The Morbid song that revived a country legend's career

George Jones : He Stopped Loving Her Today

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In April of 1980 country legend George Jones released "He Stopped Loving Her Today", his first #1 country hit in six years. Written by Bobby Braddock and Curly Putman, the song didn't make much of an impression on Jones when he first heard it. "He thought it was too long, too sad, too depressing and that nobody would ever play it," said producer Billy Sherrill. "He hated the melody and wouldn't learn it."

The song is about a man who is so deeply in love with a woman that he keeps all of her letter and old photos and only stops loving her "today" because that's the day he dies.

When Jones recorded his last vocal he hung up his headphones with the line "Nobody'll buy that morbid son of a bitch". 

False. More than half a million people bought the single, reviving the career of The Possum, who won a Grammy for his performance.

Bobby Braddock , who also wrote Tammy Wynette's "D-I-V-O-R-C-E"  and "(We're Not) The Jet Set", tells the story of the song below. 

1977 In Compilations

Neil Young : Winterlong

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Neil Young handpicked the songs on this three disc classic, which begins with Buffalo Springfield's "Down to the Wire" and goes up to the minor Stills Young hit "Long May You Run".  Best of all are some previously unreleased tracks like the Tonight's The Night era "Winterlong", "Deep Forbidden Lake"  and "Campaigner" which has the memorable line "Even Richard Nixon has got soul".

Roxy Music : A Song for Europe

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This is how I--and many fabs--first discovered Roxy Music. The greatest hits collection, released during the band's hiatus,  gives short shrift to Siren but adds the For Your Pleasure era single "Pyjamarama". Not available on CD

George Jones : The Window Up Above

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A collection of indisputable classic country hits by George Jones, aka The Greatest Country Music Singer. Jones considered "The Window Up Above" the best song he ever wrote. He hit #2 in 1960 with the song. Mickey Gilley knocked John Denver's "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" out of the top spot with his 1975 cover. 

Jefferson Airplane : Greasy Heart

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Flight Log came with a 12 page booklet and a few bizarre choices of songs by and related to Jefferson Airplane. The Worst of Jefferson Airplane is where I discovered most of my faves.

40 Year Itch: Step Right Up...

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On January 22, 1974 "Mr Country Music", George Jones recorded one of the saddest divorce songs of all time: "The Grand Tour". The song , produced by Billy Sherrill, would top the country charts in August. The following year his seven year marriage to "Mrs Country Music", Tammy Wynette, would be over

You can take a grand tour of the Lakeland, Florida home Jones and Wynette owned in the early 70's. With a swimming pool shaped like a guitar and a stable for horses, the property is now for sale with a price tag of  $1,950,000.

According to the listing website:

   Shortly after marrying in 1969, George Jones and Tammy Wynette, Mr. and Mrs. Country Music, called this their home when they moved to Lakeland in 1970. 

In an interview with The Tampa Tribune , Ms. Wynette was quoted as saying, "This is home for us. We're cutting down our traveling to about ten days a month and plan to spend most of the rest of our time right here. It's the only place we want to be."  

The couple truly loved the spacious, rural surroundings.

They began entertaining on the property and it was appropriately named Old Plantation Music Park.

They drew some top names in country music including Porter Wagner, Charlie Pride and Johnny Cash. Unfortunately, the rural neighbors, who also loved their peace and quiet, didn't love all the noise.

As any country music fan knows from their song lyrics, this Two Story Home, wasn't always a happy home. At the end of 1972, the couple decided it was time to move on. The home inspired the hit songs "The Grand Tour" and "Two Story House":




There's chandeliers in every room
 Imported silks and satin all about
 We filled the house with everything
 But somehow left love out.
 Lyrics from George and Tammy 's hit single "Two Story House".

40 Year Itch: Those We Missed from Nov '73

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"Mr Bojangles" songwriter Jerry Jeff Walker's Viva Terlingua! must have offered Jimmy Buffet a blueprint for the rest of his career. It's full of good-time, hangover-healing progressive country tunes including the legendary Ray Wylie Hubbard satiric number "Up Against the Wall Red Neck Mother". Other "must hears" are Guy Clark's "Desperadoes Waiting For a Train" and Gary P. Nunn's Austin City Limits anthem "London Homesick Blues" with its unforgettable refrain "I want to go home with the armadillo..."

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Somehow, despite constant touring, Irish blues rocker Rory Gallagher found the time to write nine new tunes and record them with his well-honed, now semi-telepathic band. Here's a great starting place to get yourself hooked on this amazing talent, who should be mentioned in the same breath as Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page.

