Your Cheatin’ Heart – James Brown
from the album Soul On Top on Verve (1970).
I Can’t Stop Loving You – Ray Charles
from the album Modern Sounds In Country & Western Music on ABC/Paramount (1962).
Growing up in rural Oklahoma I had a large and unavoidable contact with country & western music in my youth. Large enough that I can say pretty unequivocably that I hate it…but this is not a time (or blog) of hate, but rather of love. Years later, jazz lover that I was (am) I was watching Ken Burns’s Jazz documentary when I was surprised by the tale of Charlie Parker listening to country music on the jukebox before gigs. He had a dialogue something like this (paraphrasing):
“Charlie, what are you doing listening to that stuff. The music is terrible,” querried Parker’s friend whom I cannot place mentally currently.
“Man, forget the music for a second…just listen to those stories,” replied Bird.
Parker’s view wasn’t unique and time has shown the C&W stories of heart-ache and basic forelornness have become fodder for many who’ve put them in more enjoyable musical settings. First up is the Hardest Working Man In Show Business hearkening back to his early plaintive soul crooning with a rendition of Hank Williams’s “Your Cheatin’ Heart.” This is from Brown’s album with drummer Louie Bellson’s big band and featuring him stretching out in a lot of different directions from what was typical for him at the time. Bellson’s fills stay in the pocket nicely as the Godfather’s just destroys an twangy, slow version of this song you’ve ever heard.
Eight years earlier Ray Charles took advantage of the artistic freedom agreement he wrestled from ABC/Paramount to record an entire album of C&W covers that ranged from honkytonk styles (more Hank Williams) to the “more Western than Country” orchestra style songs like Don Gibson’s “I Can’t Stop Loving You.” This Modern Sounds album is an interesting listen start to finish with small group blues shakers you might associate more with Charles and string laden, choir-backed productions that would seem fitting in the lavish movie musicals of this time period. For me it is a little hit or miss, but it gets a little dusty in the room whenever this track pops up. Ray’s voice melts my every stoic resolve and elicits longing by mid-way through the first verse, overly schmaltzy back-up singers be damned.
The more music you are fortunate to hear, the more crap and dregs you hear; but slowly you learn no genre can be dismissed as their is beauty hidden away in some of the strangest and most derided corners. To all the C&W fans out there, I”m slowly learning my lesson. And for others struggling with writing off this entire genre I’ll point you to something that my best friend turned me on to long ago.
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vis a vis bird and country…brother ray said more or less the same. music is music. if it connects with you then genres are just stupid barriers. good tunes as always. thx.
Anybody got his personal feeling in music everywhere in the world. This barrier is a fact. When we talk music, I'm not necessary agree with my friends. Hopefully Internet break some barriers. But the personal feeling dwell, and, in a sense, it's hard to break it completely.
James Brown (1933-2006)
Rest in peace
Glad yer able to see the crystalline purity of the drops through the storm clouds of sap…
I wish more people could as easily open their ears, eyes, hearts or whatever it takes these days…
music apreciation is like politics in a lot of ways… and music is political of course as well.
my point being that, you don't always agree with the other viewpoint, but perhaps ya can still respect it…
unless yer an a**hole…please see the klansmen in the White House if you have any questions…