| Willie Nelson |
| I wrote this for IPS (Information Problem Solving) and made a 200 (which in normal scoring land it is a 100) |
| I know that Willie Nelson is an old, country music legend. He is a Texan who writes songs and is wonderful at playing the guitar. People listened to him in the �60's and mainly in the �70's. He has many famous songs and CDs. I know that Willie is a co-founder of Farm Aid, which helps farmers who have many problems involving their crops. It raises money by holding a concert with many famous musicians and the money goes to the farmers. I am also aware that Willie Nelson once had problems with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). I am a country music fan, and Willie Nelson is a country music legend. I read a little about him once while browsing the Internet and looking through a magazine, and I just thought that he would make an interesting research paper topic. I know lots of his songs, most of which I like. He is old, so he was born before 1970. He is the only country music legend that I like. The search was long, and I had to give it everything I had. In the school library, there were no books on Willie Nelson. Fortunately, the ----- Public Library had many books to use. Numerous books focused on either how great he is or how he became so famous. I wanted his attitudes toward things, which I only found one example of that, and his music, like how the ideas came for writing songs. One book that I found very helpful was Willie: An Autobiography, which had different angles on several events. Unfortunately, I did not have time to read the whole book, but I did get a good look at his childhood. One down about the book was that they printed it in 1988, which was before his problems with the IRS. Knowing how he reacted to it would have been interesting. Luckily, another book answered that for me. That book was Fifty Years Down a Country Road. The writer, who is a close friend to Willie Nelson, called Waylon Jennings to ask how Willie was doing. Waylon said he was fine. Willie does not care about his belongings being auctioned off. "That's not what he's about." On April 30, 1933 in Abbot, Texas, Willie Hugh Nelson was brought into this world. Raised by his grandparents, young Willie learned the ways of music. His family was extremely musical on both sides, so they pushed him to perform and play music. He got his first real guitar when he was six. When he was seven, his grandpa died. Following the manner in which they raised him, Willie Nelson started to write sad, country songs about betrayal. He wasn't only influencedby his grandparents, but also by western swing, honky-tonk, New Orleans jazz, and the polka music he played in the John Raycheck Band. After graduating from high school, Willie joined the Air Force (later having a discharge for a back problem), married and had two kids. In 1957, he recorded his first single, "No Place for Me," promoting and selling it over the radio. His third child, a son named Billy, was born a year later. Living in Houston, he started to sell songs to support his family, many songs came from thoughts, experiences, and even a joke. Willie sold his first song, which became a number one country hit. He later sold another song, "Night Life," which is one of the most recorded songs ever. Willie, however, did not get any money from the royalties though. Willie Nelson then moved to Nashville to sell songs and to make it big time. By 1961, many of his songs were recorded and became hits. Willie himself began to record his songs, but had little luck because of his unusual voice and phrasing. He finally recorded two songs, "Willingly" and "Touch Me," with singer Shirley Collie, making the Top 10 List. He became more intimate with Shirley and married her after both divorced their previous spouses in 1963. The Nashville record companies signed Willie Nelson throughout the 1960's mainly for his song writing gift. "They grudgingly allowed me to sing as long as they could cover up my voice with horns and strings," he declared in his autobiography. By 1969, his wife, Shirley, found out that Willie had had a child with another woman named Connie Koepke. Shirley and Willie split up, and Koepke and child moved into the Nashville farm that he bought with Shirley, marrying in 1971. He later moved to Austin, Texas since his recording career was going nowhere. Around that time, Austin was considered the home of the "outlaws"-- country singers who could never fit into the smooth sound and style of Nashville. In the 1970's, Willie began to wear the long hair and beard, bandanna headband, jeans, and running shoes � the look he is still using today. In 1973, he released an album that outsold all of the others combined, called Shotgun Willie. Also in that year, Willie Nelson was inducted into Nashville's Songwriters Hall of Fame. In 1974, he signed with Columbia records, giving him complete control of his recordings. In 1975, he released the album Red-Headed Stranger and it became a huge hit. A single from that, "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain," written by Fred Rose, won him his first Grammy! He started to sell records like crazy by 1976, becoming gold and platinum albums.In 1978, Willie released Stardust, an album of pop music standards. He, of course, sang everything in his unique style and it sold more than four million copies. In 1979, he started to act in many films. For one of the movies, Honeysuckle Rose, he wrote a song called, "On the Road Again." It was Number One on the country charts and a Top 20 pop hit. It also became his "unofficial theme song." He kept on putting out successful singles and albums during the 1980's, touring the U.S.A. and overseas. On July 13, 1985, Willie Nelson and other musicians were doing the We Are The World, a benefit to help the starving people of Ethiopia. All of a sudden, Bob Dylan blurts out, "Wouldn't it be great if we did something for our own farmers in America?" Willie, John Mellancamp, and Neil Young got together and developed a way for them, as musicians, to raise money for farmers -- a concert! James Thompson, governor of Illinois, heard about their idea and asked if he could help. He offered the football stadium at one of the University of Illinois campuses in Champagne. Finally, on September 22, 1985, the first Farm Aid concert was held in Champagne, Illinois. It has been going on for years now. By the end of the 1980's, Willie Nelson's marriage with Connie broke up and he had two children with Anne-Marie D'Angelo, marrying her in 1991. In case you have not noticed, he has not had much luck with marriage, which he admits that. He said that it was probably because he's away from home so much, that the temptations are huge. In the end of 1990, the IRS seized his property to pay off a $16.7 million tax lien. His property was auctioned off and he also released an album, Who'll Buy My Memories: The IRS Tapes, to pay his debts. For his sixtieth birthday, the IRS reduced the tax bill from $16.7 million to $9 million. From 1993 to 1995 he payed the remaining $3 million. On Christmas of 1991, Billy, his son, was found dead. He had committed suicide by hanging himself. He was reported to have alcohol problems and depended on his allowance to live by. "I've never experienced anything so devastating in my life," he told a friend. I have learned many things from this paper. Willie Nelson has been through so much, but he kept on going. You would think someone as great as him would have been discovered and made famous before 1975. It goes to show that if you try and never give up, you will achieve your goals and dreams. |