My experience with George Strait started right at the end of that period, when I left camp on a day off and bought the four disc box set called Strait Out of the Box. It came out in 1995, so that was probably summer of 1995. The Hastings in Kerrville received a lot of money from me that summer. I was still just trying to figure out what I liked in country, but enough people had proselytized about King George to me that I figured I should give it a shot. This box is a ridiculous treasure trove of absolute classic country from Strait's earliest songs through 1995. And it is truly ridiculous. The guy has more than 60 No. 1 charting songs, apparently the most of any artist in any genre. And the vast majority of these songs are on this box set and are tunes you have heard before.
After discussing it with Joseph some, I realized that I think Amarillo by Morning might be one of my favorite country songs of all time. Such a classic combination of story-telling, western-city-name dropping, and the cowboy spirit. Chris LeDoux spent like 10 albums trying to tell us all that was already packed into that one tune. I know Strait didn't write it, I don't think he wrote many of his songs at all, but this one is just the right blend. Here is a slightly inferior live version:
Now don't get me wrong. Strait had a few missteps with covers or terrible Music Row songwriting. Key example is Hollywood Squares. "I got so many X's and O so much, I oughtta be on Hollywood Squares." Ugh. Come on, man. The Love Bug is also pretty painful. "Aww, that, teenie little itty bitty thing they call the love bug!" Whoowee! Let's dance! The other ones that were hits, but still don't work so well for me, are where he goes for maximum schmaltz - strings or synth with cringe-inducing lyrics. Marina Del Rey is the one that comes to mind, but there are others.
But I took yesterday and most of today to go back and listen to all of his original albums. 1981's Strait Country, 1982's Strait from the Heart, 1983's Right of Wrong, 1984's Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind, 1985's Something Special, 1986's #7, and 1987's Ocean Front Property. I mean, good Lord, man. He put out an album a year (not including multiple greatest hits collections) since 1981 and each one has a handful of hits that most other musicians would kill to have under their belt. It is pretty damn amazing. Even the non-hits from these albums are good - he took a lot of classic cues from Bob Wills, Merle Haggard, Hank Williams to make the gold standard for country music for the next four decades. Pretty amazing.
Take a couple hours on Spotify and fire up the Strait Out of the Box set. Regardless of your thoughts about country music, I think you'll be surprised at how enjoyable it all is.
1 comment:
Strait Out of the Box is the boxed set by which all boxed sets should be measured. Just greatness.
Basically, with one or two exceptions, if you pretend that George stopped making new music in 1995 you have a nearly perfect country discography. (With "Lovebug" obviously being the one song before then that should never, ever be mentioned out loud).
I second Jack's observation that "Amarillo By Morning" might be as good a country song as has ever been recorded and tells everything you need to know about the guy in the song in a handful of words. Seamless, efficient songwriting mixed with one of the most recognizable opening few notes of all time.
His songs from the 80s (and some from the early 90s) manage to mostly avoid crossing the line from heartfelt to schmaltzy, and even gimmicky songs like "The Chair" that in many other artists hands would have been a truly awful song, manages to be one that you find yourself humming to yourself after it ends. Other songs that will still be in country rotations in 100 years: "Cowboy Rides Away", "Fireman", "Nobody in His Right Mind Would Have Left Her", "All My Exes" and "Ocean Front Property" (again, somehow not seeming nearly as cheesy as they should come across), "Baby Blue", "Baby's Gotten Good at Goodbye", "I've Come to Expect It From You"...I mean good lord. Those songs in and of themselves are a career.
Even post 1995, he would make sure to have at least 1 or 2 songs per album that may not have hit the level of the aforementioned ones, but they were still better than 99% of the crap that Nashville was turning out.
Looking through his discography, apparently he had a single hit #1 in 2006 called "Give It Away". I've never heard it, but I'm going to now go through life pretending it's a cover of the Chili Peppers big hit, and that he used to run out on stage without his shirt screaming "WHAT I GOT YOU GOTTA GIVE IT TO YOUR MOTH-A!"
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