April 26, 2013

George Jones: 1931-2013

 The news broke early this morning of the death of George Jones at the age of 81. I was sleeping when the news broke...someone in my family woke me up and asked me if I knew that George had died. The news must have broke right after I fell asleep this morning because it was news to me when I woke up. The local classic country station had been playing George's songs even more frequently since the day he had entered the hospital on April 18th and so I clicked the radio on as soon as I was informed about the news and I caught the middle of the disc jockey talking about George's life and times. The host took calls from a lot of listeners and played several of his #1 hits for the remainder of his show. I'd been a fan of George's since I was barely 5 or 6 years old. My grandparent's and others in the family are responsible for my introduction to his songs and given the year I was born (1976) I grew up with the 1980's era and beyond and as those who've read my blog entries are quick to find out I gravitate toward those recordings but I love pretty much all his recordings. His signature song is 1980's "He Stopped Loving Her Today" which hit #1 and was the recipient of many awards for both the artist and songwriters. It was one of the very few recordings to win back to back CMA Song of the Year honors (1980 and 1981). It was Single of the Year in 1980 and 1981 in a wide variety of award programs and he won Male Vocalist and Male Artist trophies in both years. The song won a Grammy early in 1981. His 1980 studio album, I Am What I Am, continues to be his only studio album, as of now, to sell more than 1,000,000 copies and earn a Platinum certification. Several compilation releases have been certified Platinum or higher but I Am What I Am remains the only studio album from his lengthy career to achieve the Platinum pinnacle.

In the above picture it's the cassette copy of You've Still Got a Place In My Heart, a wonderful 1984 album, and off to the right it's the cassette copy of 1983's Jones Country...an incredibly obscure release and just as great as anything he issued in that era. Each of those albums, released back to back in late 1983 and early 1984, were issued in a 2-in-1 CD special a couple of days ago. I knew of it's upcoming release and I was going to wait a few days before ordering it...but I put in my order for it earlier this morning. Call it being selfish but I couldn't help but think with the news of his death a lot of his music will be much sought after and in some cases collections available exclusively on CD might go out of print especially if it happens to be an import collection like the one I ordered this morning. Import collections are often in limited quantities as it is but with the news that broke this morning of his death I just had this feeling that if I didn't place my order as soon as possible I'd not have another chance. I have those two releases in vinyl format, too.

In the coming hours, days, and weeks there are sure to be a long list of high profile memorials and tributes. Just like millions of others who've made the life and music of George Jones a part of their own lives, it feels awful to come to the realization that he's physically no longer with us, and that a long standing champion of traditional country music has gone silent. Some have remarked that it's like the end of an era...for it seems as if it was George Jones and only George Jones that spoke up and said what was on a lot of our minds 20+ years ago when all the changes were going on in country music and country radio...changes that a lot of us didn't really understand back then. 
 
The hard life, the ups and downs, and all the scandals, controversies, and soap opera often played up in the national media is part of his story but it's not the only part. 1987's "Too Wild Too Long" is just one of many, many recordings from George that mixed reality and artistry. Although by 1987 he had been on the road to recovery (from both alcohol and drugs) it was still a slice of real life being sung about all throughout the song that somebody out there could relate to in some way or another. George once remarked that just because he had quit living wild and doing drugs it didn't mean others had been able to beat their demons and begin living healthy once again. Too Wild Too Long contains a mixture of uptempo and ballads with one of the major highlights being the sad, sorrowful tale of "The Old Man No One Loves". The song became his second music video following 1985's award winning "Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes?". The album kicks off with another example of a song that comes across as if it was written just for George...the triumphant "I'm a Survivor", which he certainly was. In 1987 he was named a Living Legend by Music City News magazine. This was the fan's equivalent to the Hall of Fame. Five years later, in the fall of 1992, George Jones at long last became a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. The plaque was given to him by Randy Travis during the CMA Awards moments after George had finished performing the rousing "I Don't Need Your Rockin' Chair". A year later he teamed up with B.B. King for a powerful duet titled "Patches" for the highly acclaimed various artists project, Rhythm, Country, and Blues. That collection was also notable for featuring the last recording by Conway Twitty, a duet with Sam Moore on "Rainy Night in Georgia".

He was given the Pioneer Award at the Academy of Country Music awards in 1993. In 1994 he had heart surgery but emerged later in the year in full force and another album, the duet driven project entitled The Bradley Barn Sessions. The project reunited George and Tammy Wynette in song for the first time since 1980. A television special featuring George and all involved aired on TNN. Several months later, by early 1995, an entire reunion album and tour was being planned. One, the duet album, was their first album together in 15 years. Their tour marked the first time they'd been on the road as a duet since the mid '70s. This project also came complete with an hour long television special on TNN. In 1996 George issued his autobiography titled I Lived To Tell It All. Accompanying the book's release was a studio album of the same name. It's lead-off single, "Honky Tonk Song", spoofed his alcoholic days and the music video shown him being chased by the police while he was on a riding mower.