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With the help of Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover as producer, Nazareth broke out in a big way in 1973, releasing the hard rocking Razamanaz followed by Loud 'n' Proud. The rollicking UK#11 single "This Flight Tonight" barely resembles Joni Mitchell's original. There's also a trudging cover of Dylan's "The Ballad of Hollis Brown." The Scottish hard rockers would finally seduce US audiences in 1973 with the two-million selling Hair of the Dog

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On the band's fifth album, Carlos Santana continues his jazzier explorations with the help of John McLaughlin, Alice Coltrane and smooth vocalist Leon Thomas. Gone for good were teenage guitarist Neal Schon and keyboardist Gregg Rolie . They would form Journey. Critics still found ways to rave ("Carlos..has never played better"; "good themes, good  playing, good beat") but fans of Santana's Latin rock sounds were starting to wander away. Still, Welcome went gold.

                   

                                                                           

                                                                           
                   
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       The heartbreaking photos on the cover say more about the state of the George Jones Tammy Wynette marriage than the songs. The title cut topped the Country charts while the novelty tune "(We're not) The Jet Set" remains an all-time fan favorite.

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              Before the O Brother Where Art Thou soundtrack was released in 2007 ( selling nearly 8 million copies to date), this two-LP from Bill Monroe's bluegrass festival in Bean Blossom, Indiana was THE bluegrass album to own if you were only going to own one. The CD release offers selections from Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys, Lester Flatt and the Nashville Grass and more of the top bluegrass acts of the day.

                                                         

40 Year Itch: 1972 in Country Music

1972 was the year 13-year old Tanya Tucker hit the Top 5 with "Delta Dawn". The Fan Fair debuted and Opryland USA opened in Nashville. Countrypolitan was still dominating country music radio-- string sections replacing fiddles and steel guitars. And it was a good year for cross-overs from country to the pop charts especially for newcomer Donna Fargo and Mac Davis.

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Johnny Cash is on a roll with his network TV show, White House concerts and recent marriage to June. He celebrates the latter with his 38th album A Thing Called Love which includes his wedding song " I Promise You".

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Here's another wedding song. This one, written by Donna Fargo, almost went to 13 year old starlet Tanya Tucker. Good thing for both of them that Tanya wound up recording "Delta Dawn". "Happiest Girl" made Donna Fargo a cross-over a star. She followed it with another smash hit "Funny Face".

1972 was a good year for Merle Haggard. Then California Governor Ronald Reagan pardoned The Hag for his past crimes ( including burglary, robbery, and  larceny) And Haggard released Let Me Tell You About a Song featuring two #1 hits ( "Daddy Frank", "Grandma Harp") as well as the ground-breaking "Irma Jackson", a song about an interracial romance.

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The writer of the 6 million selling single "Harper Valley PTA", Tom T Hall hit #1 on his own with "(Old Dogs, Children And) Watermelon". The single , released in November of 1972, is a true account of a conversation Hall had with a old black janitor at the 1972 Democratic National Convention in Miami.

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George and Tammy renewed their vows on the album Me And The First Lady in the song "The Ceremony". Jones was already such an erratic a performer he was earning the nickname "No Show" Jones. Tammy, on the other hand, at earned the title "First Lady of Country Music".

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The same year the Hag released "Irma Jackson", Buck Owens made his first #1 in three years with his own song about an interracial romance. "Made in Japan" is about a girl "made in Japan". Recorded with The Buckaroos, it features a steel guitar which seemed to be an endangered sound on Country radio at the time.

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Dolly Parton was on a hit making streak in the early 70's both as a solo artist and with Porter Wagoner. Although some country stations, citing "sexually suggestive lyrics",  refused to play the title cut of her 1972 album Touch Your Woman, the single still hit #6 on the country charts. I guess following it up with the album cut "A Lot Of You Left In Me" was a non-starter.

Six Degrees: Garland Jeffreys To Drive By Truckers

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1. Before Garland Jeffreys recorded the anthemic "Wild In The Streets" in 1973 (it would finally appear on the 1977 album Ghost Writer), he played guitar on John Cale's first solo album, 1969's Vintage Violence.

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2. The bass player on this album which Cale himself thought was too simplistic was Harvey Brooks who also played on Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, The Doors' Soft Parade and arranged Karen Dalton's 1971 album In My Own Time.

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3. Among the songs Dalton recorded was this George Jones/Leon Payne number "Take Me" which Jones had recorded on his 1966 album Love Bug.

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4. Though his duets with wife Tammy Wynette are better remembered, Jones also recorded duets with Melba Montgomery, who was raised in Florence Alabama ( the same hometown as Sam Phillips and W.C. Handy) , one of the Quad Cities along with Muscle Shoals.

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5. Muscle Shoals Sound Studio is home to some notable recordings including The Rolling Stones' "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses", much of  Paul Simon's There Goes Rhymin' Simon, Lynyrd Skynyrd's Street Survivors and Millie Jackson's Caught Up, recorded in 1974, with the studio house band known as The Swampers.

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6. David Hood, the bass player for The Swampers, recorded with Traffic, Cat Stevens and Bob Seger. His son Patterson is the frontman for Drive By Truckers. This song , from the 2011 album Go Go Boots, was written by Eddie Hinton who also wrote Dusty Springfield's "Breakfast in Bed".

Patterson Hood