WAYLON JENNINGS THE FIRST AND ONLY COUNTRY ROCK REBEL
When it comes to rebels in the music world, we often think of Elvis, Buddy Holly, Jerry Lee Lewis, Mick Jagger and the like.
With the exception of Holly and Elvis for a brief time at the beginning of 1960, the other 3, or 2 and 3/4 if Elvis is cut a bit of slack, were rebels more for their stage persona and image than for lyrical and musical shock.
Well that might be so if you ignore a handful of Elvis songs that Col. Parker made sure no one got to hear until well after Elvis was dead.
The only mainstream Elvis song which escaped from the vaults of Col. Parker in the 1950`s and 60`s anyway that I would consider to be genuinely rebellious is the classic `Jailhouse Rock`.
Holly started out in Lubbock, Texas playing country laced blues and his own jangly version of texmex, and those combined influences were the ingredients of the rock sound that would take him to the heights
of stardom for a very brief moment in time.
Holly started out playing with Bob Montgomery, a country crooner and they called themselves Buddy and Bob on local radio.
The two-piece act jagged a weekly gig on Lubbock radio a long time before Holly went to Decca in Nashville to record the first time around.
Holly`s well known personality and artistic clash with the powers that be in Nashville was very ironic, because his best mate Waylon Jennings would end up becoming known as the Nashville Outlaw long after the plane crash which claimed the life of his best mate.
I have always had a soft spot for Waylon Jennings, he probably was the very first `country` artist which i admitted I liked to some degree.
My first taste of Waylon Jennings was the song `Good Ol` Boys` off the late 70`s/early 80`s hit show `The Dukes of Hazzard`.
Every time that orange hotted up car, whatever make it was, done an Evil Canevil jump and got airborne twenty metres off the ground I thought of this song, which I think was used as the intro song at the beginning of the show.
Jennings was never pure country, even though he ended his career as a member of a 4-piece which embodied everything which country music is about, and a bit of rocked up rebellion thrown in.
Of course I am referring to the Highwaymen, which included Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson.
The debut Highwaymen album is one of my favourite country albums, country enough but sophisticated and refined enough as
well.
Jennings as a solo act always chucked in a bit of funk and Holly-ish tex rock with his country sound.
A funk influence in the Jennings canon was never more evident and easy to hear than on one of my favourite songs, `I`m a Ramblin` Man`. It really is funky stuff, like two bob and a haircut country skiffle with just enough groove to class it as rock`n`roll.
Waylon was no mug in the studio, even though he spent much of his time in one fully sozzled state, as drunk as a state school hat rack.
His mid 1980`s solo swansong tune `Rose in Paradise`, before he teamed up with Cash, Nelson and Kristofferson in the Highwaymen, is such a good song if you ask me.
A perfect compromise between country and 80`s sophisticated rock. It sees Jennings playing the guitar as elegantly as he had ever done, even if his voice was starting to falter slightly as a result of many years of alcoholism. A
Another song of Waylon`s from the eighties which is obviously autobiographical
of his personal demons with women is a more country one called `Drinkin` and Dreamin`.
Dont worry, despite being at the mercy of ruthless women myself I haven`t made it
my theme song. Not yet anyway.
Simple, no frills, all two chord but a great down to earth song which is sung in the
most humble downtrodden manner you would expect to get from Waylon Jennings after 25 years of hard drinking.
I dont know too much about his earlier stuff, I`m not that old and to be honest I never have sat down and listened to his 60`s recordings yet.
I will have to do just that after I'm finished writing this blog. One song I do know from his early days is a absolute nugget called `That`s the Chance I`ll Have to Take`.
Just like Merle Haggard this song, pure no
nonsense country where the vocals outscore the steel guitar.
Waylon had many great country/country rock and country/funk songs in his career, sadly he lived out the majority of his life grieving at the loss of his good friend Buddy
Holly.
Go and buy `The Essential Waylon Jennings`and.a get a taste of the first genuine country rock artist.
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