Almost Blue: Difference between revisions

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__notoc__[[Image:AB_album_cover_large.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Almost Blue, 1981]]  
__notoc__[[Image:AB_album_cover_large.jpg|thumb|250px|right|Almost Blue, 1981]]  
''Excerpt from the Rhino [[Liner Notes: Almost Blue|liner notes]]:'' <br>
"By the time I first arrived in Nashville to record this album, my country music collection contained the accumulated swag of five U.S. tours with many spare suitcases being bought to carry home hordes of thrift store vinyl. My tastes were running to Stonewall Jackson, Ray Price, Kitty Wells, Webb Pierce, and Janis Martin. I had a shelf full of George Jones albums on Starday, Mercury, and recent releases on Epic. I was working my way through everything by Charlie Rich from Sun through Smash to Epic, a bunch of great Johnny Cash songs, Jerry Lee Lewis’ country sides on Mercury, early Willie Nelson songs and great albums like Red Headed Stranger and Stardust, Patsy Cline, anything by Loretta Lynn, and the only Hank Williams that I knew existed, the one the now call “Senior”.


When I went to Billy Sherrill’s office to discuss the repertoire, there was a big dustbin liner sitting on his desk. He tipped out the contents to reveal a stash of cassettes submitted by publishing houses from all over town. I suppose this was standard practice for a new artist coming to record, but the songs ranged all the way from the lame to the downright bizarre. Hill and Range submitted “Heartbreak Hotel” with all apparent seriousness. Best of all was an early Willie Nelson demo of a song called “I Just Can’t Let You Say Goodbye” (unreleased until the Teatro album), a homicidal ballad that contained the chilling lines: “The flesh around your neck is pale/Indented by my fingernail”. I told Billy that I already had all the songs we needed.


The South Bank Show documentary of the making of this album contains a wonderful sequence in which Billy Sherrill is questioned about my song choices while driving his speedboat. He admits that he is “worn out on” a lot of the songs (he had engineered the Sun version of Charlie Rich’s “Sittin’ And Thinkin’” and produced the Epic remake in the early ‘70s), but he was willing to see what we could do with them … “unless we write a new one”. He certainly took extra special interest in his own composition “Too Far Gone”, cajoling me to attempt the “spoken” second verse with the timeless advice: “There isn’t a woman in the world who ain’t a fool for a talking bit”. "


==Track listing==
==Track list==
'''Side 1'''<br>
===1981 LP===
01. '''[[Why Don't You Love Me (Like You Used To Do)?]]''' [1:35]<br>
{{tracklist
02. '''[[Sweet Dreams]]''' [2:56]<br>
| writing_credits = yes
03. '''[[Success]]''' [2:38]<br>
| headline        = Side one
04. '''[[I'm Your Toy]]''' [3:20]<br>
| title1          = [[Why Don't You Love Me (Like You Used To Do)?]]
05. '''[[Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down]]''' [2:06]<br>
| writer1        = [[Hank Williams]]
06. '''[[Brown To Blue]]''' [2:37]<br>
| length1        = 1:35
'''Side 2'''<br>
| title2          = [[Sweet Dreams]]
07. '''[[Good Year For The Roses]]''' [3:06]<br>
| writer2        = [[Don Gibson]]
08. '''[[Sittin' And Thinkin']]''' [3:00]<br>
| length2        = 2:56
09. '''[[Colour Of The Blues]]''' [2:18]<br>
| title3          = [[Success]]
10. '''[[Too Far Gone]]''' [3:24]<br>
| writer3        = [[Johnny Mullins]]
11. '''[[Honey Hush]]''' [2:11]<br>
| length3        = 2:38
12. '''[[How Much I Lied]]''' [2:48]]<br>
| title4          = [[I'm Your Toy]]
| writer4        = [[Chris Ethridge]], [[Gram Parsons]]
| length4        = 3:20
| title5          = [[Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down]]
| writer5        = [[Merle Haggard]]
| length5        = 2:06
| title6          = [[Brown To Blue]]
| writer6        = [[George Jones|G. Jones]], [[Virginia Franks|V. Franks]], [[Johnny "Country" Mathis|J. Mathis]]
| length6        = 2:37
}}
{{tracklist
| writing_credits = yes
| headline        = Side two
| title1          = [[Good Year For The Roses]]
| writer1        = [[Jerry Chesnut]]
| length1        = 3:06
| title2          = [[Sittin' And Thinkin']]
| writer2        = [[Charlie Rich]]
| length2        = 3:00
| title3          = [[Colour Of The Blues]]
| writer3        = [[Lawton Williams]], [[George Jones]]
| length3        = 2:18
| title4          = [[Too Far Gone]]
| writer4        = [[Billy Sherrill]]
| length4        = 3:24
| title5          = [[Honey Hush]]
| writer5        = [[Big Joe Turner]]
| length5        = 2:11
| title6          = [[How Much I Lied]]
| writer6        = [[Gram Parsons]], [[Pam Rifkin]]
| length6        = 2:48
}}<br>


==Credits==
==Credits==
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==Internal links==
{{AB internal links}}


==External links==
==External links==

Revision as of 03:20, 18 March 2009

Almost Blue, 1981


Track list

1981 LP

Side one
TitleWriter(s) Length
1. Why Don't You Love Me (Like You Used To Do)?  Hank Williams 1:35
2. Sweet Dreams  Don Gibson 2:56
3. Success  Johnny Mullins 2:38
4. I'm Your Toy  Chris Ethridge, Gram Parsons 3:20
5. Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down  Merle Haggard 2:06
6. Brown To Blue  G. Jones, V. Franks, J. Mathis 2:37
Side two
TitleWriter(s) Length
1. Good Year For The Roses  Jerry Chesnut 3:06
2. Sittin' And Thinkin'  Charlie Rich 3:00
3. Colour Of The Blues  Lawton Williams, George Jones 2:18
4. Too Far Gone  Billy Sherrill 3:24
5. Honey Hush  Big Joe Turner 2:11
6. How Much I Lied  Gram Parsons, Pam Rifkin 2:48


Credits

Elvis Costello - vocals, guitar
Steve Nieve - piano, organ
Bruce Thomas - bass
Pete Thomas - drums
John McFee - lead guitar, pedal steel
Tommy Millar - fiddle
Nashville Edition - background vocals


External links

Template:AB external links

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