Entertainment For Lively Minds
How to buy...Willie Nelson
Posted by Paul Waring on 24 July 2010 - 10:41am.
After spending a very pleasant hour in the company of Willie at Glastonbury this year, I thought I ought to investigate the man's works in a little more detail.
But where to start?
I did a bit of Foppage last week and picked up a 'box set' for fifteen quid, that includes the following:
The Troublemaker
To Lefty From Willie
Stardust
Willie sings Kristofferson
Tougher than Leather
But this of course is only scratching the surface.
So I need guidance from those who know.
Where do I go to for the Full Nelson?
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Lucky you
I wrote a book about Willie back in the day, and I'd recommend you start in the early 70s: Yesterday's Wine, Shotgun Willie, Phases & Stages and The Red Headed Stranger are all wonderful albums, and a real peak of Willie as a writer. (If you can pick up the Complete Atlantic Sessions box cheaply, that covers much of this stuff).
Of later work, Spirit is very stripped down and quite brilliant, and Teatro has its admirers, though it depends whether you're a fan of Daniel Lanois's production or not. I also have a real soft spot for his duets album, Across the Borderline.
Also, his 60s work is often overlooked but some of it is really brilliant. If you can find Live at Panther Hall 1966, get it. Naked Willie, a stripped down re-release of some of his late 60s work, is also a good primer.
But if you need just one name to start with: Phases and Stages.
Thanks Graeme (and everyone else)
The Atlantic Sessions on their way to me now - along with one of the three copies of your book that Amazon had left.
Would that Complicated Shadows was as easily available...
Cheers
I wasn't touting for business, honest.
Paul, drop me a line via the Contact button on my profile here and I might be able to help re: Complicated Shadows.
Thanks Graeme
Line duly dropped.
Never for a minute thought you were touting - delighted to get the response I did. Willie (being country and all) had passed me by for years and some catch-up is desperately needed.
EC, on the other hand, has been an obsession for a long, long time (how did I end up with four - count 'em - different versions of My Aim Is True?) and I should have bought Complicated Shadows years ago.
Milk Cow Blues
...is an album of duets. They're all blues songs. I love it. It's on Spotify.
i rather like spirit
a haggard face on the cover of an aslbum of willie facing mortality
teatro from around the same epriod is pretty good too
I, too, like Spirit
And the Atlantic era. Although I'd take Shotgun Willie over Phases and Stages, personally.
His latest from 2009
Willie's latest album is very good record.He does a duet with Lucinda and 'Ain't going down on Brokeback Mountain' is a hoot.I highly reccommend this record.
not recent album with asleep at the wheel
they are great , Willie sounds asleep at the mio
I'm no expert
but shouldn't you have something where he is with his amigos in the collection?
Question for Graeme Thomson
Graeme,Is it true that Willie wrote Crazy and 'Funny how time slips away' on the same day ? If so,it's staggering.
@Paul-can only second all of the above,'The Red Headed Stranger' is awesome.
Also i share my birthday with the great man.
Print the Myth
Well, myth and reality are pretty hard to untangle when it comes to Willie, but it's certainly true that he wrote those two songs, along with 'Night Life', in the space of a couple of weeks in Houston in 1959. He's still playing them half a century later; not bad work.
My recomendations
Would be all relatively recent
You Don't Know Me - wherein Willie sings the songs of Cindy Walker
Across the Borderline - Willie's performances of some great songs by Bob, Lyle and a ridiculously good version of John Hiatt's 'The Most Unoriginal Sin'
Spirit - with Willie as a Mount Rushmore image on the cover of these pared back, simple, heartfelt songs.
Good luck with it all
Thanks Graeme
like you say you never know but still pretty amazing.
Also just realised that you are the Graeme Thomson of "I shot a man.....' fame.
Excellent book,highly recommend it.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Shot-Man-Reno-History-Misadventure/dp/0826428576...