Willie Nelson's music has been repackaged and rereleased repeatedly almost since he began recording more than 50 years ago. His legacy has been re-assessed many times, and doubtless will continue to be reappraised for some time to come, because he reportedly has enough recordings in the vault to release an album a year for at least 50 years, should he pass away this year, heaven forbid. But this four-CD set from Legacy, which collects 100 tracks from all phases (and labels) of his career, does an admirable job of hitting the high points.
One Hell of a Ride celebrates Willie's 75th birthday, collecting hit singles and tracks from 60 albums he's cut on a dozen different labels since 1954. It's a picture of an American original, a songwriting genius and a singer who finally came into his own two decades into his career, after he left Nashville behind and became an "outlaw" artist and led a revival of Texas-style country-rock. And finally, an artist who continues to explore fearlessly wherever his muse leads him, from standards to gypsy jazz to bluegrass to gospel to reggae, touring constantly, living on his tour bus with his family band, making music as easily as you or I breathe.
The four discs in the set are organized roughly chronologically, opening and closing with old and new versions of the same song, "When I've Sung My Last Hillbilly Song." The first was cut in a Texas radio station in late 1954 or early '55, the second especially for this set in late 2007. Even more than a half-century ago, on scratchy acetate, the song is recognizably Willie.
Disc 1 continues with a handful of other rarities, cut in tiny radio stations or independent studios and only released, if at all, years later after he'd become well known. Though singing country music, he was already exploring different styles. On "Man With The Blues," he sounds a little like country-pop crossover crooner Johnny Horton, and "Nite Life" is jazzy country lounge music. He had his earliest successes as a songwriter, and in 1961 hit the jackpot with three smash hits: "Hello Walls" by Faron Young, "Funny How Time Slips Away" by Billy Walker and "Crazy" by Patsy Cline. On the strength of those songs, he got a job writing in Nashville, and he also started recording his own material. Nothing that he recorded in those years rose to that level, but it's a real treat to hear some of these early RCA album tracks, with some of the top names in Nashville backing him. Through the mid-'60s, Chet Atkins recorded Willie in the "Nashville sound" style he was famous for, for the most part smooth and easy listening, occasionally letting him cut loose a little, as with Ernest Tubb's swinging "Texas In My Soul."
Something happened in 1969, as Willie cut a folk-oriented album with Felton Jarvis at the helm, Both Sides Now. Suddenly, we have Willie's versions of what were then current hits, like Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talkin' " complete with bongos; "Once More With Feeling" by uber-outlaws Kris Kristofferson and Shel Silverstein; one that was already a minor hit for another singer and would be a long-running hit for Willie, "I Gotta Get Drunk"; and the truly odd, radically rearranged "Pins And Needles (In My Heart)." This old country chestnut, Willie arranges as a coffee-house folk song, with fingerpicked guitar, more bongos and an unidentified female backing vocal -- it sounds for all the world like Pentangle covering Roy Acuff!
As the '70s began, Willie was exploring gospel with some success. On the album Willie Nelson and Family he included "Kneel At The Feet Of Jesus" and on Yesterday's Wine his own version of an early song he had written and sold, "Family Bible." Three songs that made it into the Top 100 on the country charts from that album and the next are also included here, "Yesterday's Wine," the wry Nashville-done-me-wrong saga "Me and Paul" and the title track from Words Don't Fit The Picture. A slightly different set of Nashville regulars is backing him now, including Junior Huskey on bass, Charlie McCoy on harmonica and Hargus "Pig" Robbins on keys.
On 14 albums over seven years, Nelson's RCA recordings yielded quite a few singles that charted, although most barely broke the Top 40. But things changed forever in 1972, and that's where Disc 2 picks up, with the Waylon and Willie single "Good Hearted Woman," which went to No. 1 on the country charts, 25 on the pop charts and 16 on easy listening, launching Nelson into stardom.
The disc backtracks here, into some tracks from the vaults that RCA issued as singles and on an album Willie -- Before His Time. Some of them, particularly "She's Not for You," have become an enduring part of his legacy, but next to his "outlaw" phase hits they come off as maudlin and tame. Things pick back up considerably with tracks from 1978's Waylon & Willie, including the classic "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys," another No. 1 hit and a crossover.
