He’s now been a long time gone (18 years!), but today is Waylon Jennings’ birthday
He always maintained he was more than a country singer
At the root of his battles with RCA for creative control was his disdain for the overproduced Nashville studio sound
Full of corny strings, hokey harmonies, and saccharine themes
Starting in the early 70s, he busted out his own outlaw sound and outlook
He took inspiration from rock stars and negotiated more money, his own backing musicians, producers, and engineers
And freedom to record what and how we wished
Drawing more on blues, folk, and rock than what he derided as “countrypolitan” shlock
It didn’t come out of nowhere
He had actually started off as a bassist for fellow Texas-born Buddy Holly
Holly produced some of Jennings’ first work
Jennings was in fact on the ill-fated tour in 58-59
He was actually supposed to be on the chartered flight that went down, killing all aboard.
But had been asked to give up his seat and take the bus instead
Produced some friction
A possibly apocryphal story goes that Holly told him “I hope your bus breaks down” and Jennings retorted “I hope your plane crashes”
Today’s dose is from Jennings’ only album produced by “Cowboy” Jack Clement
who was born and raised in Memphis
And worked at the legendary Sun Records studio
Jennings was happy to get away from all the slick overdubbing RCA imposed
To a more rootsy, organic sound
Clement generally tried to do as much live as possible
Waymore’s Blues is partly an ode to Jimmie Rodgers
Waylon co-wrote it with Curtis Buck
But by this time, cocaine and other drugs were also in the picture
And the live nature of the recordings was also a liability
As drama went down in the sessions
In fact, during Waymore’s Blues there was a brouhaha involving Jennings, Jessi Colter (Jennings’ wife) and her sister…who was married to Clement!
The family squabble eventually got sorted out, but when they tried to set it down to tape again, they couldn’t recapture the bass and rhythm sound from the original recording
So they left in the first version on the album
Listen close: at the end Waylon actually says “one more…” but it never comes and there is instead an abrupt fade-out
That’s cuz on that first take a zooted Jennings threw up his hands and stormed out of the booth!
Happy 83rd to one of the original Outlaws
You wanna get to heaven, gotta d.i.e.
You gotta put on your coat and t.i.e.
