Best country song

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Slag
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 10:55 PM

It would be difficult to top "Sunday Morning Coming Down", however:

Lefty Frizzel and Dottie West's "You're the Reason God Made Oklahoma"
Johnny Burnette "Big Big City"

Yes on "Pancho and Lefty"

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Scoville
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 10:30 PM

David Crosby, Jim Croce, Judy Collins, etc. are not country in the U.S. Folk or folk-rock, yes. Classic country stations (1950's-1980's) will occasionally play John Denver or Gordon Lightfoot, but that's an exception rather than a rule. Obviously, these are all great performers, but in a different genre.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Uncle Phil
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 10:17 PM

Hmm, best country album is a whole different thing than best country song. As an album, The Red Headed Stranger rates right up there with Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison. Willie's Phases and Stages album is another good one – a divorce from his point of view on one side and her point of view on the other. (Remember when albums had two sides?)
- Phil

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Lin in Kansas
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 08:40 PM

Any Harlan Howard song is a contender, no matter who covers it.

Whole albums of Willie's are "my personal best loved" today...and most likely, tomorrow too. Can't get enough of that man and The Family (oooooh, Mickey, play that harmonica!).

IMHO, of course.

Lin

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Richie
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 07:54 PM

Here's several I like:

Jambalaya
Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain
Long Haired Country Boy

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: pdq
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 07:24 PM

It may be time to get past HSLHT by Possum and move on.

I think Bobby Bare's "Detroit City" is classic Country. Pretty sure the writer is Mel Tillis, quite sure that the entro is done by Glen Campbell. He tunes the guitar up and down with the tuning pegs a la Earl Scruggs on banjo.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: melodeonboy
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 07:15 PM

Great though Hank Williams was, I have to plump for "My Wife Thinks You're Dead" by Junior Brown.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: M.Ted
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 06:56 PM

With due respect, WLD, there is a very different perception in the UK as to what constitutes Country Music --Maverick Country Magazine, for instance, has articles about David Crosby and Jim Croce, fine, even great performers, but not country, not here abouts, anyhow--they come no nearer or further or closer than a country mile---

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Bainbo
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 06:56 PM

Like others have said ,,, it's so wide and there's so many. Hank defined the genre, and you can hear in his voice that he's lived that pain. Then again, there's Wayne Hancock who, to my ears sounds not unlike Hank and has great lines like "They tried to beat a freight train, but the freight train ran 'em down.

When I first heard Willie Neslon's Opportunity to Cry on the radio, it was such a spine-tingling moment that I thought he must have died and it was being played as a tribute (thank God I was wrong).

But I've been listeniing to Clive Gresgson's We're Not Over Yet. I know Clive's working with Nanci Griffith now, but this isn't an overtly country song. Yet it's so bitter, can't you just hear someone like George Jones singing: "The way you never keep to your side of a bargain; The way you always think of no one but yourself; The way you break all of your promises and turn them into threats; Then I know, we're not over yet."

I think that's the best one. But ask me again tomorrow.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: fumblefingers
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 06:11 PM

Opinion:

There is no doubt in my mind that George Jones is the best living country singer. Before "He stopped Loving Her Today," his best song (in honky tonk beer joint circles) is "The Window Up Above."

Hank Williams tops the dead guys with Lefty Frizzell right behind him.
"Cold Cold Heart" is my favorite, but there is a dozen others almost as good.

Lefty's best effort, I think, is "Long Black Veil." He has a string of super songs he did in the fifties.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 05:45 PM

Check out the interview with Jack Hudson in Maverick Country Music Magazine. There are those who would disagree with you.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Cruiser
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 05:10 PM

Yeah, to be a real country song theys just gotta be cryin, sighin' lyin' cheatin', hurtin', killin', dyin', and of course, drinkin'

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: M.Ted
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 04:27 PM

Nice thoughts, but it isn't a country song--it's all reflection, and no action--and there's no pay off--there are a lot of great lines in this song, any one of which could get turned into a country song--but with no disrespect intended to an obviously gifted writer, Mr. Hudson dosn't think like a country songwriter--

Consider this:

"You learn to know what's worth the love
and what ain't worth tears."

He is talking about positive personal growth here--in country music, all the lessons are learned too late--and a country song would never talk about "what ain't worth the tears"--it would be
"She ain't worth the tears"--

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 03:55 PM

THE OTHER SIDE OF FORTY.                              
by JACK HUDSON.



On the other side of midnight
is when your thoughts begin to clear.
And the other side of forty
is when you start to lose your fears.
Good guitars and broken hearts,
get better with the years.
You learn to know what's worth the love
and what ain't worth tears.

