On Friday George (a/k/a Thumper, aka Possum, aka No Show) Jones died. I sat down and wrote quite a long piece about him going – part a top 10, part hagiography. You can read it following on from this piece if you have time and the inclination to listen and watch. I won’t deny it was a tearful session – in part because his songs are all heartbreakers. But mainly because great music evokes memories, and George Jones evoked many for me. He was probably one of the first musicians that made me realise that genre shouldn’t be a boundary.
Jones led a wild(ish) life – it makes a good book. But unlike the great rockstars it was pretty much real and not affected. He wasn’t much of a performer (pretty much set it up and I’ll sing it), he didn’t write songs really (although his song choice was impeccable) and bar a flat top and a few fancy nudie rhinestone suits (not ironic) he didn’t go crazy with the styling. Its not easy to describe his voice – its rather thin without much range, and it has a nasal tone. It does seem to blend ideally with a pedal steel guitar, and it is unquestionably one of the most moving instruments I’ve heard. No one could argue Jones caught the “blues” as he sang – he’s the very definition of what they call “high lonesome”. A great singer, without doubt. And a singer with soul.
And I decided after some thought that maybe the long piece below - though deserved - was misguided. Jones could say it better. And in this 3 or so minutes (arguably for me the saddest song ever committed to vinyl) he did.
So find time to listen to it – another world awaits:
It tears me up every single time. That’s every single time.
-Tony H
Want more? Well here’s the aforementioned long piece!
To see George Jones - 16 Great Hits at #130 on the iTunes chart today is to realise that in music there is no justice in popular music.
It was Barney Hoskyns (a brilliant writer) in his undervalued book “From A Whisper to A Scream” who first made me think about great soul voices and to contemplate the great singers weren’t all black. Whilst maybe your first thought about “soul” takes you to Otis, Sam Cooke and Bobby “Blue” Bland, Hoskyns waxed lyrical about the “soul” of Sinatra, johnny Ray, Dan Penn, Scott Walker, Tim Buckley and (perhaps the pick of picks) George Jones.
George Jones led a rock n’roll life from his rockabilly roots as “Thumper” Jones on Pappy Daly’s Starday label with the classic 1959 hits “Rock It” and “White Lightnin’” (here in an amazing 1965 TV performance – now that’s the way it used to be complete with killer Nudie Rhinestone suits and epic flat top)
He became a great Nashville golden era country singer (check out personal favourite “The Colour Of The Blues”)
Through his duets with Melba Montogomery and Tammy Wynette (no room here for the brilliant “She Thinks I still Care” but worth a look as well) .
And into his Billy Sherrill “countrymopolitan” string laden weepies hitmaking era of the late 70s & 80s.
But he wasn’t an outlaw, and he never tried to be rock and roll. He was just country, and just the best singer that music ever produced. George could have sung the phone book and made you cry – but luckily some of the best songwriters ever gave him a whole series of “three minute soap operas” with which to tear us up.
He was, as the fantastic 1981 hit proclaims “Country When Country Wasn’t Cool” (here complete with outstanding 80s hair from Barbara Mandrell).
Now the great thing about this clip is that George was supposed to sing duet through the whole song – but missed the start because he had passed out drunk in the bath tub. He made the awards (and even that was something of an event) but Barbara had to come out and get him to sing the feature. Great TV in retrospect!
Because, like all great soul singers, George came blessed with demons. He drank heavily and sung unreal songs about the pains and truths of being an alcoholic like “If the Drinkin’ Don’t Kill Me (Her Memory Will)”
He developed a “character building” cocaine addiction he earned the nickname “No Show” Jones for his habit of not making the gig (and that often meant going missing for 2 weeks and being found holed up in a cheap motel with only a whiskey bottle for company)
He sang the best duets with wife Tammy Wynette. And in maybe the greatest “country” moment of all he performed this with her after they’d decided split. And both performed this telling lyric “Golden Ring” with utter and total sincerity:
yes they had divorced, and yes it is about their wedding rings. That’s Nashville. The same town were Wynette had taken Jones car keys from him to stop him driving drunk into town but didn’t count on him making the drive on their motorised lawn mower (an event Jones actually ridiculed on his 1996 hit “Honky Tonk Song” and in that classic video). Go Possum!
So today the world has lost with George Jones and it may have lost the greatest voice that ever recorded. I won’t bore you with the technical stuff about melisima and stuff – I’m not a music critic – but I will say open your mind beyond the music type and listen to the last five offerings I have for you and wish him well wherever hes singing now. Your experience in life will be richer, and your knowledge of true soul broader… (but if you are impatient or time poor make sure you at least hear #1)
(5) We’re Not The Jet Set” – Frankly I’d include this for the lyric alone (priceless and so southern) but you also get Jones & Wynette in full duet flow. You have to listen closely to get the jokes (clue: Rome, Athens, Paris – Georgia, Texas, Tennessee! Although my favourite bit is when their Steak & Martinis are draft Beer and Weiners … This, by the way, is from the classic country music show Hee haw (yes really). Tammy’s hair is a highlight as is the Beverley Hillbilly intro:
(4) “Choices” - Jones comes back in the 2000s with an utter killer. They say Country music speaks your life when done well – well think back on his and see it as the truth. Jones had been on the wagon for a while before this performance and Nashville was happy to welcome him back. Needless to say he got drunk at the awards and wrote his car off on the way home. A Nashville wrecking yard kept the car hung up as its sign for several years afterwards. Nashville honours its legends – choices indeed…
(3) “A Good Year For The Roses” – this tune blew my mind when I first heard Elvis Costello play it and have a chart hit with it in the height of new wave. Costello had decided to “go country” on his album Almost Blue and George Jones was the mainstay of the repertoire. Costello bravely tried to sing the vocal parts of the greatest singer ever and doesn’t do too bad actually. As I listened to it today I couldn’t help thinking about the driving to town on the lawnmower story – something about “the lawns could use a mowing"
(2) “The Grand Tour” - This is the ultimate record in Billy Sherrill’s phase of incredible string laden singles for Jones. It’s an incredibly sad song about divorce (naturally introduced by his wife!) for the perfect singer even if hes asked to perform it in front of a beach hut in yet more classic country tv:
(1)“She Stopped Loving Him Today” – I think this really may be the greatest sad song ever written including all of Closer by joy Division. The lyric is unbelievably sad and can survive even Tom Jones hacking it to pieces, the music is melancholy, the “rap” at 2:45 is perfect and poignant and the vocal performance (even tho this is apparently live its to track) is simply unreal:
Maybe its best to leave the eulogy to George himself? George, “I’ll be over you (when the grass grows over me)
There’s a fair bit of George Jones out there as he recorded for a few labels. Honestly I wouldn’t buy 16 great hits. This one below has the Sherrill repertoire and the early stuff and it’s the best. Can’t beat a good cover photo either though might be better if he was sitting on a mower!
