I Lived To Tell It All is truly Jones' album. "I talked MCA into letting me go in and do what I do best, and they gave me the reins, he said. I just went back to the old George Jones style, the top stuff that I was always successful with. They can call it traditional if they want to, but I think country fans still love to hear it. I'm real thrilled with the way it turned out."
Titles like Hundred Proof Memories and I'll Give You Something To Drink About leave little doubt about the music on I Lived To Tell It All. Almost all are about drinking, honky tonks or heartaches-subjects and settings that are classic George Jones. He covers the fun side of drinking, declaring I had more silver bullets last night than the Lone Range in Lone Ranger And he covers the hurting side, too, revealing that As high as I get is how low I'll be falling in Back Down To Hung Up On You.
Jones knows heartache songs every bit as well as he knows drinking songs. He can put a positive spin on a history of pain when his heart comes knock in Hello Heart. And he takes self-pity to a new level in I Must Have Done Something Bad" when he sings If I thought my hand was against you Why I'd cut off my arm.
The first single from I Lived To Tell It All, Honky Tonk Song, works in an event from Jones' life, recounting the time his wife took away his car keys and he hopped on his riding mower to go find something to drink. For a singer whose personal troubles have been many and well-publicized, it might strike dangerously close to home, but
Jones is only singing-not living-that kind of life these days;That's been over for 11 or 12 years, he explained, "but I still love to sing those songs. There's a lot of feeling in those types of songs. It's almost like a cheating song. A love affair caused them. Most of your breakups today are still caused from people drinking. Broken marriages and homes, that's what it's all about. Even though artists have quit recording them, those things still go on every day. There's a place for those type of songs.
Over four decades have passed since fans first heard the raw, emotional, heart-on-his-sleeve delivery that is instantly identifiable as George Jones. Born in Sarasota, in east Texas, he had sung for tips on the streets of nearby Beaumont and worked the local honky tonk circuit. In 1955, the 24-year-old, twice-married ex-marine was on a recording session for Starday Records when producer Pappy Dailey suggested he quit singing like his idols, Lefty Frizzell, Roy Acuff and Hank Williams, and try to sing like George Jones. The result wasWhy Baby Why," his first Top Five hit.
From Starday, Jones moved to Mercury, where he experimented with rockabilly under the name Thumper Jones and had his first country #1 in 1959 with "White Lightning." In 1961 he hit #1 again with Tender Years and She Thinks I Still Care, which led to Male Vocalist of the Year awards from the Country Music Association in 1962 and again in 1963. Later in the '60s, on the Musicor label, his singles consistently hit the Top 10 and he hit #1 again in 1967 with Walk Through This World With Me.
Jones' marriage to Tammy Wynette in 1969 led him to Wynette's label, Epic, and a 20-year association with producer Billy Sherrill. He hit #1 in the '70s with The Grand Tour; and The Door, both in 1974. With Wynette, he hit #1 with;We're Gonna Hold On in 1974 and, following their divorce in 1976, Golden Ring and Near You, both in 1976.
Jones kicked off the 1980s with one of the all-time great country records, He Stopped Loving Her Today, which won him Single of the Year honors from the CMA in 1980 and again in 1981. He continued to be a contemporary hitmaker throughout the decade and won the CMA's Video of the Year award in 1986 for Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes.
In 1991, Jones signed with MCA Records, an event MCA Nashville president Tony Brown said was like signing Elvis. In 1992 the CMA recognized Jones' monumental career by electing him to the Country Music Hall of Fame. In his acceptance speech, he asked country radio to keep its ears open to established country stars like himself. He proved his point shortly thereafter with a hit video I Don't Need Your Rockin' Chair and a new, cutting-edge album High-Tech Redneck. He followed with the highly acclaimed acoustic album The Bradley Barn Sessions and a reunion album with Tammy Wynette, One.
In the meantime, Jones had been writing his autobiography with writer Tom Carter.;I really enjoyed working on it, he said.I didn't think I would. I put it off for five, six, seven years, but even though I wouldn't do it, Tom kept gathering material hoping I would change my mind. I finally got tired of hearing things that I'd done blown out of proportion. I wanted to set the record straight.
The book I Lived To Tell It All quickly became one of George Jones' greatest hits, reaching #6 on The New York Times bestseller list. As country fans were reading about his infamous past, Jones was busy recording a collection of songs that brought back the musical spirit of his most successful work. Even though the songs are new, he felt the album tied in with the book because they both call attention to, rather than hide, the problems he's faced in his life. I know these situations, he explained. I've been in them. I've lived them. That's the reason I feel these songs today. With the help of the book, it might help straighten some people up. My wife Nancy has received many, many telephone calls from folks, since I quit drinking and straightened up, saying if old George can do it, I can, too. It's changed their lives. With the record and the book at the same time, it kind of goes together.
The album I Lived To Tell It All captures the classic George Jones sound, but it's a sound that's fresh and new to many of today's country fans because, as Jones points out, Nobody's doing that type of song anymore.Nobody's doing that type of singing either because, as Jones proves on I Lived To Tell It All nobody but George Jones can.
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