All those years of misspent youth.
I recall sometimes and grin.
Some mistakes I'm still ashamed of,
especially those I made again.
Ah, but that's the way it goes,
it's what they call the learning curve.
And I've wound up in some ditches
because of those bends and nerve.


Some of my friends mortgaged their future
and got no change from the past.
Spent like there was no tomorrow
but that day breaks all too fast.
I have wasted my share of time,
hanging in for the rock 'n' roll.
But the band went and called in sick
but sick of what we were never told.


All the rocks you write your destiny on
and lay in your foundations.
Get crushed under the wheels
on that road of good intentions.
The road goes on forever.
I thank whoever for not too much harm.
But curse those who waste your time,
crimes of the heart and false alarms.


I've heard most of the best, and Hudson is better than all of them.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: M.Ted
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 02:19 PM

One swallow does not a Summer make---and Kendall, a soul or rare wit and insight, certainly wanted more than a discussion of the merits of one song--so let's move on, eh?

I'd have to say that "The Green. Green Grass of Home" is a better song than "He Stopped Loving Her Today" more memorable melody, easier and more fun to sing--and it's about prison--

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Cruiser
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 01:52 PM

Of course, "Country" has many subgenres that one would need to say which is best in each of these categories (and more):

Hillbilly
Old-time
Hokum
Appalachian
Country Folk
Western
Honky Tonk
Cajun Country
Rockabilly
Bluegrass
Western Swing
Nashville Sound
Bakersfield Sound
Outlaw Country
Neotraditional Country

And likely more depending on if you are a musicological lumper or a splitter…

I will not even list the contemporary cosmopolitan "Country" music of today.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Cruiser
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 01:26 PM

The following is an excerpt about the song derivation of "He Stopped Loving Her Today"

Jones wrote: "It took us about 18 months to record a song that was approximately three-minutes long." (Because he was rarely sober)

{Quote}
"One thing kind of funny about it was that the melody was so close to 'Help Me Make It Through the Night' [by Kris Kristofferson] that George kept singing the melody to 'Help Me Make It Through the Night.' He couldn't get that out of his head. That gave him a bit of a problem early on, and they took their time to get the narration just right."

The narration part of the song consists of four lines Jones speaks rather than sings: "She came to see him one last time/And we all wondered if she would/And it kept running through my mind/This time he's over her for good."

"Pretty simple, eh?" Jones asks in his book. "I couldn't get it. I had been able to sing while drunk all of my life. I'd fooled millions of people. But I could never speak without slurring when drunk. What we needed to complete that song was the narration, but Billy could never catch me sober enough to record four simple spoken lines. It took us about 18 months to record a song that was approximately three-minutes long." {End Quote}

Songwriters Curly Putnam/ Bobby Braddock: Producer Billy Sherrill

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Scoville
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 11:40 AM

Oops--GUEST 10:41 p.m. was me at Dad's. Forgot to put in my name.

Lurleen Lumpkin! Ha! That's great.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: GUEST
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 10:02 AM

Mission from hank. Aaron Tippin.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: GerryMc
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 08:21 AM


Your wife don't understand you but I do

Lurlene Lumpkin

Gerry :-)

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Jan 07 - 10:41 PM

"He Stopped Loving Her Today" is melodrama overkill...."

That's why it's the best. Country music is about melodrama overkill. It's a social class thing. Keeping calm and reserved and not showing your feelings is a mark of being upper middle class and sophisticated. Country music is about "The hell with that! This is how I feel and I'm saying so and f*** anyone who doesn't approve!"

Sorry, between the words and Jones' voice it's too close to parody. Hank knew how to put it up to the line but not over. Jones wallows too much.

Tunesmith--I normally avoid Nashville like the plague but I have to admit I like Randy Travis. I even like "On the Other Hand" even though the premise drives me nuts. He's got a lot of good ones, though--"Hard Rock Bottom of Your Heart", "Forever and Ever, Amen", "Heroes and Friends", and a lot of his gospel stuff is really good.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Ferrara
Date: 27 Jan 07 - 08:01 PM

Don't like "He Stopped Loving Her Today." Love Hank Williams. Sinsull's choices are great but there are others of his songs, not great in themselves, that just say "country" to me and I love 'em. Songs like "Hey Good Lookin'" and "He's in the Jail House Now."

Love Kitty Wells. Like many other performers of that era but no one comes to mind as "best." One of my all time favorites for some reason is Kitty Wells "I've Loved and Lost Again." But there are dozens and dozens more. Love Jim Reeves. Love Kris Kristofferson, my favorite is "Sunday Morning Coming Down" but half a dozen others are high on the list. And on and on.

Can't imagine a "best" country song. If I have to stop and listen any time I hear it, it's the "best" to me right then.

