A little bit County...
"I think I should have no other mortal wants, if I could always have plenty of music. It seems to infuse strength into my limbs, and ideas into my brain. Life seems to go on without effort, when I am filled with music." ~ George Eliot
So my sweetheart and I were talking last night about several things and somehow landed on country music.
Now I know not everyone out there's a fan, but it's a lot of what I heard growing up in Texas. You just can't escape it.
So I dropped the question "What's the most COUNTRY of country songs you can think of?" Basically - what's the quintessential of all country music songs? That really is a tough one.
My opinion was "Momma Don't Let your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys" sung by Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson. It covers so much of country.
So I got thinking... what do others think? Do you, my loyal readers, have an opinion on this one? What's your all-time country song?
Need some help? Here I've included a list of the top 25 songs. This list was taken from the top 500 songs list I found at www.about.com. Now, they give the following disclaimer: "This list has painstakingly compiled from many sources on the 'net (including Billboard charts, album charts, and various surveys and polls), with a good dose of common sense thrown in. It is in no way meant to represent exact chart positions or total sales, and is not necessarily a reflection of song popularity. Any omissions are purely unintentional. "
So it's just someone else's opinion - but here it is...
25 "White Lightning" - George Jones
24 "For The Good Times" - Ray Price
23 "Ring of Fire" - Johnny Cash
22 "Jambalaya" - Hank Williams Sr.
21 "Stand By Your Man" - Tammy Wynette
20 "Tiger by the Tail" - Buck Owens
19 "Oh, Lonesome Me" - Don Gibson
18 "Always On My Mind" - Willie Nelson
17 "Old Dogs, Children, And Watermelon Wine" - Tom T Hall
16 "Coal Miner's Daughter" - Loretta Lynn
15 "Mama Tried" - Merle Haggard
14 "I Walk The Line" - Johnny Cash
13 "Workin' Man Blues" - Merle Haggard
12 "San Antonio Rose" - Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys
11 "Sixteen Tons" - Tennessee Ernie Ford
10 "The Dance" - Garth Brooks
09 "He'll Have To Go" - Jim Reeves
08 "Lovesick Blues" - Hank Williams, Sr.
07 "Today I Started Loving You Again" - Merle Haggard
06 "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" - Hank Williams, Sr.
05 "El Paso" - Marty Robbins
04 "I Fall To Pieces" - Patsy Cline
03 "Your Cheatin' Heart" - Hank Williams, Sr.
02 "Crazy" - Patsy Cline
01 "He Stopped Loving Her Today" - George Jones
Did yours make it? Mine wasn't... Oh well. But seriously, tell me what you think is THE all-time country song. Please?
1 comment:
Howdy Miss Katie- Most of those country picks are pretty good, though someone needs a boot in their boot over including Garth Brooks, the "anti-Hank" as Kinky Friedman calls him.
I don't know about Patsy Cline records as representatives of the essence of country music. She made some beautiful records, but even so much of a rock group as the Rolling Stones were much more obviously country in any musical terms with stuff like "Dead Flowers" or "Sweet Virginia."
Plus, maybe I wasn't looking close enough, but I didn't see any bluegrass. What, no Bill Monroe?
Arbitrarily leaving out official "rock" groups like Elvis, Chuck Berry and the Stones, here are a few obvious items that I'd want to include as representatives of the essence of country music.
"Walking in Jerusalem" Bill Monroe
"Blue Moon of Kentucky" Bill Monroe
"Gimme Back My Five Dollars" Stringbean
"I'm No Communist" Grandpa Jones
"Seven Spanish Angels" Willie Nelson and Ray Charles
"They Ain't Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore" Kinky Friedman
"Ode to Billie Joe" Bobbie Gentry
"Harper Valley PTA" Jeannie C Riley
"Triplet Tragedy" Doc Watson Family
"T for Texas" Jimmie Rodgers
"Keep on the Sunny Side" Carter Family
"Rank Strangers" Stanley Brothers
"Nowhere to Stand" KD Lang
"My Wife Thinks You're Dead" Junior Brown
"The Carroll County Accident" Porter Wagoner
By the way, you might want to check out my music pages at www.morethings.com/music
I particularly recommend that you dig into my mp3 stash at www.morethings.com/mp3 where I have bunches of free downloads, including all the Stringbean I could lay hands to, as his stuff is entirely out of print.
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