Waylon Jennings

Tulsa/The Taker is an underrated Waylon album, too. You really can't go wrong with Waylon between 71 to 76.

I just got some british 3-CD box set that gives a great overview - I even liked one of the 90s songs on there ("Nobody Knows I'm Elvis", its a pretty funny throwaway). His voice has a very strange timbre, kind of flat and husky...? I daresay he sounds best when paired with other singers, but then maybe that's just cuz I'm a sucker for country harmonizing... real surprise on this box for me was "The Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line", which I had never heard before. Totally awesome Sun Records sound on there.

also for some reason I never recognized that Dukes of Hazzard themesong as him

Honkey Tonk Heroes is really one of the best albums ever, IMO; great songs from Billy Joe and great performances, you can almost feel your boots stick to the floor from all the fracus-spilled beer.

Oh, and like it or not, it IS Country.

Waylon's one of my all-time faves. Yeah, his voice is curious... it's really not all that *great*, yet perfect all the same.

m coleman's list upthread is pretty otm as far as essentiality goes. I'd tack on Willie & Waylon (the first one) and The Taker/ Tulsa.

i picked up a record by his wife Jessi Colter the other day. overall it's just a folk album, but there are a few killer tracks. one w/funky drums, a gospel number, and this one New Wine, which i think is just fantastic. really droney, eastern sounding psych folk.

which lp? I've got I'm Jessi Colter and it's pretty great. The first side really tramples all over that fine line between some country and soul/R&B.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y383FMQaH5w&videos=qUba3bwQsKc&playnext_from=TL&playnext=1

jesus, this smokes.

that's actually live, if anyone's wondering.

Looks strangely like a bloated cowboy Jon Stewart at certain angles in that video. Which incidentally is a totally awesome video.

it is! i can see the bloated cowboy jon stewart thing, but i still think waylon looks kind of hot there. i like him w/o the beard. i like how laconic his stage presence is, yet still commanding.

everything about that song/performance is outstanding, perfectly calibrated, from the two guitar solos (particularly waylon's--why does no one rate him as a guitarist?), the drumming, and most important, waylon's singing. just astonishing.

ironically this period (ca 1969) waylon was releasing LPs (and a lot of them) that were pretty hit or miss, with a lot of psuedo-psychedelic/macarthur park- and folky- type stuff that frankly didn't suit him. but on the evidence of this and other videos waylon and his touring band were in absolutely top form.

Waylon's a great guitar player! I always forget that it's him playing a lot of the lead stuff. His solo on this is hot!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnEtRUcKGwc

you wanna see Waylon absolutely SLAYING shit ... watch this clip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8rAA8K2718

...fucking ridiculous how tight and ripping those two minutes are ... Waylon was a god, and this: "(particularly waylon's--why does no one rate him as a guitarist?)" .. cannot be overstated

This video is not available in your country due to copyright restrictions.

;_;;;;

This video is not available in your country due to copyright restrictions..

This video is not available in your country because only Americans can appreciate the country-fried awesomeness.

Fixed.

check out the double-necked guitar in that clip!

holy hell that clip is fire

"Are You Sure Hank don it this Way", vocal's apart, wouldn't be amazingly out of place on Velvet's Live '69- try singing Rock n' Roll along with it.

well it is mostly a vamp.

This video is not available in your country due to copyright restrictions..

This video is not available in your country because only Americans can appreciate the country-fried awesomeness.

Fixed.

― amateurist, Tuesday, August 11, 2009 7:41 AM (3 weeks ago) Bookmark

But I AM American!!1 (just in a far away land)

I've been listening to nothing but Waylon for the last week or so! Honky Tonk Heroes I tend to jump around a lot cuz I'm mostly familiar Shaver's versions of them (what a perfect dude's tunes for Waylon to sing, though!) The Taker/Tulsa has been giving me a lotta joy, and the tile track from Singer Of Sad Songs has found itself on repeat more than few times, though I can't find the album to save my life (*COUGH* *HINT*) But if the rest holds up to that track in the slightest I imagine it's fairly essential. I'm curious to hear what the rest sounds like production-wise, too, that being the only track on the album not produced by Lee Hazlewood.

i been jamming a couple waylon LPs a lot this week--the taker/tulsa, and singer of sad songs. love him.

http://www.thegenealogytree.com/howard-gallery/celebrities/images/hhoward3.jpg

^harlan howard greeting waylon after hearing his new power electronics outfit

i like this so much better than Willie's, and probably better that the studio version from the unfuckwithable Willie & Waylon record

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTAao4Ofx5w

Cowboy Jack C.: "never heard it"
Waylon: "never heard it?! you produced it!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugm0JZhX3CI

lol

^^^ wow that clip is fabulous! (Used to play this song in a band, and toward the end of the night, after a few beers, those simple chord changes got challenging because of how long they hang.)

this is pretty great. shame about the a/v sync issues

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khEAuU5ShXs

waylon jennings y'all

he is my man

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6zEloppnq8

In those Waylon/Jessi clips he seems so weathered compared to her. Hard livin'...

