Comments on: Album Review: Waylon Jennings – ‘Goin’ Down Rockin’ – The Last Recordings’

By: WF Caple

WF Caple — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 16:32:29 +0000

Hit radio and the want for crossover hits became the new focus of Nashville in the late 80′s / early 90′s. It drove the artists like Waylon, Cash, Haggard, Don Williams, and Loretta Lynn, among others to scramble for a place where they could remain vital. Not that Waylon played the Nashville game, but he was still a commercial artist. These songs show that Waylon was still a force artistically and Nashville should be ashamed that they largely turned their backs on the art form in favor of fast profits and play on pop radio. Such is the corporate world.

By: pdalpsher

pdalpsher — Wed, 19 Sep 2012 17:47:49 +0000

The song Belle of the Ball is not about Jessi. It is about the music business. Nashville in particular. This was explained by Jessi in the GAC show about the making of the Music Inside. Shooter recorded it for the Music Inside and it is NOT a love song.

By: She Loves me (She Doesn’t Love You) | just for the records ~another 365 project

Sat, 15 Sep 2012 20:05:53 +0000

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By: Ken Johnson

Ken Johnson — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 13:17:46 +0000

Waylon did not show up for his Country Music Hall Of Fame induction because he felt that there were other worthy artists that should have been inducted before him. His boycott was a message to the HOF.

Waylon & Willie had constant falling outs over the years most of which can be attributed to mutual substance abuse. It was a love/hate relationship.

Kris was likely just making a joke, Waylon always had an acrimonious relationship with Nashville. Waylon understood the way the music business operated. He did not like it but he accepted the reality. Waylon was a very intelligent guy. Never saw anything that indicated bitterness. Occasional anger or perhaps disappointment but not bitter. According to his wife he was always positive even at the end of his life.

By: luckyoldsun

luckyoldsun — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 05:05:56 +0000

What evidence do I have that Waylon seemed bitter?
Let’s see, he wouldn’t show up for his Hall of Fame induction;
He had a falling-out with Willie, so that they stopped talking to each other;
Then there’s the clip on the Highwaymen 3 10th Anniversary CD, where Waylon does his talking blues song “Living Legends” and when he says the line “I ain’t bitter,” Kris laughs uproariously and says “You ain’t bitter?!”

By: Razor X

Razor X — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 21:42:28 +0000

I would not go so far as to say that Waylon was bitter, but he was one of the few who spoke out about the way country radio was (and still is) discriminating against older artists. I remember an interview that he gave to one of the news magazine shows — Dateline NBC or Primetime Live, one of those — where the topic came up.

By: Ken Johnson

Ken Johnson — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 18:09:26 +0000

Cash had seriously hurt his prestige by releasing mediocre material for most of the 1980′s while Waylon continued to be chart active during most of that period. The Highwaymen provided Cash with a second wind for a time but he was never able to channel it into re-energizing his career with new solo hits. By the early 1990′s the two men were highly regarded as “legends” but gatekeepers at country radio wanted nothing to do with them regardless of how good their new recordings might be. Even Willie Nelson who held superstar status in the 80′s fell from grace. The same prejudice applied to all other aging country acts. Radio was intent on attracting the “young country” audience and music released by older acts definitely did not fit their agenda. Cash’s American Recordings found an audience but it fundamentally was not 1990′s mainstream country fans.

What evidence do you have that Waylon “seemed bitter about how he was frozen out.?” First that I’ve heard of this.

By: luckyoldsun

luckyoldsun — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 14:58:23 +0000

I was a big fan of both Cash and Waylon and saw them play both individually and as the Highwaymen.
I found it somewhat ironic that Cash, who was really washed up as far as being a current recording artist by the late ’70s, enjoyed such a resurgence in the ’90s with the American Recordings series, which consisted almost entirely of covers and reinterpretations of other people’s material. On the other hand, Waylon, who had been charting in the ’80s, made some excellent CDs in the ’90s, consisting of a real mix of self-written songs and covers, and they were almost completely ignored.
Waylon seemed bitter about how he was frozen out.

By: Paul W Dennis

Paul W Dennis — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 05:38:20 +0000

I don’t think I said that these were new songs, although there were a couple of new songs on this album. What this album represents is new recordings. As to the songs you mentioned, they may as well be new songs since few, other than diehard Waylon fans, will have heard them. Even folks like you and I will appreciate the treatments and arrangements on these recordings, at least I did.

I really do hope that RCA, MCA (or someone) has a stash of unreleased Waylon recordings somewhere, like they did for Jim Reeves and Johnny Cash

By: luckyoldsun

luckyoldsun — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 00:15:21 +0000

Paul,

Maybe I’m wrong, but printing so extensively from the lyrics as you do above seems to convey that these are new songs that have been unearthed.

In fact, Waylon sang “I Do Believe”–as a solo– on the third Highwayman album back in 1995 and “Never Say Die,”"Wastin’ Time” and “No Good For Me” were all cuts on Waylon’s excellent, but commercially dormant, solo CD’s during that decade.