I Lived to Tell It All
I Lived to Tell It All | ||||
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Studio album by George Jones | ||||
Released | August 13, 1996 (1996-08-13) | |||
Genre | Country | |||
Length | 32:22 | |||
Label | MCA Nashville | |||
Producer | Norro Wilson | |||
George Jones chronology | ||||
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I Lived to Tell It All is an album by country music artist George Jones, released on August 13, 1996, on the MCA Nashville Records label. It was also a companion piece to his best-selling autobiography of the same name, I Lived to Tell It All.
Background
Coming off his successful reunion tour with ex-wife Tammy Wynette, Jones reunited with producer Norro Wilson to record his fifth album with MCA Nashville. While Jones remained committed to "pure country", he worked with the top musicians and songwriters of the day and the quality of his work remained high, even though his age kept him off mainstream country radio. Earlier in the year, Jones released his autobiography I Lived To Tell It All with Tom Carter and the irony of his long career was not lost on him, with the singer writing in its preface, "I also know that a lot of my show-business peers are going to be angry after reading this book. So many have worked so hard to maintain their careers. I never took my career seriously, and yet it's flourishing." He also pulled no punches about his disappointment in the direction country music had taken, devoting a full chapter to the changes in the country music scene of the 1990s that saw him removed from radio playlists in favor of a younger generation of pop-influenced country stars. Despite his absence from the country charts during this time, latter-day country superstars such as George Strait, Randy Travis, Alan Jackson, and many others often paid tribute to Jones while expressing their love and respect for his legacy as a true country legend who paved the way for their own success.
Jones promoted the album heavily and it rose to 26 on the Billboard country albums chart, a respectable showing considering his lack of radio support. He also made a music video for "Honky Tonk Song" which lampooned the infamous episode when Jones rode a lawn mower eight miles to the liquor store after his wife had hidden his car keys (Jones also performed the song on The Late Show with David Letterman). The album contains the novelty single "Billy B. Bad", a sarcastic jab at country music establishment trendsetters (unsurprisingly, it did not chart), and "Hello Heart", which was co-written by Jones's former 1960s duet partner Melba Montgomery.
Reception
AllMusic calls I Lived To Tell It All "a surprising return to form" for Jones, enthusing, "There are honky tonk raveups, there are heart-tugging barroom weepers, and, best of all, there are several novelties that rank among the most clever and self-deprecating that Jones has ever recorded." In a Rolling Stone article at the time of the album's release, Chuck Dean wrote that Jones was "...blessed with the best set of lungs this side of the cosmos..." Alana Nash of Amazon.com writes that, even when going through the motions, "Jones remains the kind of singer who inspires awe and wonder..."
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | link |
Track listing
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Honky Tonk Song" | Frank J. Myers, Billy Yates | 2:46 |
2. | "Back Down to Hung Up on You" | Larry Butler, Dean Dillon | 3:37 |
3. | "Billy B. Bad" | Bobby Braddock | 3:01 |
4. | "Hundred Proof Memories" | Keith Stegall, Zack Turner | 3:56 |
5. | "It Ain't Gonna Worry My Mind" | Richard Leigh | 2:55 |
6. | "The Lone Ranger" | Yates, Gerald Smith, John Northrup | 2:38 |
7. | "Tied to a Stone" | Max D. Barnes | 4:06 |
8. | "I'll Give You Something to Drink About" | Hank Cochran, Mack Vickery, Jerry Laseter | 3:19 |
9. | "I Must Have Done Something Bad" | Red Lane | 3:19 |
10. | "Hello Heart" | Melba Montgomery, Yates | 2:45 |
Personnel
- Harold Bradley – bass guitar, baritone guitar
- Jim Chapman – backing vocals
- Glen Duncan – fiddle
- Paul Franklin – dobro, fiddle
- Gary Buho Gazaway – trumpet
- John Hughey – pedal steel guitar
- Roy Huskey, Jr. – double bass
- George Jones – acoustic guitar, vocals
- Marabeth Jordan – backing vocals
- Jana King – backing vocals
- Millie Kirkham – backing vocals
- Mike Lawler – keyboards
- Paul Leim – drums
- Larry Marrs – backing vocals
- Terry McMillan – harmonica
- Farrell Morris – percussion
- Rodger Morris – keyboards
- Louis Dean Nunley – backing vocals
- Danny Parks – electric guitar
- Don Potter – acoustic guitar
- Julie Reeves – background vocals
- Hargus "Pig" Robbins – piano
- Pete Wade – electric guitar
- Bergen White – backing vocals
- Dennis Wilson – backing vocals
- Curtis Young – backing vocals
External links
- George Jones' Official Website
- Record Label
- v
- t
- e
- Grand Ole Opry's New Star
- Country Church Time
- White Lightning and Other Favorites
- George Jones Salutes Hank Williams
- George Jones Sings Country and Western Hits
- George Jones Sings from the Heart
- George Jones Sings Bob Wills
- Homecoming in Heaven
- My Favorites of Hank Williams
- I Wish Tonight Would Never End
- George Jones Sings Like the Dickens!
