George Jones: George Jones: We Support You!!

November 6, 2009

George Jones: We Support You!!

As the familiar lyrics of George's early 1982 Top-5 hit will reassure, George Jones is still himself throughout anything and everything that comes his way. Whether it's self-inflicted or media-created, the good days and bad days have gone hand-in-hand. The reason for this rally/support blog is due to some unsavory commentary being made around the internet about George by those who really have no clue who he his or what he stands for. Apparently a recent interview/article about George seeped into the world's of Carrie Underwood and Taylor Swift fan-bases. I have no idea what caused the story to gain much traction given that the majority of listeners of either of those two aren't necessarily paying much attention to George Jones in the first place...

But, in this internet age, and largely because both Underwood and Swift's names were mentioned, overly jealous and or overly-protective fans of both artist's have flipped out. Surprisingly, though, or ironic, the comments made by George in the most recent interview about 'modern country music' gained widespread publication. Do I think it's a conspiracy? I don't think it is but something is certainly strange because similar comments from George over the last decade and a half never reached this sort of coverage. The thing that irks me the most is that George never attacked either artist...he simply pointed out that the country music industry has reverted back to propping up pop-oriented acts. Although it was short and brief, there was a period of time in the earlier part of this decade where it appeared traditional country was returning to prominence but with the emergence of Underwood and Taylor Swift it appears Nashville and other towns that market country music want to jump on their bandwagon much like they did Garth Brooks in 1990 and we all know what happened in the aftermath of Garth Brooks. Country radio did an about face and started to decline the airplay of proven artists in favor of Garth Brooks and those who followed.

What followed, for George, was an abrupt end to his airplay. Every so often a recurrent would air from George during the early 1990's but the airplay was nothing compared to the airplay he had enjoyed since the 1950's. Ever since this point in his career there's been a back and fourth, on-again/off-again verbal war between George and most country radio. Think about it...it's 2009...that means people who are teens and early twenty-something's now who listen to country radio aren't too familiar with George Jones or his contemporaries unless they, on their own, discover the music via the internet or on a "classic country" radio station. Someone born in 1992 is 17 now...their identity of country music is all the material that was played throughout the late '90s into today. When you look at it from that perspective you can see why a lot of people in George's era are rightfully upset. Their music isn't being promoted to millions of younger generations via the radio. George has a wide fan-base of all ages. I can bet you that most of the younger following that George enjoys didn't learn of him hearing his songs on the radio. What happened is the internet allows music to be heard...whether it's commercial or not...and I think a lot of the teenagers and young adults who cite George Jones as one of their favorite country singers discovered his music on their own and became hooked on it. Also, word of mouth and a hefty touring schedule also helps. When I brought up 17 years old's today having been born in 1992...I was 17 in 1993...so you can tell that I grew up in the era where George, Merle Haggard, Conway Twitty, George Strait, Alabama, Reba, and a few others dominated the airwaves.

I know some people out there will go:

"geeze, why hasn't he moved on already? this loss of airplay thing happened in the early 1990's and it's 2009!!".

Well, for those who think like that, you obviously don't really know how much country music means to George Jones.

For those out there who want to take cheap shots at George by labeling him a "has-been" or a "whiner" or whatever else need to research his career through this blog and others. Once you do you'll see how his views on country music have really never wavered through the years. Even in the 1970's during the beginning of his incredible run with Epic Records and Billy Sherrill, George was still on occasion speaking his mind about the pop influence in country music even when his own songs carried a pop flavor. In concert his songs were stripped of their pop arrangements and sung just as country as ever. If you watch George on TV or attended a concert and he starts to sing the songs that featured the heavy pop-like instrumentation on the recording, they won't sound the same. You'll be thinking to yourself "something is missing...but I don't know what it is...". Well, it's the grand orchestration that's missing.

So, the bottom line is, George's thoughts and feelings of country music is nothing new and it just feels suspicious that bloggers and message boards that, to my knowledge, have never touched a George Jones story in the past suddenly are now taking notice of viewpoints that a lot of us long time fans of George are quite familiar with and rather accept...but, moving on...

For those who want to hear one of the best George Jones albums from the 1980's you'll have to look no further than Wine Colored Roses from 1986. Now, this is just one of his best. In my opinion a lot of his albums are great to listen to. The material on the album is mostly ballads with a few up-tempo songs added in. The singles that were released from the album include the title track in late 1986 and during the first half of 1987 the singles were "The Right Left Hand" and the poetic "I Turn To You". This album was certified Gold in 1994. The album itself was one of his most enduring as far as chart life. Patti Page is featured on this album. She sings a duet with George called "You Never Looked That Good When You Were Mine". George, during this era, was coming off of a successful reputation of being the chosen duet partner amongst many female singers...

