Janis, Johnny, Jennings & Jerry Lee

Yesterday was a good day for record shopping. For a relatively low price (around $30) I got 3 records and a CD.I always head straight for the Vinyl at Cat's Back Records in Nitro, WV. Only the good stuff is over-priced, like the $25 copy of The Band's Last Waltz. But I'd pay that.So before I knew it I found a copy of Pearl by Janis Joplin for $5. Then I found a Sun Records compilation of the recordings Johnny Cash did there in the very beginning of his career. It's a reissue, but great songs that I don't have on my other Cash comps like "Cry, Cry, Cry" and "Get Rhythm," which was no doubt the first Cash song I ever heard.Then Craig, the owner, came up with a freshly cleaned version of Jerry Lee Lewis' Sun Recordings, from the same series of "Golden Hits."I enjoy talking with Craig. I usually spend as much time chatting with him as I do browsing the music. So when I turned around to see him, there it was; A brand-new CD copy of Honky Tonk Heroes by Waylon Jennings. I've been searching this album on ebay for a few weeks, but never found a price worth paying. The best part was turning around to have it stare me in the face from the very end of the row."You knew I was looking for this didn't you?" I asked Craig.
"Well, no, its just one of those cosmic things that happens. It was on the end of the row, right?"
Wow. Another divine intervention throughmusic.Now, back to Honky Tonk Heroes. This is the album that is credited to starting the "Outlaw" movement in 1970's Nashville. Waylon fought to record with his own band, not the typical studio guys, and Willie Nelson credits this record for making it possible to make The Red Headed Stranger. My main interest, though, lies in the songwriting. Ten of the 11 songs on the album were written by Billy Joe Shaver, whom I'll hopefully be interviewing this Friday (8/19). Billy Joe's songs had been recorded previously, but not by anyone as popular as Waylon, who Billy Joe convinced to do an entire album of his songs.The story behind their meeting, and Waylon's eventual agreement, is hilarious and can be found in Billy Joe's autobiography Honky Tonk Heroe. Waylon basically flipped out when he heard Billy Joe singing backstage, and in a inebriated state (most likely coke I would speculate) told Billy Joe he wanted to do a whole album of the songs. Waylon, of coures, doesn't remember this happening and pretty much forgets about it. That is until Billy Joe quite forcefully jogs his memory, nearly getting himself killed in the process, and convinces him to live up to his promise.What would it have been like to be at those sessions?!? There's a reason a lot of Billy Joe's songs have the word "me" in them. He's the definition of an autobiographical songwriter. There's no doubt that he's lived every word he's writing and singing, and thats why Dan Rather didn't argue when Billy Joe said he'd written about 3-400 songs and that "They're all good."So I listened to side-two of the Cash record last night, but I haven't gotten to Jerry Lee and Janis yet. But when I do, I might just do a review for my blog. Afterall, no one's telling me what to review here. So if I want to review an album that is 30 years old, I will.
And finally: This past weekend another Cash song smacked me in the face as phenominal. I don't know if he wrote it because there's zero publishing info on the record I was listening to, but the song is called "Ancient History." What a great song!Spread the sickness ya'll.
DS