentlemen thank you hello up there way up there we're coming to you live and direct from the grand ole opry house tonight it's such a special evening to be with the wagga master 50 years of grand ole opry with mr porter wagner and to kick it off we have one of the finest country singers on planet earth i love this lady how about a hand for the great patty loveless it's so good to be here especially tonight for porter wagner i love you darling and uh i recall you doing this song and then i recall you and dolly doing it together as well and uh they're for you if teardrops were [Music] oh i'd offer to you a solid gold mansion an airplane or two this whole world would be yours to have and the whole the teardrops were pennies and heartaches were gold teardrops were pinning [Music] [Applause] i'd have all the treasures my pockets would hold i'd be all so wealthy with treasures untold if teardrops were pennies and heartaches were [Music] [Laughter] gold the tears that have fallen won't buy you a thing the heart that you've caused me [Music] teardrops were pennies and [Music] i'd have all the treasures my pockets [Music] and heartaches were gone if teardrops were pinnies [Music] [Applause] dolly parton is just minutes away but coming next the opry spotlight shines on the storied career of porter wagoner so come on back for more on grand ole opry welcome back to the opry well marty stewart describes porter wagoner as one of the cornerstones of american music and even though he's a strict country purist his influence stretches far and wide with artists like bob dylan and the flying burrito book brothers covering his songs even marty recorded a satisfied mind and here he is now hey porter so far so good all right welcome back ladies and gentlemen you're watching the grand ole opry in case you've just tuned in and the grand ole opry has been on the air now for 80 years and for 50 of those years yes please and for 50 of those years the music of porter wagner has been entertaining millions of opry fans listening or watching at home in 1957 the big invention was the transistor radio anybody remember that you could listen to the opry virtually anywhere but think about it today we have television satellite radio and the internet and porter wagner has covered them all and he is vital and relevant as ever and tonight as we say yes that's good too come on and so cute sparkle sparkle sparkle tonight as we celebrate your golden anniversary porter we want to shine the operative spotlight on your stellar career please watch this right up here y'all come porter wagoner knows how to give an invitation [Music] one of country music's most dazzling ambassadors porter joined the grand ole opry in 1957. porter is an icon when i was a child i was totally amazed by his glitz i was the first person to wear him with rhinestones and all the glitter from his signature suits to his heartfelt songs the green green grass the great wagon master proved the power of television in 1960 when he launched the porter wagoner show the show created new stars and established porter as country music's consummate entertainer one of the highlights of my career was getting to be on the port wagner show still after all these years he still got the fire and the love for the music and for the business porter's passion burns even brighter and a new cutting edge album i think it's the best album i've ever done produced by friend and fellow opry star marty stewart wagon master makes the boldest statement of porter's career and my days are kind of foggy and my nights are dreamy too it just tells the story about parkview and i love the song because uh johnny cash wrote it they're committed to park view with a place in the country music hall of fame the wagon master is truly a living legend we have a love for each other that's just very special congratulations porter wagoner on 50 memorable years as a member of the grand ole opry ladies and gentlemen on behalf of all the wagon masters past present future how about a hand from mr buck trent [Applause] but stampede [Music] gotta buy a book finds it couldn't find you thank you buck trent stampede ladies and gentlemen would you please make welcome the general manager of the grand ole opry mr pete fisher hello pete great glad to be here well thank you for being here uh for such a special night for all of us at the grand ole opry folks i want to take a moment before we bring our man of honor up on stage this evening i want to express my sincere appreciation for all of the time and talent that marty stewart has dedicated to porter wagner's career with this new record wagon master milo great now it's my pleasure to bring up on stage the man of the evening ladies and gentlemen please welcome mr porter wagner porter porter porter it's truly an honor to be able to celebrate this special occasion with you tonight uh 50 years as an opera member is an amazing accomplishment you know beyond all that sparkle is truly a man with enormous talent and passion and and a real love for the grand ole opry in country music not only does he expect excellence of himself but he does have others and he's made us all do what we do a lot better porter thank you very much and on behalf of the grand ole opry we would like to present to you this gold pocket watch circa 1881 for you to to mark this special occasion with a little bit of time so uh time has been good to you and uh we wish you all the best with uh everything that is coming your way in the future and on behalf of all of the members and the staff here at the grand ole opry and all of the country music community thank you for all that you have done for us porter wagner pete thank