April 7, 2009

Hallelujah It's George Jones!!

This particular gospel project came along on the Epic label in 1990 but sharp-eared listeners of the project will be quick to realize that the material was recorded years earlier. I have seen cassette copies on-line indicate 1980 while I have a cassette copy in my collection with the year 1979 indicated...I do know that one of the songs on this album was a b-side of a 1979 George Jones single...and so it's pretty much for certain that the material was recorded during 1979/1980. It was also documented that George would include gospel songs in his concerts around this time period...and there's been commentary made on-line about how these songs were originally recorded for a gospel album that was never released...which explains why a 1990 project would consist of nothing but earlier material.

The album consists of 10 songs...with The Jordanaires and Millie Kirkham doing the background harmonies. George is credited as co-writer on several of the selections. I like all of the songs and my favorites are the up-tempo numbers but I also like the way he delivers the narratives in the slower songs. "A Picture From Life's Other Side" is just as great as you'd expect it to be; by Hank Williams it's a masterpiece in the gallery of gospel music he's noted for and George, given his appreciation of Hank Williams and for having his own gripping narrative style, it's compelling. It's the second song on the album. The family feud reading of "Mama's Family Bible" kicks off the album. The song is about a house being auctioned off after the death of a mother...with family taking a lot of items one by one but nobody bothered to take the bible that was sitting on a shelf...and the song goes on to tell us that once the family got what they wanted, they ended up selling the items, while he kept the bible and never dreamed of selling it.

The tempo picks up quite a bit on song three, the sing-a-long "Me and Jesus" from the pen of Tom T Hall. The song had been a popular hit for Tom T Hall in the early 1970's and George took his shot at recording the song in the late 1970's...even appearing on an episode of Pop! Goes the Country singing the song with host, Tom T Hall. It's a song about a man who's best buddy is Jesus and they really don't need any preaching or any scolding from those who are self-appointed messengers. It also paints a more liberal viewpoint of things with the lyrics in the song of how Jesus likes all kinds, whether they're up-right and moral or not. Naturally, this kind of song isn't a favorite among the more devout.

Song four is "We Oughta Be Ashamed", which appeared in 1979 as the b-side of "Someday My Day Will Come", in which that song carried touches of gospel over-tones as well.

"The Devil Is Gathering Firewood" closes out side one of the album...an up-tempo song about the battle between the Devil and Jesus winning souls and how sinner's better learn how to get on their knee's and pray before it's too late.

"Would They Love Him" is one of the more pointed songs on the album. It tackles religious hypocrisy and it studies the people who say they are Christians and say they believe in God but would they still love him if he came back and insisted that they give up the things that they covet. "Jesus Saves Today" closes out the album...it's one of the more traditional-sounding gospel songs...most of the other gospel songs were arranged strictly country. In between those two songs we have three up-tempo sing-a-long's. "Swoop Down, Sweet Jesus" is a feelgood song about a man who basically lives inside honky-tonk's until he finds Jesus and the title track, "Hallelujah Weekend", is about a family who has a habit of forgetting Sunday's and we're told of a plan in which the gospel spirit can be celebrated all week long by starting your Monday's with Jesus. "The Battle For Daddy's Soul" is one of my favorites as well...it's the story of a woman who wants her husband to give up drinking and find religion. It's sub-titled "The Bible Against the Bottle".

This album, as of this writing, has never been issued as an MP3 and so you're most likely to find it in cassette or CD form at on-line auction sites.

April 5, 2009

George Jones on Epic Records

Technically, CBS Records was the actual label. Sharp eyes will notice on all of the albums and singles released during the "Epic" days that it stated CBS Records and that Epic was an imprint of CBS, kind of like a subsidiary or affiliate of CBS. In the early years of George's stay on CBS, the album and single labels were bright yellow with the word EPIC written across the top of the label. In the mid 1970's it switched over to the orange label that remained a standard until the late 1970's. Lastly, it struck upon a dark black, light blue combination and a signature logo for "Epic".

Here is an image of the orange label CBS/Epic used on their records in the mid 1970's...

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In the music industry there was special singles released to radio and those were usually called "promo singles" or "DJ copy". This indicated that the particular single wasn't for public sale at the same. Naturally, because 45 RPM singles are no longer part of the industry in any profound way, the promo singles have fallen into the public domain. Former DJ's and radio stations often sell promo singles on-line and at flea markets. CBS/Epic used a white label to distinguish it from the commercial single release.

The below single is the promo copy of "Yesterday's Wine", a duet between George and Merle Haggard. The label color is white. You will also get to see the famed "Epic" logo swooping across the top of the sleeve.

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That "Epic" logo design would become quite popular...it almost became as popular as the Warner Brothers logo. Note how artistic "Epic" looked in design on that single compared to the way it was written on the orange label of the mid 1970's.

The single below wasn't an official release here in America. I know that the single was issued over-sea's but "One of These Days" was an album song on George's self-titled debut album for CBS/Epic in 1972. In case anyone wants to learn how you can tell if a single by your favorite artist was released in America or England, looking closely at the single you will see "A USA Production" and this vaguely hints that the single was released over-sea's, otherwise why state it's a USA production? On the right side of the label it says it was "Made In England" so chances are it was an over-sea's single and just by looking at those sort of phrases on the label it should pretty much tell you if the single was released to American consumers or the United Kingdom. Sounds fun and exciting, yes?

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Here is an example of that bright yellow label CBS/Epic used in the late '60s and early '70s...this is a George and Tammy single...trust me, the yellow was more bright in person than the way it comes off in the image below...

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Okay...here's an image of an Epic single from George featuring that dark and blue color pattern, which became the longest-running design for CBS/Epic records. Earlier you saw a promo copy of a George and Merle single but here's a commercial single of a 1984 George Jones hit called "She's My Rock"...

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This concludes the "look" at the label designs of CBS/Epic Records during George's stay at the label, 1971-1991.