It is unceasing. It is daily. It is hourly. It is around the clock. There is always somebody, somewhere, posting complete falsehoods about the book or CDs or Larry himself.
One would think these people, if they are truly fans of Jim Reeves, would be thrilled to hear new music or learn well documented new details of his life. Instead, it arouses within them a completely opposite response.
Larry shared with me a couple of recent emails he received from Eimbert van den Oetelaar, who said to him "thank you for confirming what we all think about you and that is you [are] only in it for the bucks... Some of the overdubs, and the duets in particular, are awful and leave me cold, you have taken the soul out of the songs making them very clinical and cold, if they ain't broke don't fix them! The booklet was interesting and raised a few questions, considering you claim to have known Mary Reeves for all those years. Is it not a bit strange that you were never photographed together?... On a personal note I have always wondered why where you not there when Mary was suffering? where were you when you thought so much about her or so you claim. I seem to recall you turned up after her death a bit like the horse and stable at bit too late!"
This man's opinion of the overdubs is rather dramatically contradicted by the reviews of professional music critics (and fans), such as the ones I posted today that are published in a respected UK music magazine. But to make the bizarre comment that Larry was never photographed with Mary, the implication being he didn't know her well, is extremely disconnected from reality. First of all, how does he know there are no pictures of the two of them together? A photo Larry took sitting beside Mary in Jim's Cadillac the first time they met is even reproduced in the 48 page booklet that accompanies the new 8 CD set, "The Great Jim Reeves"! And all you have to do is listen to the excerpts from the taped conversation with Mary that Larry posted on his blog to see that the two of them were friends of long standing. It was a very personal conversation between two people who were comfortable with each other.
As to the point of where was Larry when Mary was suffering? More than 800 miles away. When he and I became aware of the conditions under which Mary was living in the nursing home, I publicized it on this website, and Mr. and Mrs. Ed Gregory came to her rescue. Good for them! They deserve credit for this. Larry didn't appear AFTER Mary's death. He and I were both writing on this site about the struggle over the Reeves estate well before Mary passed away! And as Larry pointed out in his reply to Eimbert, we were even SUED by Terry Davis who was unhappy with some of what we were posting. (The litigation was dropped).
So you have to ask yourself why someone would so twist the facts as some of these people do?
Have they no hobbies, no interests to engage them other than to try to undermine sales of the Jim Reeves book or CDs, or denigrate us personally?
A clue may be offered in an old email we received years ago from an acquaintance of Eimbert's who quoted him as "vowing revenge" over supposedly not receiving a 5 CD set from us that he had ordered. So van den Oetelaar took a tape that Larry had sent as a kind gesture to be played only at a fan club meeting (with the stipulation it not be released commercially), and betrayed the agreement by replicating it onto CD and selling it without authorization and making money off of it.
Yet Eimbert has been lecturing Larry about honesty and accusing him of "lying" to fans!
A European fan sent us an email today observing that there is a problem over there with a "a lot of crazy bastards...trying to knock success or hard work." I suspect this is because they are so lacking in any personal accomplishments that they can't stand to see anyone else excel at what they do.
The trouble is, all of this rancor poisons the Jim Reeves fan scene because so much misinformation is posted on the web and then gets repeated such that innocent people read it or believe it.
It's all very sad...and quite pathological.
Ignoring it is on the one hand a good strategy up to a point. But it also gives them license to say whatever lies they want and when there is no counterbalance to this, naive fans tend to believe the trash. -- JULIE
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