I was listening to the PRI program Sound Opinions on Saturday, and they did an extended interview with Willie Nelson's latest biographer. It merely confirmed that this guy is quintessentially American, a marvelous national asset, ignored by the mainstream media because he's been tagged "country" (to my mind, he is even more important than Bob Dylan; blasphemy, I know, but I prefer Tom Waits to the sage from Duluth, so there you go). I love the story I read somewhere about this first song; blonde dimbulb Jessica Simpson, while filming the Dukes of Hazzard movie, asked Nelson if he knew the song "Crazy", and he replied that he co-wrote it for Patsy Cline. Too funny.
He did a concept album about an itinerant preacher who kills his wife (fun stuff, huh) called Red Headed Stranger. The album, and the first proposed single, were deemed "unreleasable" by the record company. Of course, it was his first major success, and the single, "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain", is a classic. I wonder if people at record companies have any brains at all.
After Waylon Jennings got artistic control, Willie came along and forced through the same contractual freedom. After that, they developed their "outlaw" persona, and while it was described as a marketing ploy, it also had a certain truth to it. Here they are doing "Good Hearted Woman"
