Those of you familiar with my reviews of George Jones releases through
the years are probably aware that I often gravitate toward his '70s and
'80s albums for Epic. His career dates back to the '50s and practically
every fan has a favorite era.
The funny thing, for me at least,
is a lot of fans are strongly passionate, either for or against, the
various era's in his career. Those who strongly champion his earliest
recordings rarely give much thought to the songs he recorded after, say,
1964. Some feel as if his songs were much better when there was minimal
instrumental accompaniment while others feel his recordings gained more
widespread success and acclaim once the recordings adopted a mainstream
sound. Some feel his recordings became increasingly better once he
joined the Epic label but then others feel the Epic recordings ruined
the minimal, bare bones raw sound that had been a trademark of the early
years by having orchestral accompaniment and immaculately produced
sounds backing George's distinct vocals.
Even today a lot of critics make it clear that the 1954-1964 decade in George's career is their preferred time period.
I
don't necessarily champion any era of his career...his recordings are
great no matter what time period they were recorded in...but I gravitate
toward the Epic days if only for the fact that it was those very
recordings that I grew up hearing and liking. My grandparents, as well
as my parents, had some vinyl albums, cassettes, and some 8-tracks of
George Jones. The 1982 compilation, Anniversary: Ten Years of Hits,
introduced me to the 1970's recordings of George.
I was thrilled
to see that these two 1980's George Jones albums, Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes and Wine Colored Roses, were being issued on a
single CD together!
One of the oddities of the CD's cover art is that they use an early
'70s picture of George next to the thumbnail images of his 1985 and 1986
studio albums. On the back of the CD it looks to be a mid '70s
publicity photo of George. The liner notes are written by an author
named Chris Bolton and there are a couple of typo's and a song given a
slightly incorrect title.
Those not familiar with the song won't
catch this mistake but the author refers to a duet George did with Lacy
J. Dalton in 1984. He refers to the song as "Size Seven Gold" but the
actual title is "Size Seven Round and Made of Gold". The duet was a
Top-20 hit in early 1985 but it was overshadowed by the recurrent radio
popularity of a late 1984 solo single from George titled "She's My Rock"
as well as the release of the future classic, "Who's Gonna Fill Their
Shoes?", later in 1985. In other words, the Top-20 duet was sandwiched
between two massively popular solo singles from George.
The
fold-out containing the liner notes are filled with pictures taken of
George during the '70s and '80s...including a picture of George and
Tammy taken during what appears to be photo sessions for their 1980
reunion album, Together Again, plus a second picture of the two taken
during the early '70s appear toward the end of the fold-out.
As
far as the music goes it's all wonderful! The project kicks off with the
1985 album, Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes. There are 10 songs on each
album. The running time given is just short of 1 hour. The hit songs
from the 1985 album are "Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes?", "The One I
Loved Back Then", and the obscure "Somebody Wants Me Out of the Way".
The latter release became a hit early in 1986 but was overshadowed
largely by the first two releases from the album. "The One I Loved Back
Then" became a hugely popular song on radio and in concert. It deals
with a play on words and a misunderstanding between George and a man he
meets at a convenient store while discussing Corvettes. The song became
so synonymous with George that the Corvette became a permanent fixture
in his personal life, too. Publicity pictures of George and Corvettes
began appearing in country music magazines. Many times in the early and
mid '90s George was spotted at various local car shows...admiring the
Corvette section, of course. A 1993 album shows George standing in front
of a Corvette. "The One I Loved Back Then", subtitled "The Corvette
Song", reached the Top-5 early in 1986.
Meanwhile, on a more
serious note, "Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes?" honored the heroes and
legends of music and a riveting music video was filmed...winning a
fan-voted award in 1986 as Music Video of the Year from the readers of
Music City News magazine. "Somebody Wants Me Out of the Way" is in the
cheating song category and it became a Top-10 hit in mid 1986.
I
like the entire 1985 album. It also features two duet recordings: Lynn
Anderson joins George on "If You Could Touch Her At All" while Lacy J.
Dalton appears with George on "That's Good - That's Bad". One of my
favorites, besides the hits, is "Just When". There's just something
about that song and his vocal performance that makes a person wonder why
it was never released as a single. There's a great narration segment as
well.
The album is ballad heavy and the only mid to uptempo
recordings are "The One I Loved Back Then", "A Whole Lot of Trouble For
You", and "Call The Wrecker For My Heart". In later years, much of the
1990's specifically, George's albums would feature more mid-tempo and
uptempo recordings and just a few ballads. I assume the reason for that
is due to the popular belief that country songs only sell if they're
dance-friendly and uptempo!?
Wine Colored Roses came along in
1986 and it, too, is ballad heavy. The album's first three songs were
released as singles throughout the latter half of 1986 into mid 1987.
"Wine Colored Roses", one the many songs dealing with alcohol in
George's career, leads off the album. A ballad, it was issued as a
single late in 1986 and it tells the story of a man who gets a letter
from an estranged lover asking several questions. One question in
particular is if he's stopped drinking. The song's follow-up was "The
Right Left Hand" in early 1987. This particular song is mid-tempo and it
was written especially about George's personal life and his marriage to
Nancy. The two of them married in 1983 and have remained together for
29 years. This song reached the Top-10 in the spring of 1987.
Joining
that recording as mid-tempo is "Ol' Frank", track 19. This song tells a
very familiar gold-digging story of a younger woman marrying an older
man for his money. It's a whimsical tale as is the much more uptempo
"The Very Best of Me". In that song George refers to an ex-wife which no
doubt will conjure up memories of his previous marriage to Tammy
Wynette. George duets with Patti Page on the mid-tempo "You Never Looked
That Good When You Were Mine". As you can tell by it's title the song
was playful as two former lovers see one another in their later years
and, based strictly on appearance, regret not staying together. "Don't
Leave Without Taking Your Silver" is one of my favorites. It's title has
a double meaning. One of the greatest songs he recorded during the
1980's is the album's closer, "These Old Eyes Have Seen It All". Once
you hear it you'll be saying the same thing.
"I Turn To You"
became a single in the summer of 1987 and it reached the Top-30...an
early victim of country radio's New Country brand. It's a sentimental
song and a ballad about love affirmation. I feel if the song had been
recorded and released a couple of years earlier it would've been a much
more bigger hit.
By late 1987 the New Country brand was being
heavily promoted at country radio...there were still quite a few outlets
for established country artists to get their albums and songs
publicized to a mass audience. This was accomplished mostly through
appearances on The Nashville Network and Hee-Haw. There were also
magazine publications that were still in print that catered to the
audiences of the established country singers.
What was going on,
though, from 1987 onward was a distinct difference between what was
largely being heard on country radio and what was being viewed on
country music television programs. It was very common, in 1994 for
example, to turn a country radio station on and hear a lot of New
Country artists but then switch on The Nashville Network later that day
and see a lot of artists that country audiences knew but weren't hearing
on the radio with any degree of consistency anymore. So, for a period
of 4 or 5 years, country radio and country TV catered to two distinct
demographics. Nowadays the radio and TV outlets for country music are
indistinguishable. Unless you're one of the chosen that gets radio
airplay you more or less won't get the opportunity to appear on any
number of TV shows that focus on country music, either.
You can purchase the CD through the following link...2 album on 1 CD. I'll soon copy and paste this review over on Amazon's product page.
