Roy Clark

A childhood memory surfaced to the front of my consciousness this week when I heard that entertainer Roy Clark passed away.   The memory was the first time I heard his version of Yesterday When I Was Young.  I was in the back of my father’s station wagon returning home from the Spectrum (Philadelphia) where my parents had taken us to see the Barnum & Bailey Circus.  I remember this day well, because I think it was the only time my parents took us out of school to do something together.

Anyway, I remember hearing the deejay say “Here is something new from Roy Clark.”  This would place the event somewhere around May 1969. I remember that the words resonated within me as I listened to them coming from the car speakers.

This is strange because I was not yet 10 years old and yet I could relate to a song regretting a lost youth and living empty life.  Wow!  Talk about being sensitive…

I remember seeing Clark perform on television.  He had just started hosting CBS’s rural focused answer to Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In. They called it Hee Haw.  It was a variety show with short skits, blackouts and lots of musical interludes by the top artists in the country and western genre.  I remember Dad reminiscing about seeing Clark perform when Dad was stationed in New Orleans some years before.

I think this performance of Yesterday is from Hee Haw.

Yet Clark’s was widely respected as a guitar virtuoso.  I think this performance of Malaguena shows Clark in top form.