George had his own television show for a couple of seasons on The Nashville Network in the mid/late '90s but the decade ended on a controversial note. In 1999 he was involved in a car accident when he crashed his S.U.V. into the side of a concrete abutment. It was reported that alcohol was found inside the vehicle. George, as it was reported, was talking on his cell-phone and went to play a demo recording and he took his eyes off the road for a couple of seconds and that's all it took. During his recovery, his record label at the time issued a new single, "Choices". It was later part of a new studio album, Cold Hard Truth. The single reached the Top-30 on the country charts, his first solo entry on the Top-40 half of the country charts since early 1994's Top-30 hit, "High Tech Redneck". In between that single and 1999's "Choices" he was on the Top-40 as a prominent background vocalist on the Patty Loveless hit, "You Don't Seem To Miss Me". The single would go on to win an award in the Vocal Event/Collaboration category. "Choices", in the meantime, won a Grammy...becoming George's second Grammy win. Two of his recordings were placed in the Grammy Hall of Fame: 1962's "She Thinks I Still Care" and 1980's "He Stopped Loving Her Today". In 2012 he won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement award.

His popularity never waned or diminished...in 1999 and 2001 he enjoyed lengthy album successes with Cold Hard Truth and The Rock: Stone Cold Country 2001, each release hitting the Top-5 on the country album chart. The 1999 release sold half a million copies rather quickly. Another late '90s release, 16 Biggest Hits, sold half a million copies as did a 50 year CD release in 2004 titled 50 Years of Hits. Although not noted as a humongous sales artist, George, in truth, racked up quite a few Gold and Platinum releases through the decades and he did so, more or less, without the benefit of a crossover hit or hardly any acclaim from the pop music world whatsoever. Country music albums rarely, if ever, appeared higher than #100 on the Billboard 200, the official name for the pop album chart, until the 1990's...few made it to the Top-40 portion.  

I Am What I Am, George's 1980 studio album, became his first Gold album and then it went Platinum. By the early '90s several more of his 1980's albums were certified. Still the Same Ole Me, from 1981, and 1986's Wine Colored Roses were both certified Gold in 1990 and 1994 respectively. A 1982 release, Anniversary: 10 Years of Hits, was certified Gold in 1989. In the mid '90s a 1977 duet album from George and Tammy titled Greatest Hits, re-issued on CD, was certified Gold. 1992's Walls Can Fall and 1993's High Tech Redneck, each achieved Gold status. To date, the George Jones release that has sold the most copies is 1987's Super Hits. This particular collection was certified Gold and Platinum in the early '90s and then it obtained Double-Platinum status (2,000,000+ copies sold) in the early 2000's. There was a follow-up, Super Hits, Volume Two, but this collection didn't achieve the sales heights of it's predecessor mostly because of little promotion/publicity and the fact that his current releases on MCA in the early to mid '90s were so popular with audiences.

One of the feats that will certainly not be equaled is the amount of chart singles, hit albums, and total Top-40 country singles that he racked up from 1955 through 2011. A compilation simply titled Hits reached the country charts in the spring of 2011, placing in the Top-40. Previous releases such as Burn Your Playhouse Down: The Unreleased Duets hit the Top-20 on the Country album chart in 2008. A Collection of My Best Recollection reached the Top-30 on the Country album chart in 2009. What all of this shows, the sales certifications and the appearances on the album chart with frequency well into the 2000's, is that George Jones was still reaching people and connecting with people some 50+ years after the release of his first singles in the mid 1950's.

As I touched upon at the start of the blog, George had been admitted to the hospital on April 18th for a fever and irregular blood pressure. There hadn't been much news surface in the days since until the news broke this morning of his death at the age of 81. He was in the process of retiring from the road and the music business this year...embarking on a farewell tour which was scheduled to wrap up in November at a huge event in Nashville. There are no doubt countless blogs out there that will touch upon George's music and life in much more detail as the hours and days go by but I wanted to post my own salute and so that's what I did. I wasn't as active in this blog given that there are already dozens of blogs about George Jones that pop up all the time and no doubt would have the same information that I'd be blogging about and so I kept this blog to a minimum...making posts whenever I came across something I felt I could say something about...something that would be different from others out there.

As a fan do you want to know one of the toughest questions asked about George Jones? Well, one of the things that any fan of George Jones will tell you right away is that you never, ever ask "What is your favorite George Jones song?" in the singular. It's a whole lot more appropriate to ask "What are your favorite George Jones songs?". It's impossible, for me, to single out just one recording out of hundreds upon hundreds of songs...single releases and album tracks...and say 'yes, that's my favorite George Jones song'. If you try and do that you'll be singing another of his songs to yourself and saying how wonderful it is...and then once you do this you'll be thinking of another of his songs that you love just as much. 

In closing I want to share a few links that will take you to some special moments in George's career. The first link is the 1987 presentation, by Loretta Lynn, of the Music City News Living Legend award. The tradition of the previous year's recipient presenting the next year's recipient would remain in place for the duration of the award franchise. George, in turn, would present the award in 1988 to Conway Twitty. The ultimate honor in country music, election to the Hall of Fame, is seen in link two. The third link is the Pioneer Award, presented to George several months after the Hall of Fame enshrinement.

1987 Music City News Living Legend

1992 Country Music Hall of Fame

1993 ACM Pioneer Award



George Jones ~Shine On~ 1931-2013

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