Wiki says her mother was a Pentecostal preacher and her father was a racecar driver (which sounds like a Southern Culture on the Skids song!) Also never knew she was married to Duane Eddy.

much love for Waylon

wish a lot of his canonical/earlier stuff was easier to find

of all the genres I listen to, country seems the most poorly served in the reissue/archival dept

you just gotta get all those wild german imports.

http://www.amazon.com/Journey-Six-Strings-Away/dp/B00003L2WU

that was on sale for like $70 a few months ago!

oh hai http://tjshouseofcountrymusic.blogspot.com/2011/10/waylon-jennings-discography-89-albums.html

!!!

!!!, indeed.

just unbelievable. I've been looking for years for some of this stuff

thanks for that amateurist

This is an amazing album cover btw
http://npknet.com/images/Jackvynil/1121albums327.jpg

the debut of his winged W logo iirc

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-KLFYJyAnofM/TkCgdhZMQ-I/AAAAAAAABY8/-9Uu6QMILO4/s1600/horensteinwaylonjennings.jpg

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3377/3196862684_c01d81c012.jpg

wow!

that cover makes me imagine an alternate universe where waylon was cast as han solo. a better universe.

is the middle finger in that photo the Big Bopper's or RIchie Valens

man that amateurist link is such a goldmine. haven't heard a lot of the 60s stuff before, loads of great sounds + tunes. This one cracked me up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DikpRYxv2mA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0M7JaPymtg

otm

omg official ILX Outlaws bus yessssss

shared on FB today:

https://scontent-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ash3/1476009_10152081994912445_606308061_n.jpg

amazing story in the OUTLAW book that came out this year about Waylon writing a guy a $4,000 check on a paper bag and the bank actually cashing it.

other good stories about Waylon's most crippling addiction... pinball.

lol

"That hairy, smelly Outlaw sure plays a mean pinball..."

i think roughly 80% of the best videos on youtube belong to waylon, this among them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugm0JZhX3CI

"it don't make no sense. i mean, it does, but it don't."

^^^ That's great. I'd love a solo Waylon album.

"we had it all"

fuck

this shit is hilarious
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzCz-zA83q8

Make phasers country again.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NWi1Kl1_qM

Thought she was the creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaammmmmm
Of the Basin Street queens

love it. wish he had done a cosmic solo guitar record.

^ Hard agree on that imaginative solo record. What is the stage in life where you give up searching for the next obscure rural rock album and you instead just throw on the Honky Tonk Heroes LP?

I've come to the conclusion that live 70s Waylon is Cosmic American Music and should receive the same hype as anything from the Dead or the New Riders. The only downside is that you just wish he would've expanded on that last 10 sec hard riff in "Honky Tonk Heroes" for an extra 7 or 15min. But I do think it is the shortness of the tunes that allow for amazing replayability… that and the songwriting. The guitarist Tom Carter made a post on social a couple months back that talked about the motorik qualities of “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?”.

What's the best 70's Waylon live recording?

In addition to just a few well-recorded official live 70s releases, there is a whole lot of other 70s stuff spread throughout the years in different formats. It looks like some of them are boots and some are unofficially-released live broadcasts from radio stations. I started with the 1975 "Waylon Live" RCA release that was eventually expanded into a 2CD set in the 2000's. He keeps it pretty tight and succinct on that one. And then you do find much more raw and at least partly jammed songs on the boots and radio broadcasts.

There is a keyboard player on the Sugarloaf show which I do really like. "Louisiana Women" is my current favorite song, at some point he took out the lyric about a kilo of marijuana when he went and did those mid-late TV performances that you can find throughout YouTube. There are some real gems in those videos too. Here's some links to the ones I just mentioned. The YouTube thumbnail used for the Sugarloaf show looks like it was used for a series of live releases, so I need to take some time and check out those as well.

