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WAILIN' FOR "REAL MEN" (And The Ladies Who Love Them!)

STEPHEN T. McCARTHY | a Mensa-donkey in Phoenix, Airheadzona. | 10/23/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

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This stuff is WAILIN'! Now sure, you could say that others also knew how to wail. I mean, some would argue that AC/DC and Eminem wail, too. But WAYLON JENNINGS: GREATEST HITS is "Real Man" wailin', unlike those short pants-wearing Aussie sissies with the "switch-hitting" name (Eeeeew!) or that big wuss, M&M, a salty peanut, chocolate-covered wannabe in a thin candy-a## shell! No, boys `n' girls, OL' WAYLON is "real man" music for real men and the three or four women who can still recognize real men, and who love `em despite their faults (which are usually the size of the San Andreas).



When Ol' Waylon "Waymore" Jennings cashed in his chips in 2002, that great rodeo star and bullrider extraordinaire, Yoey O'Dogherty, passed his upturned, Jim Beam-filled Stetson amongst his fellow Texas cowboys and declared, "Well boys, this poor world just lost half of its masculinity, but won't the ol' devil soil his shorts and run out the back door of hell tonight!"



Waylon "Waymore" Jennings, in case you didn't know it, was the unofficial leader of those early `70s Nashville Country music rebels labeled the "Outlaws." Waylon was an "outlaw" because he wasn't doing it the way the Nashville suits said it should be done; he took the attitude that it's my life, my music, now step aside before you're wearing my electric guitar for a cowboy hat! Lemme tell ya sumpin': Waylon was the first to meld Country-Western sentiments and style to the energy and raw electric edge of Rock music to create the "new" Country. And the "new" Country doesn't mean "today's" County: Waylon transformed the original Country whine of "My cheating woman left me, my horse left me, and only Jim Beam stuck by my side" to "I tossed my cheating woman over my horse's hide and paddled her behind, and now I'm playing with my guitar instead - and it talks sweeter than she ever did!" (Although Waylon's a nice boy on the sweet `AMANDA.')



Country has degenerated into a bunch of pretty boys in designer jeans and silk jammies whining about how their cheating woman left them and took the Hummer, or was it the red BMW? Heck, it was the new Mercedes! Where's my Jim Beam? Why she ran off with him, too! That little #%*@! WAAAaaaaa.....



Ol' Waylon is the real deal! This is tough, growling, rip-roaring, six-shooter Country with beefy rhythms that bite! And no, Ol' Waylon ain't skeered to show his tender side (while he's pausing to reload his .45), but it ain't that seeeeensitive Country twaddle; it's more like "of course I love you, babe - didn't I let you hold my hand just as soon as the theatre went dark for the John Wayne picture show?"



I saw countless Rock concerts back "in the day." Saw the Police at the Whisky on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood; saw the early Blue Oyster Cult laser extravaganza in the `70s; saw UFO and Bob Seger at The Forum in Inglewood; and saw those loud, smoke machine and strobe light shows that Thin Lizzy perfected on the B circuit. Nobody, but NOBODY was able to match Waylon! That good ol' boy just stood there with his macho charisma, his humor, and that fancy rope-encircled guitar of his, and he put on great shows - between songs, telling outrageously funny stories about when he and Johnny Cash were terrorizing the Country music capital of Nashville.



Of course, Johnny Cash has been all the rage these last couple of years, and sure, Cash was cool. But listen, if you like "The Man In Black", yer gonna LOVE Waylon! I mean, sheesh! Just look at that picture on the cover! Dudes and dudettes, that's "cool" and "mischief" simultaneously personified. And wait'll ya hear these wailin' tunes! Ol' Waylon was the best entertainer I ever saw on a stage. And if I could look and sound like any other person in history, I'd look and sound just like Ol' Waymore.



WAYLON JENNINGS: GREATEST HITS is one of my Top Ten favorite albums ever! My one complaint is that the (currently out-of-print) import version contains two songs that are now inexcusably missing from the cheap domestic copy. And those missing songs are outstanding: ONLY DADDY THAT'LL WALK THE LINE and the classic, LADIES LOVE OUTLAWS. Whoever is responsible for this at RCA should be pistol-whipped within an inch of his life! But the fact remains that if yer gonna own only one Waylon disc, it simply MUST include HONKY TONK HEROES, and until somebody does a Waylon's Greatest Hits or Best Of collection right, this remains the only one with that unforgettable slice of Waymore night life. And HONKY TONK HEROES may have been Waymore's best song, but he humorously expressed his love for (his soon-to-be wife) the darling Jessi Colter in the missing LADIES LOVE OUTLAWS:



Jessi liked the Cadillacs and diamonds on her hands

Waymore had a reputation as a ladie's man

Late one night a light of love finally gave a sign

Jessi parked her Cadillac and took her place in line.



'Cause ladies love outlaws like babies love stray dogs

Ladies touch babies like a banker touches gold

And outlaws touch ladies

Somewhere deep down in their soul.



And Waylon proved that outlaw/woman connection in a funny passage from his autobiography. It seems Waymore was on a television show with the Jefferson Airplane's Grace Slick and she mistakenly thought she was going to physically intimidate this outlaw. (Slick is one dumb chick!)



"...Grace Slick was raising hell about America ..... I was getting mad, telling her that I'm the first to agree there's a lot wrong with our system, but it's still the best out there, and she's talking about communism and striking karate poses. `There ain't a chance in the world me being afraid of you,' I said, and that turned her on." Waylon says that she was all set to dump her German boyfriend that day.



Hey, why are you still reading this review? Dang! What's wrong with you? Why haven't you ordered this album already? Look, don't make me have to come over there!

"

The Finest C&W Artist I Have Ever had The Pleasure of Listen

Jay R. Adler | Massapequa,NY | 09/21/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Simply put, Waylon Jennings undoubtedly was the greatest outlaw cowboy singer that ever lived. His history, actually having been present and almost done in on "The Day the Music Died" when Buddy Holly, The Big Bopper and Richie Valens told Waylon, who had a cold, to take the bus is legendary and astoundingly prophetic. Afterwards, Buddy Holly's tinker toy plane ditched in the throes of a North Dakota Artic like night when crystal like ice permeated the atmosphere and contaminated their survival like a runaway cobra in a Bombay marketplace. Waylon went on to greatness and on this CD, songs like Mammas Don't let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys, Are You Sure Hank Done it this Way and Luckenbach Texas are indescribably ingenious in their presentation and quality. You have Willie Nelson duets (Waylon and Willie) that are outstanding because to put it bluntly, Willie is no slouch either. Waylon, with his syrupy and very demanding and forceful vocals coupled with guitar finesse and his sheer presence as a man who has lived through it all, evolved subsequent to that fateful and disappointingly tragic day in the late fifties when those rock and roll fans who sensed that something affecting their futures like a bullet to the heart perceived that Waylon would be the scion to carry all of it on, realized that Waylon was not only country, he was iconic and unique to the point of an infinity-like fabric. My recommendation as a CD Reviewer of some prominence is for you to build a library of Waylon Jennings Cd's. Waylon was not only a pioneer, he was simply the best.



Jay Adler Massapequa, New York"

I couldn't be an outlaw wihout this album/CD

Dusty Trails | Payson AZ | 03/23/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"bought the album, wife wore it out, bought the Cassette, wore it out, got the CD, too Bad Wylon's not around to spend the $ on the last one. This obviously is one of the few albums I can't live without."