The Free Spirit

Questions For The Future, 1961 (Part One)

"Think of all that we've been through, and breaking up is hard to do..."

The first half of the year 1961 was a bit rough on Don and Phil's career, as they finally decided to split from Wesley Rose, whom had been managing the boys since 1957. It was very shortly after the new year when Don sat me down on the sofa in our living room and said to me, "Honey, Wesley's suin' us," he said rather seriously, trying to sound not nearly as concerned as he clearly was.

"What do you mean, Wesley's suing you? I thought he loved you two," I asked him, rather perplexed. I'd heard Wesley Rose say several times that he saw the boys as sons to him.

"Supposedly, it ain't against us personally, but it's business. He's suin' us for loss of income," Don replied.

"How can he sue you for loss of income? The man has enough money as it is. He's never had to want for anything!" I said bitterly, not quite understanding what Don was trying to explain to me.

"Well, we was supposed to work with him for another year, but Phil and I don't want him managin' or producin' us no more. He ain't lettin' us do anythin' he don't produce! We can't even record songs that  Buddy Holly gave us. We feel stifled," Don replied, clearing it up a bit more. "You said that if we felt stifled, we ought to get out of there... Well, we are now. Cadence still held onto us when they released that hits album and all them songs we had recorded under 'em, but we don't wanna be in their grip no more. No hard feelin's or anythin', but we're ready to move on."

"Well, that's good that you're trying to break away from Cadence and Rose, but what does this mean for you? Your stuff is still classified as Acuff Rose, and so are the Bryants."

"We know... We're blocked from any Acuff-Rose stuff, and that includes stuff we've written, too. We don't know what it's gonna do for us, but we'll figure it out, I guess. We're still a household name, we just can't record certain things."

"You'll have to work harder to find things that are better suited for you two," I said to him. "It'll be all right, I'm sure of it... You can still perform those songs, right?"

"Of course we can. We got a tour comin' up in April that's in Australia, I think, and Asia, too, but that's so far ahead. I don't know when, I might not even be here for Stacey's first birthday."

"Well, she won't remember it if that makes it any better... I'll just try not to take any pictures. She knows you love her."

"I'm assumin' you're goin' to England?"

"What's for me here, Don? Your parents are in Tennessee, the children are still too young for school-"

"You could look into nursin' here. There's plenty of hospitals 'round here."

"I'm a district midwife. I've been a district midwife for almost six years now, I can't just switch over to ward nursing. It's completely different from district care." Truth is, I could have, but I hated ward nursing. Hospitals were run so strictly compared to district nursing and I hated it.

"I'm sure ya can adjust to it, you're very adaptable."

"Why do I have to stay here by myself where I don't feel comfortable when you're not even here for months on end? Don, the only reason I'm still in California is because of you. I don't fit in here in California, I'm an East Ender. This is where all the West Enders end up."

"Well, if ya went out and did stuff and met people, maybe you'd make friends. If ya spent more time here and less time in London-"

"And what about my family? I go to London not just to work, but to be with my family. I have nothing here, so when you're not here, I go home and I spend time with my family. If you didn't want us to go there as often as we do, then why did you buy a home there?"