After another short return to some material from the RCA vaults released as his first "greatest hits" package in the early '70s, we get to a real change of gears in Willie's short stay on the Atlantic label, better known for soul and R & B. From that period came three concept albums, including Shotgun Willie (here represented by the title track and "Sad Songs And Waltzes"), the gospel album The Troublemaker (title track and the big hit, Willie's self-penned "Uncloudy Day") and Phases And Stages ("Bloody Mary Morning" and "I Still Can't Believe You're Gone"), all recorded in either New York or Muscle Shoals. What a crew he had behind him on these recordings: David Hood, Johnny Gimble, Barry Beckett (among others), and on backing vocals, Sammi Smith, Larry Gatlin and fellow Texan Doug Sahm.
Atlantic closed its country division around this time, and Willie ended up signing with Columbia, which was to prove an extremely fruitful move for both. Although he had left Nashville for Texas in about '71, it was several years later that he first recorded on his home ground in Texas and put together the beginnings of what became his family band to record the seminal Red Headed Stranger, represented here only by the title track. The hits just kept on coming, though, including Steve Fromholz's "I'd Have To Be Crazy" (with Fromholz on haunting backing vocals) and Lefty Frizzell's "If You've got The Money I've got The Time," both from The Sound In Your Mind. Disc 2 closes with tracks from his tribute to Lefty and his out-of-left-field mega-hit Stardust album, including the title track and the No. 1 "Georgia On My Mind." I'm something of a connoisseur of "Stardust" the song, and Willie's stands up with the best of them.
Disc 3 sees Willie cementing his superstar status, collaborating with an ever wider variety of artists, contributing to movie soundtracks and continuing to rack up hits. One of his most enduring songs, which he didn't write, kicks off the disc -- "Whiskey River" from the Willie and Family Live album. He had another No. 1 hit with a cover of "Heartbreak Hotel" from his double album with Leon Russell, One for The Road. Most of the tracks on Disc 3 are of similar caliber, songs that are instantly recognizable as Willie Nelson hits: "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys," "Crazy Arms," "Angel Flying Too Close to The Ground," and his signature song, "On The Road Again."
As the '80s began, the hits continued. He covered one that had been a minor hit for Elvis and made it a triple crossover hit, "Always On My Mind." He brought another Texas singer-songwriter into the spotlight when he and Merle Haggard had a No. 1 ht with Townes Van Zandt's "Pancho & Lefty." He took Steve Goodman's "City of New Orleans" to the top of the country charts 10 years after Arlo Guthrie did it on the pop charts. Perhaps his strangest hit, again No. 1, was a duet with Julio Iglesias on the obscure Albert Hammond song, "To All the Girls I've Loved Before." "City of New Orleans" is a little over-produced by today's standards, but it's still a moving rendition, with the addition of some second-line style horns.
Disc 4 starts in 1984 with an album track I'd never heard before, Willie's bitter kiss-off to suit-wearing music executives, "Write Your Own Songs." It's hilarious, scathing, and not terribly over-produced as so much was in the '80s. "We're makin' you rich, and you were already lazy, so just lay on your ass and get richer or write your own songs," he drawls. "Mr. Purified Country, don't you know what the whole thing's about? Is your head up your ass so far that you can't pull it out? The world's gettin' smaller and everyone in it belongs, and if you can't see that Mr. Music Executive, why don't you write your own songs." It could just as well been written in 2008 as 1984.
From there, the rest of the collection hop-scotches through the past 20-some years, hitting some high and low points. Among the low is a dreadful cover of Neil Young's "Heart of Gold" and the sadly ubiqutous "What A Wonderful World." About the only other song that's really cringe-worthy in the whole set is an early cover of the girl-group song "Johnny One Time." What was he thinking? On the other hand, he acquits himself admirably on Paul Simon's "Graceland," from 1992's Across The Borderline, his last for Columbia, represented here by three more tracks including Dylan's "What Was It You Wanted" and the sublime "Still Is Still Moving To Me." It's a borderline-great album.
Some more high points include "Too Sick To Pray" from 1996's Spirit; a couple of tracks from the Daniel Lanois-produced Teatro, the atmospheric "Everywhere I Go" and the calypso-like "My Own Peculiar Way"; Django Reinhardt's "Nuages" (with the great Johnny Gimble on violin); and "Bubbles In My Beer" from the 2006 tribute to Cindy Walker, You Don't Know Me. The Jimmy Cliff classic "The Harder they Come" from Willie's reggae album Countryman isn't terrible, but it doesn't add much to his legendary catalog.
Incredible as it may seem, a four-CD set with 100 tracks just barely scratches the surface of Willie Nelson's legacy. But it's a great place to start if you haven't made that step yet, or a great way to jog the memories you may have of Willie's songs through the years. It has indeed been One Hell Of A Ride.
