THANKS FOR IT ALL, GEORGE …
From Rock and Roll to Country isn’t a giant step, but sometimes the connections surprise you. Jiles Perry, J. P. Richardson, Jr. (1930 –1959) a.k.a. The Big Bopper, was a disc jockey, singer, and songwriter whose larger than life personality made him an early rock and roll star.
He is best known for his recording of Chantilly Lace. On The Day the Music Died, February 3, 1959, Richardson was killed along with Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens in a plane crash in Iowa. I never realised until recently that the first big hit my country and western hero George Jones ever enjoyed, White Lightnin’, was a Big Bopper composition. So here’s hoping that up there, behind Heaven’s Chantilly Lace curtains, they’re still sending J.P. his royalty cheques. As I write this George has been dead for over a month. I meant to acknowledge his passing earlier than this, but late though I am, I can’t let him go without expressing my gratitude for his life. Like many country singers, he was a working class hero, and his choice of songs and the way he delivered them remain classics of emotional expression. There was no-one with vocal phrasing like George, and odd though it seems, even his most tragic songs sometimes made you smile with their touch of gallows humour. Thank Heaven for records - at least he’ll always be around to listen to.
Briefly George Glenn Jones was born on September 12, 1931 in Saratoga, Texas, and was raised in Vidor, Texas, with his brother and five sisters. His father, George Washington Jones, worked in a shipyard and played harmonica and guitar while his mother, Clara, played piano in the Pentecostal Church on Sundays. When he was seven, he heard country music for the first time. Given a guitar when he was nine, Jones was soon busking for money on the streets of Beaumont. He left home at 16 and went to Jasper, Texas, and was soon performing on various radio stations. During one such afternoon show, Jones met his idol, Hank Williams. He married his first wife Dorothy when he was 19, but they divorced within a year. The Korean War was underway, and he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. He was stationed in San Jose, California for his entire service. Not long after his discharge in 1953, his music career took off. The rest is alcohol-fuelled history, and well documented; marriages, divorces, earning the nickname ‘No Show Jones’ when he failed to turn up for gigs, his bitter, failing fight with his demons and the bottle. Yet he left me and many other fans with such a rich and original choice of country songs to enjoy.
During the Miner’s Strike 0f 1984-5 I was playing with an agit-prop ‘skiffle’ outfit called The Expanding Wallets. Two guitars, string bass, snare drum, we were an acoustic picket-line musical adjunct to the strike. Sometimes we actually played for money - real gigs - but most of the time we simply played benefits. If it was left wing and political and they needed some light relief, we’d be there. Our repertoire was 50% self-penned, but among the ragbag of other material we covered, one of the earliest tunes we tackled was George Jones’s She Thinks I Still Care: we used to dedicate the song to Margaret Thatcher. So here’s a selection of the kind of lyrics which could move us to tears or laughter - the way only old ‘No Show’ could
1: BARTENDER’S BLUES (EXTRACT)
Now the smoke fills the air
Of this honky tonk bar
And I'm thinkin' bout where I'd rather be
But I burned all my bridges
And I sunk all my ships
And I'm stranded at the edge of the sea
Of this honky tonk bar
And I'm thinkin' bout where I'd rather be
But I burned all my bridges
And I sunk all my ships
And I'm stranded at the edge of the sea
2. SHE THINKS I STILL CARE (EXTRACT)
Just because I haunt the same old places
Where the mem'ry of her lingers ev'rywhere
Just because I'm not the happy guy I used to be
She thinks I still care
But if she's happy thinkin' I still need her
Then let that silly notion bring her cheer
But how could she ever be so foolish
Oh, where would she get such an idea?
3. DON’T SEND ME NO ANGELS (EXTRACT)
Lord, let me keep her at least for a while
I promise I'll love her 'till I've walked my last mile
When your trumpets are sounding and you're playing my song
Don't send me no angels 'cause I've got my own
I promise I'll love her 'till I've walked my last mile
When your trumpets are sounding and you're playing my song
Don't send me no angels 'cause I've got my own
4. CHOICES (EXTRACT)
I was tempted, by an early age I found
I liked drinkin', oh, and I never turned it down
There were loved ones but I turned them all away
Now I'm living and dying with the choices I've made
I liked drinkin', oh, and I never turned it down
There were loved ones but I turned them all away
Now I'm living and dying with the choices I've made
5. THINGS HAVE GONE TO PIECES (FULL LYRIC)
Oh the Faucet started drippin' in the Kitchen
And last night your picture fell down from the wall
To-day the Boss said Sorry, I can't use you anymore
And tonight the light bulb went out in the hall
And last night your picture fell down from the wall
To-day the Boss said Sorry, I can't use you anymore
And tonight the light bulb went out in the hall
CHORUS
Things have gone to pieces since you left me
Nothing turns out half-right now it seems
There ain't nothing in my pocket,
But three nickels and a dime
But I'm holding to the pieces of my dream
Things have gone to pieces since you left me
Nothing turns out half-right now it seems
There ain't nothing in my pocket,
But three nickels and a dime
But I'm holding to the pieces of my dream
Somebody threw a baseball through my window
And the arm fell off my favourite chair again
The man called me today and said he'd haul my things away
If I didn't get my payments made by ten
And the arm fell off my favourite chair again
The man called me today and said he'd haul my things away
If I didn't get my payments made by ten
Dammit, George, you gave me so much pleasure. I’m sure you must have been hell to live with and a prickly character to be around, but although bees sting, they also make honey, and your songs were the sweetest. No-one summed up the struggle and frustration of life as well as you did - just one song sums it all up, and these two lines of the chorus are it:
Seems like every time I make my mark
Somebody always paints the wall.
