1) Opportunity to Cry (Willie Nelson, Sony/ATV Songs, LLC, BMI)
2) Three Days (Willie Nelson, Sony/ATV Songs, LLC, BMI)
3) Undo the Right (Willie Nelson & Hank Cochran, Sony/ATV Songs, LLC, BMI)
4) What Do You Think of Her Now (Willie Nelson & Hank Cochran, Sony/ATV Songs, LLC, BMI)
5) I've Just Destroyed the World (Willie Nelson & Ray Price, Sony/ATV Songs, LLC, BMI)
6) Permanently Lonely (Willie Nelson, Sony/ATV Songs, LLC, BMI)
7) Are You Sure (Willie Nelson & Buddy Emmons, Sony/ATV Songs, LLC, BMI)
8) Darkness on the Face of the Earth (Willie Nelson, Sony/ATV Songs, LLC, BMI)
9) Things to Remember (Willie Nelson, Sony/ATV Songs, LLC, BMI)
10) A Moment Isn't Very Long (Willie Nelson, Sony/ATV Songs, LLC, BMI)
11) Crazy (Willie Nelson, Sony/ATV Songs, LLC, BMI)
12) The Local Memory (Willie Nelson, Sony/ATV Songs, LLC, BMI)
13) I Gotta Get Drunk (Willie Nelson, Sony/ATV Songs, LLC, BMI)
14) Something to Think About (Willie Nelson, Sony/ATV Songs, LLC, BMI)
15) I'm Still Here (Willie Nelson, Sony/ATV Songs, LLC, BMI)
16) Save Your Tears (Willie Nelson, Sony/ATV Songs, LLC, BMI)
17) Half a Man (Willie Nelson, Sony/ATV Songs, LLC, BMI)
18) Within Your Crowd (Willie Nelson, Sony/ATV Songs, LLC, BMI)
Bonus Video: Interview with Hank Cochran (PC or Mac)
Review by Bill Yates, Roots66.com
"Willie". Automatically "Nelson" follows and you see the grizzled face, long hair in braids, and the battered guitar. But get in a time machine and go back forty years or so and mention "Willie" and the response would be "Willie who?". Yes, even Willie Nelson had to start somewhere. And this CD is a time machine, taking us back to the days of beginning to get his own ideas on vinyl (as opposed to the conventional "Nashvile" sound). Here are eighteen demos that Willie cut for Pamper Records in Nashville back in the early '60s. Remastered from a 1/4" tape found in a vault in 1994, these recordings let us sit in the recording studio, listening to history being made. Nelson's talent is, of course, in full bloom here. The distinctive voice and phrasing is there as well as are the finely crafted lyrics. As demos, they are not always fully fleshed out. Their purpose was not to be the recording but to sell the song to a record producer. Their length ranges from 1:12 to 3:58. Put yourself in the role of a producer as you listen. Would you buy this song?
The first eight tracks feature Willie and his guitar. They are simple and direct. "Opportunity to Cry" has been called "easily one of his best". "Three Days" was first recorded by Faron Young in 1962. Co-authored by Hank Cochran, "Undo the Right" has steel guitar accompaniment provided by Jimmy Day, who played with Willie in Ray Price's band, "The Cherokee Cowboys". Another Nelson-Cochran work, "What Do You Think of Her Now" has Cochran providing harmony vocals. "I've Just Destroyed the World" was co-written by Ray Price who released it on a single in 1962. Willie would record "Permanently Lonely" in 1965 for Chet Atkins and RCA. Recorded by Ray Price in 1962, "Are You Sure" came about from a remark in a bar by steel guitarist Buddy Emmonds. Nelson seized on the phrase as the title and wrote the song, giving Emmonds co-authoring credit. "Darkness on the Face of the Earth" has been recorded by Willie three times since 1962.
The rest of the demos have Willie accompanied by studio bands of varying and somewhat unknown composition. "Things to Remember", an up-tempo lost love song was recorded by Faron Young for Capitol in 1961. Nelson released "A Moment Isn't Very Long" in 1978 on his own label, Lone Star Records. And then there's "Crazy", the most played song in jukebox history. This is the demo that in 1961 was played by Hank Cochran for Patsy Cline while Nelson sat outside her home and waited. The chorus of "The Local Memory" picks up the pace again, interspersed with slow, contemplative verses. The honky-tonk ditty "I Gotta Get Drunk" is one of Nelson's more popular works,
"Something to Think About" exhibits Nelson's effective delivery of a lyric to a "T". He's accompanied here by Buddy Emmons on steel and Hargus Robbins on piano. "I'm Still Here" is heard by the public here for the first time. The last three tracks are 'bonus' tracks and do not appear on the track list or in the CD booklet. "Save Your Tears" is a slow, sad song with just Willie and his guitar. "Half a Man" is another song of betrayed love. Finishing off the musical portion of the CD is a song of the difficulty with love across social barriers, "Within Your Crowd".
A real bonus on this album is the video interview with Hank Cochran. He covers these early years and spins some of the stories about Willie and the Nashville scene and tells the story of "Crazy". The video is presented in QuickTime format and is viewable by both Windows and macintosh PCs.
This release is a real time machine. But the interesting thing to me is that forty years later, Willie Nelson is still the same: an extremely talented singer and songwriter. Here you can hear the independent style that is distinctively Willie. This recording is a must for his fans and a real lesson for budding singer/songwriters. It doesn't take big, fancy production—just hard work and talent. Thanks to producer Steve Fishell and Sugar Hill Records for this excellent compilation. The video is a nice extra and the booklet is sixteen pages of intriguing reading and photos. And a special thanks to Willie Nelson—for everything!
Copyright 2003 William Theron Yates
2/19/2003
This review is copyrighted but may be quoted in whole or part provided credit is given such as "--Bill Yates, Roots66.com". If you post the review on a web site, please link to http://www.roots66.com if you can.
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