On this famed 1985 album, in addition to the three singles, you also hear two duet recordings. Lynn Anderson joins him on "If You Can Touch Her At All" and Lacy J Dalton appears on the album closer, "That's Good-That's Bad". This album also includes the raucous "Call The Wrecker For My Heart" plus the up-tempo "A Whole Lot of Trouble For You". The theme throughout most of George's albums in the 1980's were ballads. The ballads far out-weighed the up-tempo songs. This practice has become so identified with George that some fans feel a bit let down if an album comes along that features mid-tempo or up-tempo material instead of ballads...while the 1986 album featured one duet song with a female and the 1985 album contained two duets with females...

This album that was issued in 1984 jump-started the female duet reputation. An album appropriately titled Ladies Choice contained nine duet recordings and one solo recording. The solo recording, "She's My Rock", became the biggest hit of the year for him. It spent several weeks at #2. Two duet recordings were released in early 1985: Brenda Lee joined him for "Hallelujah, I Love You So" while Lacy J Dalton was paired with him on "Size Seven Round and Made of Gold". Each duet reached the Top-20. The 1980's streak of duet recordings with female artists was a result of the duet craze that was sweeping country music. George himself had a long duet career with Tammy Wynette throughout the 1970's while in the 1960's George often teamed up with Melba Montgomery. However, the influx of duet recordings George took part in during the first half of the 1980's was basically a result of the times. If there wasn't a duet craze a lot of the duets that George took part in may not have even took place. There was a 1983 duet with Ray Charles called "We Didn't See A Thing" which featured Chet Atkins on the lead guitar.

There was the 1982 duet album with Merle Haggard, A Taste of Yesterday's Wine, and two duet albums from 1980, one featuring Tammy entitled Together Again and another with Johnny PayCheck entitled Double Trouble. The duet craze was certainly successful and prolific.

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1976

there were several George Jones albums issued in the mid to late 1970's that never really got the attention they deserved and years later various independent record labels both in America and overseas have issued CD's of the mid '70s out-put; there's a popular belief that his material wasn't up to the 1960's standards but this material is not meant to be comparable to his 1960's out-put...the album contained a majority up-tempo feel in spite of the album cover and it's title; It wasn't until mid-way through that we hear sad songs; the album contained two hit singles...first off the Top-20 title track, "The Battle", and the Top-40 love ballad "You Always Look Your Best Here in My Arms".

1977

One of the under-rated albums from the late '70s from George is this one; it's called I WANTA SING and the title track is about George's musical heroes but don't let the bizarre album cover sway your opinion before hearing the songs; on this album we have hard-core country music with just a touch of pop...that touch of pop comes on "I Love You So Much It Hurts Me" where he croons the song; the hits include the Top-40 "Old King Kong" and the Top-30 "If I Could Put Them All Together"; other highlights from this album include "They've Got Millions in Milwaukee", "Bull Mountain Lad", and "Rest In Peace".

1980

George and Johnny PayCheck had been releasing duet singles for two years prior to the release of this 1980 duet album; titled DOUBLE TROUBLE it set out to cash-in on the rowdy/outlaw side of country music that had been taken over by the Urban Cowboy era; the album contained all of the singles the two were to release together: "Maybelline", "You Can Have Her", "When You're Ugly Like Us", and "You Better Move On"; their single releases were once a year 1978, 1979, 1980, and into early 1981; the duo's 1979 recording of "Proud Mary" is on here as well...it originally appeared on the 1979 all-star collection MY VERY SPECIAL GUESTS that Epic issued on George.

1980

This album is routinely voted as George's all-time classic...every song from #1 to #10 is typically picked as a favorite among his fans; the monster success of the album's centerpiece, "He Stopped Loving Her Today", is one reason why this album in particular stands out above all the others...the single not only hit #1 but it won a Grammy and several other awards; The album itself became the fastest selling of his career...hitting Platinum barely 3 years later...a million copies of a vinyl album was unheard of for many country singers...not to mention one that remained grounded in country music without a lot of pop aspirations; The album featured two more singles...the somber "I'm Not Ready Yet" and the honky-tonker "If Drinkin' Don't Kill Me"; The album had it's share of up-tempo songs...such as "Good Hearted Woman", "His Lovin' Her Is Gettin' In My Way", and the bouncy "Bone Dry".

1981

Issued after the widespread acclaim and success of I AM WHAT I AM in 1980, this album rode the success of it's predecessor and featured two major Top-5 hits plus it included a song that was originally a single-only release in 1979 called "Someday My Day Will Come"; the two Top-5 hits were "Same Ole Me", and the #1 "Still Doin' Time"; the album contained a duet with his daughter, Georgette, "Daddy Come Home"; this album went Gold several years later and it included "I Won't Need You Anymore" which would become one of Randy Travis' first hit songs; other highlights are "You Can't Get The Hell Out of Texas", "Girl, You Sure Know How To Say Goodbye", and "Couldn't Love Have Picked a Better Place To Die".

