{"id":16011,"date":"2019-06-17T12:05:31","date_gmt":"2019-06-17T18:05:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/?p=1808062"},"modified":"2019-06-17T12:05:31","modified_gmt":"2019-06-17T18:05:31","slug":"recalling-waylon-jennings-musical-idols","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/music-news\/recalling-waylon-jennings-musical-idols\/","title":{"rendered":"Recalling Waylon Jennings\u2019 Musical Idols"},"content":{"rendered":"<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/cmt.mtvnimages.com\/uri\/mgid:ao:image:cmt.com:676451?width=1200&amp;height=675&amp;.jpg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\"><\/div>\n<p><span class=\"byline\">by <span class=\"author\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/author\/morrise\/\" title=\"Posts by Edward Morris\" rel=\"author\">Edward Morris<\/a><\/span> <span class=\"date\">23m ago<\/span><\/span> <\/p>\n<p>Had <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/artists\/waylon-jennings\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Waylon Jennings<\/a> lived forever \u2014 as a just universe would have allowed \u2014 he would haved whooped it up Saturday (June 15) on his 82nd birthday. But, alas, he left this mortal stage in 2002, when he was only 64.<\/p>\n<p>Jennings was looming as a major presence in country music even before the release of the album <em>Wanted: The Outlaws<\/em> in 1976 boosted him to legendary status. By that time, he had already scored four No. 1 singles, beginning with \u201cThis Time\u201d in 1974. But it had taken him nine years to reach that milestone.<\/p>\n<p>Jennings first charted in 1965 with \u201cThat\u2019s the Chance I\u2019ll Have to Take,\u201d which peaked at a disappointing No.49. He didn\u2019t make it into the Top 5 until 1968 when \u201cWalk On Out of My Mind\u201d took him there.<\/p>\n<p>Looking over Jennings\u2019 26 years of chart action (he last made the <em>Billboard<\/em> rankings in 1991 with \u201cIf I Can Find a Clean Shirt,\u201d a duet with Willie Nelson), one thing that pops out is his penchant for saluting other singers while contextualizing himself among them.<\/p>\n<p>So, as we lift a glass to \u201cOl\u2019 Waylon,\u201d let\u2019s tune in to some of his lyrical celebrations of himself and others.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"listicle-container\">\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">\u201cAre You Sure Hank Done It This Way\u201d<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>No. 1, 1975; written by Jennings<\/p>\n<p>Here he tips his hat to Hank Williams while patting himself on the back for doing it his own way.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">\u201cBob Wills Is Still the King\u201d<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>Writer: Jennings<\/p>\n<p>A backhand slap at Nashville and a ringing declaration that, in Texas, the King of Western Swing is also King of It All.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">\u201cLuckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)\u201d<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>No. 1, 1977; Writers: Bobby Emmons, Chips Moman<\/p>\n<p>In this pair-up with Willie Nelson, Jennings taps into the then current craze for all things Texas\u2013a craze largely generated by Nelson himself. The refrain is, \u201cLet\u2019s go to Luckenbach, Texas with Willie and Waylon and the boys.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">\u201cDon\u2019t You Think This Outlaw Bit\u2019s Done Got Out of Hand\u201d<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>No.5, 1978; Writer: Jennings<\/p>\n<p>The \u201coutlaws\u201d alluded to here, of course, are the ones spotlighted on the famous album \u2014 Jennings, Nelson, Tompall Glaser and Jennings\u2019 wife, Jessi Colter. But the particular outlaw Jennings chronicles in this song is himself. It recalls his being busted for drug possession while he\u2019s \u201cin the middle of a song.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">\u201cIt\u2019s Alright\u201d<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>Writer: Jennings<\/p>\n<p>In this one, a cut from the 1980 album, <em>Music Man<\/em>, Jennings name checks J. J. Cale (who wrote Jennings\u2019 1980 No. 2, \u201cClyde\u201d), the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, George Jones and Jessi Colter. It contains the oft-quoted encomium, \u201cIf we all sounded like we wanted to\/we\u2019d all sound like George Jones.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">\u201cLeave Them Boys Alone\u201d<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>No. 6, 1983; Dean Dillon, Gary Stewart, Tanya Tucker, Hank Williams Jr.<\/p>\n<p>It gets a little incestuous here, but try to follow me. Sung by Jennings, Hank Jr. and Ernest Tubb, this ditty defends the music of Hank Jr. and Jennings as being in the spirit of Hank Sr. and, thus, canonically immune to criticism.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>\n<div class=\"heading-container\">\n<h3 class=\"heading\">\u201cThe Conversation\u201d<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"description-container\">\n<p>No. 15, 1983; Jennings, Richie Albright, Hank Williams Jr.<\/p>\n<p>A lyrical chat between Jennings and Williams about the hard life and hard loving of Hank Sr.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"author\">\n<div class=\"description\">Edward Morris is a veteran of country music journalism. He lives in Nashville, Tennessee, and is a frequent contributor to CMT.com.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.cmt.com\/news\/1808062\/recalling-waylon-jennings-musical-idols\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: CMT News<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>by Edward Morris 23m ago Had Waylon Jennings lived forever \u2014 as a just universe would have allowed \u2014 he would haved whooped it up Saturday (June 15) on his 82nd birthday. But, alas, he left this mortal stage in 2002, when he was only 64. Jennings was looming as a major presence in country [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16011","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-12 05:40:31","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KRKY Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16011\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/krky\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}