you very much and i've really enjoyed my being here all these years and thanks to my wonderful family for being here tonight and i love you all thank you well well well come here come here give me an arm it's saturday night and the grand old opry square dancers want to dance for you so we're going to get earl and charlie and all the superlatives and buck and they're going to play you tune all right we've got to get out of the way they're going to run over us ladies and gentlemen the grand ole opry square dancers [Music] do [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] don't go away the one and only dolly parton returns to the opry stage to perform several of her biggest hits on grand ole opry welcome back to grand ole opry live well in our opry spotlight we got a peek at porter wagner's dressing room so i thought it'd be cool to bring you backstage and you could see for yourself this is an amazing place if these walls could talk all these great pictures and look here's one with uh dolly parton and porter no doubt from the tv show days that's super well from the porter wagner show and the grammys and the cma awards porter and dolly will always be remembered as one of the greatest duet partners in country music history she is here tonight so let's hurry and get back to the stage for the one and only dolly parton the prettiest song bird from the smoky mountains how about a hand for miss dolly pardon [Applause] [Music] that sounds good [Music] jolene darling please don't take him just because you can your beauty is beyond compare with flaming locks of auburn hair with ivory skin and eyes of embroidery your smile is like a breath of spring your voice is soft like summer rain but i cannot compete with you jolene but he talks about you in his sleep there's nothing i can do to keep from crying when he calls your name totally oh but i can easily understand how you could easily take my man but you don't know what it means to me jolene jolene jolene jolene oh i'm jolene of you please don't take my man told him darling [Music] please don't take him just because [Music] now you could have your choice of men i could never love again cause he's the only one for me told me i had to have this talk with you my happiness depends on you and whatever you decided [Music] to [Music] don't take don't take him just because you can't you shameless fuzzy jolly get us out of here oh thank you so much wow what an honor to be here thank you and especially for porter wagner in the 50th year on the grand old opry we're all proud of you and i'm especially proud of you and i'll do this next song for you i know this was always one of your favorites it's a song i pulled the tag off of one of porter's cleaning tags off of one of his rhinestone suits and wrote this on his bus right after i started with him way back when back in what was his 60s yeah and like right after well it was a 66 67 i started with porter and it was about that time that i wrote the code of many colors you remember that one so this is where i wrote it and that's on your tag at the dolly museum up in hollywood you wanna do the code we'll do this to all the special mamas out [Music] i there wandering once again back to the seasons of my youth and i recall a boxer eggs someone gave us and how my mama put the rags to use now there were ranks of many colors but every piece was small and i didn't have a coat and it was way down in the fall mama sewed the wrecks together so i never pieced with love she made my coat of many colors that i was so proud of while mama's so she told a story from the bible she had read about a coat of many colors joseph wore and then she said i hope this coat will bring you good luck and happiness and i just couldn't wait to wear it and mama blessed it with the kiss my coat of many colors that my mama made for me made only from wrecks but i wore it so proudly and although we had no money i was rich as i could be in my coat of many colors mama made for me so it patches on my britches holding both my shoes in my coat of many colors well i hurried off to school just to find the others laughing and making fun of me in my coat of many colors mama made for me and oh i couldn't understand that cause i felt i was rich and i told him of the love mama sold in every stitch i even told them all the story mama told me while she sewed and why my coat of many colors was worth more than all their clothes they didn't understand it and i tried to make them see one is only poor only if they choose to be it's true we had no money but i was rich as i could be in my coat of many colors mama made for me cause she made it just for me florida wagoner joins marty stewart and his fabulous superlatives on the opry stage and there's a surprise reunion still ahead so stay tuned to grand ole opry live where are we right thank you what an impressive night here at the grand ole opry 50 years with porter wagoner ladies and gentlemen please say hello again to marty stewart our host and the legendary mr porter wagoner come on over here porter we have heard some classic porter songs tonight we've heard some classic porter tunes but marty i understand you and porter have a brand new record tell us about wagon master wagon master is an awesome brand new country record coming out on june the 5th on a punk rock label porter is the newest rock star around here and we got him with great country music a lot of great songs well i understand too speaking of songs johnny cash wrote one on the record what's the interesting story behind committed to parkview johnny cass gave me this song in 1983 to get to porter and i forgot to give it to him and last year when we were putting this