- I Get Lonely in a Hurry
- The Race Is On
- Mr. Country & Western Music
- New Country Hits
- Old Brush Arbors
- Trouble in Mind
- Country Heart
- Love Bug
- I'm a People
- We Found Heaven Right Here on Earth at "4033"
- Walk Through This World with Me
- George Jones Sings the Songs of Dallas Frazier
- The George Jones Story
- My Country
- If My Heart Had Windows
- I'll Share My World with You
- Where Grass Won't Grow
- Will You Visit Me on Sunday
- George Jones with Love
- George Jones Sings the Great Songs of Leon Payne
- George Jones (We Can Make It)
- A Picture of Me (Without You)
- Nothing Ever Hurt Me (Half as Bad as Losing You)
- In a Gospel Way
- The Grand Tour
- Memories of Us
- The Battle
- Alone Again
- I Wanta Sing
- Bartender's Blues
- My Very Special Guests
- I Am What I Am
- Still the Same Ole Me
- Shine On
- Jones Country
- You've Still Got a Place in My Heart
- Ladies' Choice
- Who's Gonna Fill Their Shoes
- Wine Colored Roses
- Too Wild Too Long
- One Woman Man
- You Oughta Be Here with Me
- And Along Came Jones
- Walls Can Fall
- High-Tech Redneck
- The Bradley Barn Sessions
- I Lived to Tell It All
- It Don't Get Any Better Than This
- Cold Hard Truth
- The Rock: Stone Cold Country 2001
- The Gospel Collection
- Hits I Missed...And One I Didn't
- Burn Your Playhouse Down – The Unreleased Duets
- What's in Our Heart (with Melba Montgomery)
- Close Together (As You and Me) (with Melba Montgomery)
- Bluegrass Hootenanny (with Melba Montgomery)
- George Jones & Gene Pitney – For the First Time! Two Great Stars
- George Jones & Gene Pitney – Recorded in Nashville, Tennessee! (with Gene Pitney)
- It's Country Time Again! (with Gene Pitney)
- Double Trouble (with Johnny Paycheck)
- A Taste of Yesterday's Wine (with Merle Haggard)
- Kickin' Out the Footlights...Again (with Merle Haggard)
- George Jones & The Smoky Mountain Boys
- Hillbilly Hit Parade
- George Jones Singing 14 Top Country Song Favorites
- George Jones Sings His Greatest Hits
- The Fabulous Country Music Sound of George Jones
- Long Live King George
- The Crown Prince of Country Music
- A King & Two Queens (with Judy Lynn and Melba Montgomery)
- Blue & Lonesome
- Heartaches & Tears
- Famous Country Duets
- Hits by George
- The Best of George Jones
- All-Time Greatest Hits, Vol. 1
- Encore
- Anniversary – 10 Years of Hits
- By Request
- Super Hits
- Friends in High Places
- Super Hits, Volume 2
- 16 Biggest Hits
- 50 Years of Hits
- God's Country: George Jones and Friends