1982

George and Merle trade verses throughout the majority of this duet album...only one song features almost all George and it's "Silver Eagle" which is a narrative/ballad about Haggard; Each singer gets a song patterned after them...in Haggard's case it's "Silver Eagle" and in George's it's the novelty "No Show Jones", which closes out the album; One of the more deeper songs is "I Think I've Found a Way To Live Without You" and coming in a close second is "After I Sing All My Songs"; the album contained the #1 title track, "Yesterday's Wine", and the Top-10 "C.C. Waterback"; "The Brothers" is another great song.

1983

This is a wonderful album from George released in early 1983; according to what I've read, the vocals were recorded in 1982 and Billy Sherrill and his associates added everything else later but you couldn't tell by listening to it that it was patched together; It boasted three major Top-5 hits: the title track, "Shine On", plus the smashes "Tennessee Whiskey" and "I Always Get Lucky With You", all three singles peaked at #3, #2, and #1 respectively; in spite of the album boasting those hits, it went out of print as mostly everything George recorded in the mid 1980's period; Have no fear...it's available as an MP3 digitial download so the material lives on in the digital age.

1983

Released in the latter part of 1983, this album went by without much notice...you'd think an album named after his outdoor music park would generate interest but Epic didn't do anything with the album and as a result it's not remembered but it's a great album...and it did reach the Top-30 on the country album chart...so it wasn't completely over-looked...but none of the songs were promoted as singles; I wrote at length about this album and the outdoor music park, Jones Country, within the blog pages to the left of this time-line.

1984

such a wonderful duets album is this one from George and a host of female country singers; the album boasts 9 duets and 1 solo song; The solo song is "She's My Rock", which was a huge hit for George in the fall of 1984; after the single fell back down the charts the follow-up was issued...a duet with Brenda Lee on a song called "Hallelujah, I Love You So", which promptly hit the Top-20 in early 1985...as did the third single from this album, a duet with Lacy J Dalton entitled "Size Seven Round and Made of Gold"; Some of the other highlights is the duet with Leona Williams, "Best Friends", and the duet with Loretta on "We Sure Make Good Love"...Emmylou Harris, one of George's biggest fans, appears on "All Fall Down".

1985

Featuring the Top-5 title track, "Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes?", this album contained a few positive, feel-good songs in addition to the standard sad, heartbreak songs, too; The title track was made into an award winning music video; Two more songs became hits as well, "The One I Loved Back Then" matched the success of the title track while "Somebody Wants Me Out of the Way" reached the Top-10 in early 1986; a couple of duets were featured on this album...one of them with Lacy J Dalton called "That's Good...That's Bad" and one with Lynn Anderson called "If Somehow You Could Touch Her At All"; "If I Could Paint You a Picture" is in the pretty song category.

1986

On this particular album we hear George perform a variety of songs...some countrier than others; Patti Page appears on a duet, "You Never Looked That Good When You Were Mine"; A lot of attention was paid to "The Right Left Hand", which was written about George and Nancy; the single hit the Top-10 in early 1987; the title track, "Wine Colored Roses", was a Top-10 in late 1986; a third single, "I Turn To You", reached the Top-30; other highlights from the album are "Ol' Frank", "If Only Your Eyes Could Lie", and "These Old Eyes Have Seen It All".

1990

This here is the rare album, YOU OUGHTA BE HERE WITH ME, that Epic Records issued on George in 1990; the label released two commercial singles from this album...so it wasn't totally ignored...but in hindsight the promotions department didn't spend much time on the release; the singles issued were "Hell Stays Open All Night Long" and the bouncy "Six Foot Deep, Six Foot Down"; George actually performed the second song on his TV show in the late 1990's. This project, too, is available as an MP3.

2006

This reunion album between George and Merle came out in 2006; the album was a moderate success and I pin a lot of blame on the fact that it was not highly promoted/publicized with some kind of tour or any joint appearances; both artist's were extremely busy on the road doing solo dates that a concert tour was impossible...even more ironic is that Haggard was on tour with Willie Nelson and Ray Price around the same time this CD came out....Haggard, Willie, and Ray had recorded an album called LAST OF THE BREED, released early in 2007, a few months after the release of this 2006 album, and the three of them went out on tour to select venue's; on this 2006 album, each singer takes turns singing the hit songs of each other plus they unite in five duet recordings throughout; this reunion album marked the first duet project for the two of them since 1982...this particular 2006 CD was issued in October and the LAST OF THE BREED was issued in March 2007...giving no real time to support the CD on the road.