Los Angeles Times, April 30, 1981

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Country music greats salute George Jones


Robert Hilburn

"Is that who I think it is?" asked the retired furniture salesman, sneaking a peek at a rehearsal Monday night at the Country Club in Reseda.

"It looks like Waylon Jennings from here," continued Bob Best, who had been walking by the 1,000-seat club when he heard the music through an open side door. "But how'd they ever rate a buy like him out here in Reseda?"

Informed the country superstar was joining in a television salute to fellow country singer George Jones, Best added, "That's George? How about that? If they just had Jerry Lee Lewis, they'd have a real combo, wouldn't they?"

Lewis wasn't booked for the TV special, but the salesman would have seen plenty of other country and rock performers if he had stuck around a bit longer: Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello, Tanya Tucker and Jessi Colter. Tammy Wynette, Jones' ex-wife, wasn't at the rehearsal, but she flew in Tuesday for the actual show. Back in Nashville, Johnny Cash, too, was taping an introduction to the show.

It represented perhaps the most notable collection of pop talent at a single California concert since Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Joni Mitchell got together with the Band for The Last Waltz filming in San Francisco five years ago and the choicest TV musical taping here since Elvis Presley's "return" in 1968.

The irony is the man who helped provide Tuesday's show with its most memorable sequence was the one least known by Jones fans: Elvis Costello, the brilliant, enigmatic British rocker whose fierce independence leads him to normally shun anything so routinely showbiz as a TV tribute.

The special, produced by Tall Pony Productions, will be shown this summer on Home Box Office, the pay-TV system that reaches 6 million homes in this country, but Costello and the others didn't show up just for the exposure — a fact that many in these cynical times will find hard to believe unless they know the respect Jones commands.

At 49, the Texan hasn't enjoyed the pop sales of a Cash or a Jennings, but he has long been considered by his peers to be country music's premier male singer and he has battled back dramatically in recent months from a near-fatal bout with alcoholism.

During a break in Monday's rehearsal, Jennings expressed his own affection and admiration for Jones, whose career is now in its third decade:

"If I had my choice of sounding like anybody when I started out, it would have been George. He made Hank Williams sound like a sharecropper. George personifies country music. He's its center post. The funny thing is he has absolutely no understanding of how great he is and what an inspiration he has been to the rest of us.

"That's what was so bad about seeing him down for so long — seeing people still trying to kick him and make him crawl. I can't tell you what a thrill it is to see him back in control and finally getting the recognition he deserves."

Producers Tony Eaton and Paul Block said the Jones special was the outgrowth of a 1979 album, My Very Special Guests, which Jones recorded with some of the artists who joined him at the Country Club plus such other admirers as Willie Nelson, Linda Ronstadt and James Taylor.

That album was recorded at a low point in Jones' life. He's embarrassed now about the album because he feels his vocals were poor, thereby letting down the friends who were trying to help him untangle his career. Soon after finishing that LP, Jones checked into an Alabama hospital to combat the alcoholism.

Since then, he has rebounded with his biggest-selling album in years and marvelously poignant single, "He Stopped Loving Her Today," that won him Grammy and Country Music Assn. awards. So, Tuesday's show was pure celebration.

But it wasn't just the musicians who were excited by the chance to be around Jones. Marty Callner, who has directed more than 150 music specials for HBO, was fascinated by his subject.

The running time of Tuesday's show was supposed to be 72 minutes and producers Eaton and Block hoped they could get the whole thing finished by midnight because each hour after that would cost them an extra $1,500 in overtime. But it was apparent early that this was going to be a long evening. The doors at the Country Club didn't open until 9, which had been the time the tape was supposed to begin rolling.

As the crew worked out last-minute wrinkles, the singers waited in custom trailers behind the club or paced nervously in the adjoining parking lot. When the taping finally began at 10, it was quickly apparent that the show's staff had made a mistake in telling the performers to feel free to redo any numbers that seemed unsatisfactory.

The policy not only robbed the show of healthy tension, but the numerous retakes also caused the evening to drag out so long that many weary fans gave up by the time things wound to an end at 1:30 a.m. Quipped one staff member shortly after midnight: "I can see the advertising now, 'Four years in the making.' "

The performers' enthusiasm for each other was as appealing as the music of most of the night: Jennings marveled as Jones effortlessly injected all sorts of new phrasing twists on Willie Nelson's well-worn "Night Life" — outdoing by far the version featured on the Special Guests album. And Jones smiled in appreciation at the loveliness of Harris' vocal and the perkiness of Tucker's personality.

The highlight of the evening, though, was the Jones-Costello match-up.

Costello maintained his usual distance from the press at the Country Club, but he has made it clear in earlier interviews that he considers Jones the world's greatest living singer. He showed up for the taping despite a bad case of mumps. On camera, he said: "I wouldn't have missed this occasion if I'd have been on my death bed."

Backed by a band augmented by bassist Nick Lowe and guitarist John Hiatt, Costello opened with highly stylized versions of Merle Haggard's "Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down" and "He's Got You," the Patsy Cline hit that he performed frequently on his last U.S. tour.

When Jones came out to join Costello on the latter's Gothic tale of faded romance, "Stranger in the House," it was a priceless moment of culture shock and a piece of pop music history. You couldn't find two people who looked more different: Jones, in his Western leisure suit, representing the purity of the country music tradition, and Costello, looking like an offbeat British detective from a '40s pulp novel beneath his felt hat and dark glasses, the ultimate in contemporary rock sophistication and confrontation.

Before the taping, Jones spoke about how much of a kick he got out of the fact that a rocker enjoyed his music. But, he added, he hadn't been able to find a way to really talk to Costello apart from music. "There's, like, this little line between us," he said. "But that's the great thing about music. It does let you speak — better than any plain words will ever do."

Responding now to the Costello fans in the audience who were whooping it up, Jones underscored his point by saluting Costello in a wonderfully spontaneous way: He did a brief, but highly animated, Presley-like version of Ray Charles' old "I Got a Woman," reminding Costello and the audience that Jones had cut some early rockabilly sides himself.

Unfortunately, many of the young Costello fans had left by the time Jones got around to "He Stopped Loving Her Today," the mournful ballad that won him the Grammy. Though he decided he wanted to redo it, Jones' first crack at the torch song was the evening's most chilling musical moment — a reminder of why the evening was put together in the first place. George Jones can sing a country song with as much emotion as anyone who ever lived.

Alone in his trailer backstage, Jones was clearly touched that so many renowned singers joined him in the special. "It's an honor ... it leaves you speechless. It's hard to realize at times like this how lost I was just a few months ago. I'd begun to lose hope. I didn't think there was any escape. But then there was a little ray of light. Waylon was at Johnny Cash's house and they called me, to cheer me up. I don't remember what they said, but the fact they cared enough to call gave me the ray of light that I needed. That was the first step back. ..."


Tags: George Jones HBO specialReseda Country ClubLos AngelesTammy WynetteGeorge JonesWaylon JenningsEmmylou HarrisTanya TuckerJessi ColterHome Box OfficeMy Very Special GuestsWillie NelsonLinda RonstadtJames TaylorNick LoweJohn HiattMerle HaggardTonight The Bottle Let Me DownHe's Got YouPatsy ClineStranger In The HouseRay CharlesI Got A WomanJohnny CashJerry Lee LewisBob DylanNeil YoungJoni MitchellThe BandElvis Presley

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Los Angeles Times, April 30, 1981


Robert Hilburn reports on the taping of the George Jones HBO special, Tuesday, April 28, 1981, Reseda Country Club, Los Angeles.

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