Jack and the Giant: Is gifted c&w singer Greene with envy? (Stephen_Murray's Minnesota Write-Off)
Written: Feb 07 '04 (Updated Feb 08 '04)
Product Rating:
Pros: terrific country and western music
Cons: The album's rip-off title is a shame. Minnesota's favorite son deserves better.
The Bottom Line: Jack Greene created an album that deserves its lasting popularity. The theft in the title highlights the Jolly Green Giant's tough row to hoe, hoe, hoe.
eplovejoy's Full Review: The Jolly Green Giant by Jack Greene
His hearty "Ho, Ho, Ho" hides heartache.
Oh sure, it might seem that the Jolly Green Giant has a most satisfying life. He is, after all, the embodiment of what many women and some men say they want: tall, dark (very) and handsome.
His fame is international. ( www.greengiant.com/world.asp ) Giant consistently ranks with Ronald McDonald and Pillsbury's Poppinfresh among the most recognized figures in advertising.
Further, Giant's business acumen is well-known. After he was born in 1925 as a property of the Minnesota Valley Canning Company, it took him only 25 years to seize control and make it the Green Giant Company. ( www.greengiant.com/history.htm ) That self-referential move caused quite a stir at the time, although more egocentric moguls have since trumped it. A misunderstanding of Forbes magazine's description of Giant's financial genius as "legendary" led the historical society in his home state to label him mythological. ( http://www.mnhs.org/places/other/roadside/images/myjggbe.html )
And more than a half-century of public scrutiny has not brought Giant the troubles that the spotlight has inflicted on many other celebrities. The worst that the beloved advocate of eating vitamin-rich vegetables has had to endure are some whisperings that perhaps his skin, which was white early in his life, reflects a dangerous chlorophyll addiction. Giant's image could be tarnished if his youthful ward, Little Green Sprout, follows through with a proposed tell-all autobiography (Is That an Asparagus Spear in Your Loincloth, or Are You Just Happy to See Me?; www.tvacres.com/admascots_jolly.htm ), but the big guy simply laughs off that potential threat: "Am I like Bruce Wayne? No, No, No."
A close look shows that the love of Giant's life is an Amazon who broke his heart. His suffering was compounded when her dumping him was documented in a song by the pop band The Kingsmen. ( www.tvacres.com/admascots_jolly.htm ) The callous warrior of legend told Giant, "I can't see goin' with a big green kook."
Compared to the agony of hearing those words once in person and again and again on radio, the occasional misappropriation of his good name means little to Giant. For example, it does not bother him that U.S. Air Force personnel attached his monicker to rescue helicopters in the Vietnam war. ( www.jollygreen.org ) Nor is he concerned that people might mistakenly think that he is the subject of a book for young adults, Me and the Jolly Green Giant, the ungrammatical title of which actually refers to those helicopters and their crews.
Giant's equanimity is not disturbed even by what is perhaps the most famous -- some would say infamous -- unauthorized use of his good name:
THE JOLLY GREEN GIANT - JACK GREENE
Jack Greene ( www.jackgreeneopry.com ) is one of the United States' most beloved creators of traditional country & western music. He made a name for himself as a drummer and vocalist with the popular Ernest Tubbs band. As a solo performer he became a longtime headliner at the Grand Ole Opry. The Associated Press once called Greene "the Garth Brooks of his era."
Greene was the first country music star to appear in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. In that same year, 1967, he won "Best Male Vocalist" honors and three other major prizes at the first Country Music Association awards ceremony. His biggest hit, "There Goes My Everything" has been remade more than 100 times, including covers by such stars as Anne Murray and Engelbert Humperdinck.
Greene's voice is pleasing and rich. Fans on Amazon.com have suggested he sounds like Mel Street or Freddie Hart. I think he sounds more like Elvis Presley. The King of Rock 'n Roll was a fan of Greene's and he also recorded a version of "There Goes My Everything" (1970).
Greene's The Jolly Green Giant includes that song and another of his big hits, "Statue of a Fool", in which he mournfully concludes that love has left him deserving that the title's monument be named for him. Greene's songs are moving meditations on love (among them "Back In The Arms Of Love" and "You Are My Treasure"), love longed for ("I Need Somebody Bad", "Love Takes Care Of Me") and love lost ("Ever Since My Baby Went Away", "He Little Thing'd Her Out Of My Arms").
None of the songs is about the Jolly Green Giant. None even mentions him, unless there are subliminal references or allusions so subtle they can be decoded only by an Enigma machine.
The best-selling The Jolly Green Giant - Jack Greene is a gem flawed by its inappropriate title. Fans of Giant have noted that the country music star, although perhaps somewhat tall, certainly is not giant. Nor is Jack Greene green, despite his wearing on the cover a coat that is close to the color of split-pea soup. As for that third "e" in the singer's name, Giant's defenders believe it speaks for itself.
Perhaps the unfortunate title was imposed on Greene's album by an overeager marketing person. Or maybe it reflects the singer's wishful thinking that he could be more like Giant, towering over the world and looming large among its people. Either way, the sad ploy undermines Greene's claim to be the Gentleman of Country Music. ( www.jackgreeneopry.com/bio )
The best artists make it seem that they do what they do without effort. Jack Greene is among the best country & western singers. Listening to his music could make one believe that it is easy being Greene.
Seeing the album's title reminds one that it is not easy being giant and green.
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This is an entry in Stephen_Murray's write-off to celebrate the state in which he was born, a distinction he shares with the Jolly Green Giant and such lesser lights as Sinclair Lewis and the pop star presently known as Prince. Links to entries are on Stephen's profile page.
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