WILLIE PACKS ‘EM IN, DOWN ON THE FARM

Willie Nelson has been a hero for years in his native Texas, where his annual Fourth of July “picnic” has become an institution. Now his Farm Aid campaign has brought him added respect--there are even whispers about some people here wanting him to run for governor or U.S. senator.

But Nelson doesn’t encourage that kind of talk.

“I wouldn’t want to run for office,” he said with a shrug the day before the Fourth of July Farm Aid II concert. “I’m not into politics. There are people who are better suited for that than I am . . . and more power to them.”

Yet Nelson has exhibited much of the dedication and leadership on behalf of financially troubled U.S. farmers that rocker Bob Geldof has in support of Live Aid and other African famine relief projects.

Those who have known Nelson for years aren’t surprised by his drive.

“Willie has a laid-back appearance, but he has a wild energy,” Waylon Jennings said backstage shortly after the Farm Aid II concert kicked off at Manor Downs, a quarter-horse race track near Austin.

“He’ll keep doing this (Farm Aid) until something happens. He knows he is not going to make enough money to save the farmers, but he’ll keep pounding until they do something down in Washington.

“People around the country are just beginning to see this side of him, but he has always been able to stick with things until they got done. Look at what he has done with the picnics. Who ever thought the longhairs and cowboys would ever sit side by side?”

Nelson’s picnics--actually all-day music festivals--achieved a minor miracle by bringing together the once warring factions of long-haired hippies and two-fisted cowboys in an atmosphere of peaceful celebration.

That mix is now taken for granted, but it was very much a source of tension during the first picnic, a three-day affair called Dripping Springs Reunion and held near Austin in March, 1972.

About the philosophy of those shows, Nelson once said, “(People were suspicious of longhairs) . . . but it was a surface thing. Once people had a chance to think about it, they saw how ridiculous it was and they got over it. It’s just something they weren’t used to being around.

“After Charles Manson came along, they thought that everybody with long hair was going to kill them. So they had to get over that. Then, they thought that everybody with long hair was a draft dodger. And so on.”

In subsequent years, the picnics grew--to as many as 50,000 people some holiday weekends. Though the first event centered on country artists, lineups occasionally included rock performers.

Last year’s Farm Aid concert at the University of Illinois expanded the “melting pot” concept by spotlighting an even more diverse set of musicians and using the power of those musicians to support a social issue: the troubled farmers.

The artists seemed so delighted by the relaxed, open interchange that day, you felt most of them would have paid their way to Farm Aid II even if it weren’t a fund-raiser.

Several Los Angeles rock bands contributed to the spirit of the day. The Unforgiven, the only rock band that appeared at Nelson’s Fourth of July picnic last year, took part in some pre-concert activities the night before the show at Alley Oop’s, a downtown Austin club.

The band, which dresses up in the spaghetti-Western garb associated with Sergio Leone films, was pulled onto the stage by Nelson’s harmonica player, Mickey Raphael, and was soon joined by Motley Crue’s Vince Neil, who led the group through Led Zeppelin’s “Rock and Roll.” Then Rick James took the stage for a medley that included his own “Super Freak” and Stevie Wonder’s “Living for the City.”

The Unforgiven was joined the next day at Farm Aid II by Nelson and Kris Kristofferson during a lengthy--and moving--version of “Amazing Grace.”

Farm Aid II also contributed a footnote to Los Angeles rock history.

Two of the city’s most respected bands, X and the Blasters, had performed at the first Farm Aid last year at the University of Illinois, and they were back for return appearances. The difference is that Dave Alvin, the guitarist and chief songwriter for the Blasters, is now a member of X.

That left questions about the Blasters’ ability to come up with quality material, and about whether X would use any of Dave Alvin’s songs. X already had two writers in Exene Cervenka and John Doe.

Tentative--and encouraging--answers to both questions were provided at Farm Aid II.

The Blasters debuted a bluesy, roots-flavored song, “The Farmer and the Boll Weevil,” a biting reflection on the way thousands of family farmers are being forced from their land. Sample lines:

Says the boll weevil, “How does it feel”

The farmer told the weevil, “ It’s a dirty deal “

You burn the weevils with gas, you burn the farmers with loans

Now we are all on the road, looking for a home.

Asked backstage afterward who wrote the song, Blasters lead singer Phil Alvin said, “Me. . . . I wanted to write something for the show and I also thought it was important to start coming up with some new songs because everyone seems to be asking this question about whether we are going to do our own songs or just old ones.”

Later, X--a quintet now with the addition of guitarists Dave Alvin and Terry Gilkyson--performed two of the group’s songs, then closed with “Fourth of July,” a love song Alvin wrote before leaving the Blasters. It will presumably be on the next X LP. The new arrangement seems to fit Dave Alvin fine. Playing guitar on the song, he beamed.

Musicians often go out of their way at events like Farm Aid II to express their enthusiasm for other acts on the bill. But it was especially endearing to listen to Waylon Jennings, who used Los Lobos’ “Will the Wolf Survive” as the title track on his latest album, and Lobos’ Cesar Rosas speak of each other in separate interviews.

“We were really happy when we heard Waylon had done the song, because we have been fans of his for ages,” Rosas said, walking around backstage before the East Los Angeles group took the stage and introduced a new song (“One Night in America”) that will be on the group’s upcoming album.

“We’re also looking forward to seeing Emmylou Harris and George Jones. I just wish Merle (Haggard) was here. I think there is a lot of country in our music. It’s real simple music. . . . The things we talk about are the things we all go through in this world. They hit home to a lot of people . . . just like a great country song would.”

Earlier, Jennings explained that songwriter Tony Joe White (best known for “Polk Salad Annie”) had introduced him to “Wolf.”

Jennings recalled: “The funny thing is, we couldn’t understand all the words on the record, and that often means the lyrics are bad and they are trying to cover them up.

“Still, I loved the feel of the record and we decided to record it--even without knowing what it said completely. When we got the words from the publisher, I was knocked out. The words were great. I think everyone can relate to that song. Everyone considers himself a lone wolf in some ways and has to deal with surviving.”

Jennings, whose music has long appealed to country and rock audiences, delights in the “melting pot” effect of the Farm Aid shows. “I don’t understand some of this (contemporary pop) stuff like Prince and the way he dresses, but I don’t condemn it. He’s got something going for him because people like his music.

“Music is one of the hopes of the whole world, and I think it is great getting all of us together--musicians and fans--under one roof. That’s what Willie is showing with these benefits.”

Though Farm Aid II raised only about $500,000 in phone credit card pledges and box office receipts, Nelson was already talking about staging another Farm Aid benefit this fall in Washington, D.C.

The Blasters’ Phil Alvin is ready to go.

“I’d like to see them reach out to industrial workers who are in need of help, too,” he said, shortly after finishing the band’s mid-morning set. “That’s why I mentioned on stage that we should stand behind the rank-and-file who are having to deal with labor concessions.

“Music should be tied to what is happening in society and it should embrace everyone. I’d like to see Farm Aid eventually bring together the farmer and, say, the copper miners. If so, I’ll be at every one they want to stage.”