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Tammy Wynette, George Jones (center) and producer Billy Sherrill.
Posted on 08/27/2011 11:06:36 AM PDT by Pharmboy
George Jones fans are a loyal, jealous bunch, and they brook no pretenders to the throne of their golden boy, now a white-haired icon still performing, just weeks shy of his 80th birthday. "There's a quote from Frank Sinatra, who says, 'Second-best singer in this country is George Jones,' " Keith Richards wrote in his recent memoir. "Who's the first, Frank?"
Nashville Banner Archives
Tammy Wynette, George Jones (center) and producer Billy Sherrill.
Many hail Mr. Jones's crowning glory as "He Stopped Loving Her Today," a magnificently maudlin country hit that resuscitated his career in 1980, when he seemed locked in a fatal spiral of drugs and alcohol. Over the years the ballad has become something of an anthem for the permanently brokenhearted, telling the story of a man who carries to his grave a lifetime of pining for an unrequited love.
Mr. Jones had his own verdict on hearing the record for the first time, played back in the studio. He told producer Billy Sherrill: "Nobody will buy that morbid son of a bitch." A million-seller and Grammy winner, it's now entrenched in the culture, the sort of dirge that some terminally lovesick folks request for their funeral.
The record's colorful back story is the subject of Jack Isenhour's "He Stopped Loving Her Today," the work of an obsessive fan less keen on the usual behind-the-music scandal mongering than on trying to elucidate the art of his hero's music.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
For all he did to himself, he still looks pretty good.
Looks better than Keith or Mick.
He said when he woke up after running his suv into the bridge several years ago, he thought he’d been in a plane crash
He drove that SUV off the bridge.
EXCELLENT point...
Most people don’t appreciate that that song took months to produce. Bill Sherill and the engineers literally sweated over every note in the accompaniment. Without them it would have been a good song, but nowhere near the great recording that it is.
He got drunk and beat poor Tammy black and blue...more than once.
Yup...I don’t think anybody ever claimed him to be a good guy, but he could sing.
A wonderful book review and a fascinating subject. If you don’t want read the whole book, but want to learn more, go here:
http://mixonline.com/mag/audio_george_jones_stopped/
I’ll agree that “He Stopped Loving Her Today” is one helluva country music song, but my personal George Jones favorite is “The Grand Tour,” in which he leads his listeners through a house in which he and his wife (who has left him) once lived.
George Jones never sang a song that I didn’t like. His range is amazing.
Almost 80 and still doesn’t sound bad.
Yeah he screwed up plenty, so did his compadres. Johnny Casn, Waylon Jennings and others. Sometimes he laughed at himself sometimes he cried. Not sure Tammy was a good partner for him in other than song, but he loved her no doubt of that.
George was the best Still is IMO, these new guys suck.
Yup ~ the sadness of the ultimate sadness is you won't be there to feel it. Or, the happiness of the ultimate happiness, or the love of the ultimate love, ...... cannot even be fully contemplated from this side of eternity.
And we miss the ones we miss, even for ages.
Leastwise that ALWAYS causes me to think that way when I hear that song ~ so I avoid it. But today I played it. And there it is.
George Jones could have written Ecclesiastes I think.
The Mama Song
He still looks rascally.
"Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes?"
Mine is “The Door”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF5y_CbWlOs
“these new guys suck.”
+1
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