(1973-11-04) Abbot, Texas
Discogs
YouTube

(1975-08-02) Sugarloaf, Maine
Discogs
YouTube

(1975, RCA release) Waylon Live
Discogs
YouTube

Sorry, the URL to the expanded 1975 RCA release should have linked you to the whole YouTube playlist. I'll try again:

(1975, RCA release) Waylon Live
Discogs
YouTube

Thanks, will check these out.

motorik qualities of “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?”

this is otm!

Yeah! That one plays itself in mah head fairly often. Tyler refers up this thread to Michael Streissguth's Outlaw: Waylon, Willie, Kris, and the Renegades, which I carried on about over on Good Books About Music, incl this:
We also get the influence of fuckin'-finally affordable and widely available cocaine (esp. after the War on Drugs made it more practical than bulky etc. ol' maryjane). Influence incl. on Waylon, who was already driven and drivin', with much more of the earlier zig-zag career than I'd realized (had the big country version of "MacArthur Park"!) Also quite the appetite for pinball and good cover material, which he could find even or especially on the shittiest-sounding demo tapes. Thought, as the author depicts, that the Outlaw hype was a crock, and of course he did sound more like a big ol' teddy bear, even then.

Still want to check some of those odd-looking pre-Outlaw releases---the earliest recordings I've heard were
later compiled on Only Daddy That'll Walk The Line, a '74 cash-in: mainly remember the title track and "Nashville Bum": "You can change a word or two and I'll give half of it to you," also about "eating ketchup soup." Pretty calm, just a leetle hopeful, a way of life. Good track.
Also! I liked Waylon Forever, did not know it was part of this eventual release (thanks Wiki):
In 1996, (Shooter) Jennings and his father recorded an album together. They called it Fenixon (a play on the words "phoenix" and "sun") but could not find a label to distribute it.[4] Some of the material was remastered and used for the album Waylon Forever. The full Fenixon recording was finally released by Jennings' label Black Country Rock in 2014.

Be sure to check out Singer of Sad Songs, mostly produced by Lee Hazlewood before he moved to Sweden. Includes versions of "Honky Tonk Women", "No Regrets", "If I Were A Carpenter", and a duet w/Lee on "Rock, Salt and Nails".

Makes you wish there was a 'Waylon Sings Lee' album.

Huge fan of 'Singer of Sad Songs', a real gem

Still want to check some of those odd-looking pre-Outlaw releases---the earliest recordings I've heard were
later compiled on Only Daddy That'll Walk The Line, a '74 cash-in: mainly remember the title track and "Nashville Bum": "You can change a word or two and I'll give half of it to you," also about "eating ketchup soup." Pretty calm, just a leetle hopeful, a way of life. Good track.

Ketchup soup line ftw. I got this comp a couple months ago and it's good!

Yeah, I think that, while he's trying to share, sell, get a little advance on publishing rights, he's having a power lunch of Ketchup soup---think that's how the soup reference fits into the verse. Right?

I think the song is one of his many cynically complaining about the Nashville/Opry game. He's dressing the way they want him to, singing the way they want him to, and writing the songs they want, but he still isn't making it and he's so poor he's got to eat ketchup soup and crackers. When he does write a hit, they make him give half the songwriting credit to someone else.

yeah. I should just listen to the damn thing again, prob on YouTube, but seemed like it worked because of concise lyrics, Waylon-trademark catchy beat, and not too much self-pity, kind a "King of the Road" effect.

It's on the Nashville Rebel soundtrack album (alongside a cover of "Norwegian Wood"!), which is on Spotify.

Unlike a lot of other vintage Country stars, Waylon's actually pretty well covered on Spotify.

Man, can you all tell me where moments like the last 55 seconds come from on Honky Tonk Heros at the Sugarload, Maine show? Not the usual change up riff that he always ends that song with, but the thing they throw in at the end. Especially when the keyboard and fuzz guitar go back and forth like two times before they end it abruptly. You can find little outro moments like that in the live the shows, but this one is defiantly a particular sound from that decade in time. Were Waylon and his band just fans of what harder rock acts were doing at the time? Why don't you see stuff like that on his records when you hear about how he was specific about using his road band in the studio?

hxxps://youtu.be/5MktqJyC_ZE?t=198

Honky Tonk Heroes is the Vinyl Me, Please Country title for August.

All I want in life is to be able to sing “dreaming my dreams” as tenderly as this man does

otm! one of my favorite waylon songs.