Fond memories of our friend Nan Goland singing "Red Necks, White Socks and Blue Ribbon Beer," or "Old Flames Can't Hold a Candle to You." Doesn't make them "best" but maybe "best loved."

Got to go listen to Mary Cliff's "Traditions."

Rita F

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 27 Jan 07 - 01:44 PM

Open Pit Mine
                           (George Jones)


From Morenci, Arizona where the copper mines glow
I could see Clifton in the canyon below
In Clifton lived Rosie; we danced and we dined
From the money I made in the open pit mine

I loved my sweet Rosie and she loved me too
There was nothing for Rosie that I wouldn't do
Her hugs and her kisses, they were something divine
Gave me reason for working in the open pit mine

While I was out walking with my Rosie one day
We passed a store window with rings on display
I bought one she wanted; how they really did shine
Spent the money I'd saved from that open pit mine

Her love would bring heartbreak, that I would soon learn
'Cause she would two-time me when my back was turned
Rosie would go dancing and drink the red wine
While I worked like a slave in that open pit mine

One night I caught Rosie on her rendezvous
She was hugging and kissing with somebody new
It was there that I shot her while their arms were entwined
And I buried her deep in that open pit mine

I took a look at my future and what did I see?
There was nothing but trouble awaiting for me
But on the suns next rising I'll be satisfied
'Cause they'll find me there sleeping by my sweet Rosie's side

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 27 Jan 07 - 01:40 PM

I have so many favourites that one is hard to pick. My all time favourite by the Possum though is "Open Pit Mine." (One of his early hits now long forgotten)

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 27 Jan 07 - 12:52 PM

Two songs recorded by the great Randy Travis spring to mind: "Some of the Reasons I cheat" and " On the other Hand". And why not throw in Randy's "The Box". These songs are most definitely "country songs" - not pop songs with "country" pretensions!

p.s. re. The George Jones' song. It's well sung ( now there's an understatement) but I'd gringe if I had to play it to my rock/folk music friends!

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Midchuck
Date: 27 Jan 07 - 07:17 AM

"He Stopped Loving Her Today" is melodrama overkill.....

That's why it's the best. Country music is about melodrama overkill. It's a social class thing. Keeping calm and reserved and not showing your feelings is a mark of being upper middle class and sophisticated. Country music is about "The hell with that! This is how I feel and I'm saying so and f*** anyone who doesn't approve!"

Peter.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Andy Jackson
Date: 27 Jan 07 - 05:33 AM

The best country song is the one being sung in another country far from me!!!

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: catspaw49
Date: 27 Jan 07 - 12:04 AM

I dunno'..........It is really hard to separate some songs from artists. I think "Faded Love" can work for damn near anyone but so much depends on defining a country song. Putting one artist with one song, the greatest combo hands down has already been lauded here and that's George Jones doing "He Stopped Loving Her Today." It may be hokey as all hell but da' Possum can milk the livin' shit out of any song like that.

Truthfully, I always get the same mental image when I listen to George Jones. Some guy in his best urban cowboy attire sitting in the dark at the back of a bar, the neon of the window signs showing occasional flashes off his tears, his glass of beer, and the .357 in his other hand. As George pulls out the last note, the guy blows his brains out. Jones is the best honky tonk singer ever to come down the pike......period.

Spaw

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: GUEST,Scoville
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 11:37 PM

"He Stopped Loving Her Today" is melodrama overkill, so I'm putting in another vote for "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry". George Jones will never hold a candle to Hank.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: GUEST,Jeff
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 11:21 PM

I said songwriters not moguls. All the songs named here deserve mention. In being a studio rat from cord winders, producers, pickers, stars, wannabe stars, office people, postal workers @ Acklen Station(37212),food servers, bartenders, cabbies, anglos, chicanos, afro-americans, celts, saxons, Austin wouldratherbethere anti-music biz East Nashville quasi-artistic liberal yuppie-fucks, to Belle Meade Blvd. embarrassed by the scruffian low-brow Broadway honky-tonk gentry set all agree on ONE thing..."He Stopped Loving Her Today" is the best country song ever. Of course your opinion may differ...that's what's so great about questions like this.

Hank Williams is still the once and future king. Kris Kristofferson completely revolutionized songwriting in Da 'ville. Vern Gosdin is the best singer-songwriter you never heard of...check out "That Just About Does It".

