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Greetings and Welcome to The 405 Coffee Break with O.K. Solberg
New episodes tend to air over the local KMMR radio station @ 5 minutes past 4PM each M-F. And have been doing so, nearly every week since Sept 2018.
I'm D.J. Rasmussen, O.K.s friend since junior high, possibly your neighbor & this websites maintainer, whom strives to get each episode's show notes written, the transcript proofed and the audio posted to the internet within a few hours of that days KMMR air time. NOTE: recently been publishing most new releases by 4:30PM.
Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy the time we can spend together.
I want to again welcome you to The 405 Coffee Break. Weekend's coming guys. Get you a cup of coffee, glass iced tea, bottled water. Let's see what's happening.
OK Solberg:Spring wheat $6.94 a bushel. 550lb steer calf for fall delivery, top end $4.80 to $4.95 a pound, and a 100lb fat lamb in Billings top end $3.15 a pound. But guys there's more, much more.
OK Solberg:Okay. If you listened on Tuesday, you heard me tell an account about Lisa, a juvenile probation officer that I knew well. I knew her from working at the youth ranch. Well, the name Lisa and the fact that when I met her in person, she didn't say it but I said it.
OK Solberg:I said, you're not Lisa. Of course, she said she was because my mind had concocted a different image. And if you noticed on Tuesday, she didn't say my name is Julie, but that reminded me of a great song.
OK Solberg:Did it remind you? 1975. Let's look into that song by Jesse Colter. In 1975, country music was beginning to change. The true polished Nashville sound was given way to something rougher and more independent. What would soon become known as outlaw country and right in the middle of that movement was a woman named Jessie Coulter.
OK Solberg:Born Miriam Johnson in Phoenix in 1943 and she's still alive guys. She had already been around the music business for years. She had married a rock and roll guitarist Dwayne Eddie and in 1969 she married another musician who would become one of country's music's greatest stars, Waylon Jennings. Waylon Jennings, Jesse Colter.
OK Solberg:Yet in 1974, Jesse Colter was not yet a household name. Then she wrote a song. She titled it, I'm not Lisa. Coulter wrote the entire song herself, and she also played the piano on the original recording. The record was produced by Ken Mansfield and Waylon Jennings, and the story she created is heartbreaking.
OK Solberg:The singer is a woman named Julie. She is speaking to a man who is still completely consumed by the memory of another woman, Lisa. Lisa had apparently been the great love of his life. Then one winter day, his hand led hers away. Now the implication is that Lisa died, leaving the man behind to spend the years grieving her.
OK Solberg:Folks, his love died. She's gone. Or at least you can read the song that way. But like all good literature, it leaves the door wide open for interpretation. And now Julie's standing there trying to convince him of something.
OK Solberg:She's not Lisa. She doesn't have Lisa's blue eyes. She doesn't expect to replace Lisa, but she loves him, and she isn't gonna abandon him. That's what makes a song so unusual. Julie isn't competing with another woman who is still around.
OK Solberg:She's competing with a memory. And there's an important factual point here. There is no evidence that Lisa was a real woman in Jesse Colter's life or that the song was literally about Waylon Jennings and another woman. There is no facts to base that. The song is a fictional narrative written by Coulter.
OK Solberg:The identification of the narrator as Julie comes from the lyrics themselves, but Coulter's timing was perfect. Capital Records released I'm Not Lisa as a single in January 1975. A few months later, Orvin Solberg would graduate high school and the record, it exploded.
OK Solberg:It reached number one on the Billboard Country Chart and remarkably, for a country record climbed all the way up to number 4 on the Billboard Hot 100. Suddenly, knew Jessie Coulter.
OK Solberg:Her album, I'm Jessie Coulter, followed in January 1975. It eventually reached number 4 on Billboard's country albums chart. Her next single, what's happened to blue eyes, became another top 5 country hit.
OK Solberg:Jesse Colter became one of the very few women associated with the outlaw country movement. So, guys, when you hear that lonely piano and Jesse Colter quietly singing, I'm not Lisa, you're not hearing a woman simply telling her own story.
OK Solberg:You're hearing a songwriter creating a character who realizes something painful. She's dealing with a memory. Sometimes the hardest person to compete with isn't another person. It is that memory. And that's probably why I'm not Lisa has lasted for more than half a century.
OK Solberg:It isn't really a song about Lisa. It's a song about what happens when someone you love is still living within your mind. And Jesse Colter with nothing more than her piano, her voice, and a 3 minute story made millions of people feel it. Now, guys, you gotta agree. That's pretty darn good songwriting. And you gotta listen to the song. And let's find a bible verse, if I can, that fits for Lisa.
OK Solberg:It comes from the book called the Psalms of Solomon. I don't share from that very often. Chapter 5 verses 10 through 12. Now imagine, Lisa is saying this to her man, and I quote, my beloved is radiant and ruddy, distinguished among 10,000. His hair is the finest gold. His locks are wavy, black as a raven. His eyes are like doves beside streams of water bathed in milk sitting beside a full pool. Psalms of Solomon 5:10-12
OK Solberg:And yes, sir, that really is in the bible. So until next time, I'm not Lisa. My name is Orvin. As you go out there, remember now, don't be bitter,