record together i went to my warehouse and found it and i drove up to porter's door last july i knocked on the door and said johnny cash said give this to you how was the video shoot was it fun it was it was i think it's real good big i think you're going to show some of it tonight all righty hey would you guys perform uh some music from the record for us now we are all right everybody the record is out june 5th it's called wagon master please welcome again to the stage marty stewart and the legendary porter wagoner [Music] porters and meat how in the world can the poor man eat [Music] meals up high cotton down low how in the world can you raise the door take me back lord take me back take me back to my home [Music] uncle sam's got the money and they can't get it back [Music] it's got the barber roll oh well if it don't turn around it's gone to hell take me back take me back take me back to my old carolina home [Music] no fish in the pond no worms in the ground talking bird singing and he ain't made a sound taking me back taking me back take me back to my old carolina [Music] take me back to my old carolina home [Music] um [Music] how in the world can the poor man eat [Applause] here's a song i wrote i hope you all will enjoy it it's titled i found the man it is on a sunday morning when i found him he was standing all alone staring into space he looked like a man that had lived a hard life and the herd of it showed on his face hunger for food showed through his loose clothes that you could tell were once tailored to pit and a distant look was in his eyes as though we'd just seen hell's fiery pits when i first spoke to him [Music] it seemed like he didn't hear the sound and i thought he might be deaf but then he turned around [Music] acted like he wanted to say something but couldn't speak i took him by the arm said would you like to talk to me and his younger voice so shaky soft and low said you look like an old friend of mine [Music] someone from long long ago then i said there's a little place not too far away from here where they sing and pray and they say that god will answer prayers but i can't seem to find it by myself would you walk with me over there and as we walk toward the church house which stop along the way just listen to the church bells ring out god's holy day and when we walked into that sacred place i felt i was all alone with god but my friend had gone away then when i knelt to pray it was all so plain to see that the friend i'd been talking to was my own soul inside of me and for the first time i found myself inside with god's helping hand the master of the universe thank you for finding this man all right okay [Applause] thank you all so much please make welcome the beautiful lady that i've introduced so many times that but i always love to introduce her because she's a beautiful lady and one of my best friends today please make her welcome again miss dolly miss dolly pardon [Applause] [Music] good to see you you want to sing something special we did a long time ago i'd love to we wanted we won an award with this yeah we did and uh let's get this pad my girlfriend to see you fatty lovers just someone i used to know is that one yeah that's the one yeah i didn't see you sticking that behind me there there's a picture that i carry [Music] who's in the picture with me someone i used to know just someone [Music] [Applause] just lost [Music] [Applause] [Music] i [Music] long ago i don't tell them how lost i am without you i say [Music] i used to know [Music] hello the entire cast joins dolly parton for an historic moment on the opry stage and a closing tribute to porter wagoner don't miss a moment of grand ole opry live and welcome back was that not incredible porter wagoner and dolly parton reunited once again on the opry stage now dolly porter and the entire cast have another song to close out the show but we want to take one more opportunity to thank porter for 50 fabulous years at the grand ole opry he's been the greatest showman on the longest running radio show in history and we're so proud to bring it to you right here on gac let's go back to the stage for our closing number with dolly parton and the gang good night everybody ladies and gentlemen it's been a wonderful show this evening congratulations porter thank you patty thank you buck thank you supporters fred and miss dolly there's no way in the world that would we could close this show without this song no exactly right i think this is something we'd all like to say to porter but it hadn't been porter i wouldn't have written this song this was kind of my goodbye song to porter and he just wouldn't get away so he's here now anyway this is a song that means a great deal to me and we all love you porter and if i should stay well i would only be in your way so i'll go but i know i'll think of you each step of the way and i will [Music] love you [Music] i guess that's all i'll be taking with me goodbye please now don't you cry cause we both know that i'm not what you need [Music] love you let's let marty play one [Music] oh love you and i hope life treats you real kind and i hope you've had all you've ever dreamed of oh and i do wish you joy i wish you lots and lots of happiness but above all this i wish [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Music] i will always love [Music] congratulations you get up now i'm done hollering at you i got it from porter wagoner and marty thank you and everybody you

Channel: benjichilders

Views: 64,035

Rating: 4.7358942 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: Hl-4HCZho-E

Length: 41min 38sec (2498 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 28 2020