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: M.Ted
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 10:20 PM

"I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" is not crying in your beer depressing, it's trycyclic depressing--

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Uncle Phil
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 09:18 PM

"You Don't Have to Call Me Darling, Darling" is merely the perfect country song, "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" is the best country song ever.
- Phil


I FEEL LIKE HANK WILLIAMS TONIGHT
(Chris Wall)

3/4
Well, I could (D)live my whole (A7)life, (Bm)without a (F#m)phone call
The (G)likes of which (D)I got to(A7)day.
It was (D)only my (A7)wife, said "hel(Bm)lo" then "good(F#m)bye".
And (G)told me she's (A7)going a(D)way. (A7)

And I play (D)classical (A7)music when it (Bm)rains, (F#m)
I play (G)country when (D)I am in (A7)pain.
But I (G)won't play Bee(D)thoven, the (F#7)mood's just not (Bm)right (A7)(G)
(NC)Oh, I (D)feel like Hank (A7)Williams to(D)night.

Bm A7 G in the next to last line are a descending run (Ba – da – dum)
A few bars of "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" at the end are nice, too.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: GUEST,Bubba
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 07:47 PM

16th Avenue, Lacey J Dalton is great

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 07:28 PM

don't really like the songs, Amos, but I'd kill for the 12-string guitar ...

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Amos
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 06:48 PM

Here's Waylon Jennings doing two songs. in 1966.

The second one, "Anita, Come Closer" sounds awfully similar to Mister Dylan's "Ramona" in theme, form and content, seems to me. I'd never heard it before, and it rocked me back on my heels.

Apologies for the thread creep.


A

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 06:09 PM

Blindlemonsteve, I appreciate your comments. I think it's a great song, too, and the Possum and Hag are the two greatest living country music writers and singers alive (sorry Willie).

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: GUEST,SeoTaiji
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 05:51 PM

"Redneck Mothers" by Ray Wiley Hubbard

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Kim C
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 04:09 PM

White Lightnin'

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Metchosin
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 04:02 PM

Another vote for Hank Williams' I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry. And this Youtube Video sums up what I feel about most of it now.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: frogprince
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 03:48 PM

"Hank Williams is the Once and Future King of Country Music, in my opinion, and "I'm so Lonesome I could Cry" is his best song."
"I am with LonesomeEJ on this. It has to be a Hank Williams song and his best is "So Lonesome I Could Cry"
         
Lonesome EJ called it, Sinsull seconded it, and I "third" it!!

As for "He Stopped Loving Her Today", I personally can't stand it, I have a fairly high tolerance for sad, and for sappy. But the way Jones whines out this profoundly maudlin ode to pathological obsession is way too much for me!!

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: fat B****rd
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 03:31 PM

Aw ! What the Hayull !!
Jimmie Rodgers "Miss The Mississippi"
Buck Owens "Crying Time Time"

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: SINSULL
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 03:27 PM

"Mama Tried" has been permanently destroyed for me by Woodchuck's Revenge's "Mama Fried".

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: SINSULL
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 03:24 PM

I am with LonesomeEJ on this. It has to be a Hank Williams song and his best is "So Lonesome I Could Cry" with "Cold, Cold Heart" and "Your Cheatin' Heart" in close seconds. All tearjerkers - sorry.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Scoville
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 03:20 PM

Are you kidding? This is my home territory.


Well, I'll second Blue Yodel #1, at least, since I neglected to bring it up the first time.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 03:17 PM

all the closet good ol' boys coming out of the woodshed on this thread imo.

waiting with bated breath to see 'Spaw's nomination ...

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: tenn_jim
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 02:53 PM

Of course, you might make an argument for Jimmie Rodgers Blue Yodel #1 which was the song that started the whole country music genre.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: fat B****rd
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 02:51 PM

Can I choose some more ?? Please.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Blindlemonsteve
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 02:46 PM

Hi Lonesome E.J, hopefully, i can put into words what that line means to me and you will not find it grotesque.

"first time i´d seen him smile in years...." has always seemed grotesque to me, considering the circumstances.

He´s lived a life of regrets. the man telling the story, knows of his pain, he´s watched this man his whole life, he loves this man, maybe his a son, maybe his just a friend, but at last he´s seen him at peace with himself. as if this man has found dignity in death, and the man telling that story has taken something from that. i think it´s beautiful. But then again thats the power of an amazing song like that, it means different things to different people, but you cant deny, it stops you in your tracks and makes you think everytime you hear it.

Second to "He stopped loving her Today" has to be another George Jones number " Good Year for the roses"..... again, From the bedroom the familiar sound of our new born baby's cryin' goes unheard..

Sheer poetry

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: kendall
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 02:34 PM

I'll post the lyrics if there is any interest.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: kendall
Date: 26 Jan 07 - 02:27 PM

I thought Willy Nelson wrote Blue Eyes Crying in the rain?

One not well known that is right up there in my opinion, Front Runner by Stan Rogers.