Customer Reviews

Hangin' Tough

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Waylon's rendition of "Defying Gravity" is worth the price all by itself. As usual, great musical backup.

First let me say that this is a very good CD. I now own my third copy of this recording. The first two were on cassette tape, and then a few years ago, I found the CD.

Now, this is not the CD to buy if you're trying to discover the Waylon "sound". For that, I'd recommend "Honky Tonk Heroes", "Ramblin Man" or "The Essential Waylon Jennings". However, like his "pre outlaw" material, this serves to show a different (and usually overlooked) period of Waylon's musical career. As the mid 1980s approached, the arrival of new singers on the COuntry Music scene found some of the guys who'd been around for a while in search of a new style. Waylon was no exception. When he signed with MCA, gone was the "outlaw" sound he had created while on RCA and new was the more polished modern Waylon sound.

This CD opens with a mid tempo sort of rocker called "Baker Street", and then there is the beautiful "I Can't Help The Way I Don't Feel About You" followed by the classic

"Rose In Paradise".

"Crying Don't Even Come Close" is another beautiful slow song with lots of steel guitar. "The Crown Prince" is quite a haunting story song, while "Chevy Van" and "Defying Gravity (Executiner's Song)" just leave you wondering why Waylon chose to include them in this otherwise good album.

This is one Waylon Jennings best and most forgotton recordings. He puts so much more feelings in this recording then some of his later recordings. Great listen. One of my favorites Rose in Pardise.

Hard to choose your best Waylon but this might be mine. I like Emmylou's rendition of defying Gravity but Waylons is much better. "Crying dont even come close" well, what more could you ask? Skip "Chevy Van " and you wont miss a thing. In case you don't have it there are two GOOD duets with Kimmie Rhodes in her " West Texas Heaven" CD. If you like Waylon you should have these and there are also two Willie and Kimmie Duets.

I've had this album/CD since it came out and listen to it quite frequently. It is good; no matter what the critic from Emap Magazine indicates in his review. I definitely did not perceive it as being pompous, humorless and out of date. Waylon was hangin' tough when he made this recording and still is. A great addition to any Waylon fan's collection.

Waylon did a number of albums with MCA in the late 1980s, including this one. They have a noticably different "sound" than his earlier RCA records. The production was a little bit more slick and "modern" than the raw sound of the classic outlaw days of the '70s. One thing was that Richie Albright was no longer on drums; another was that Waylon no longer played his own guitar leads on the records.

That being said, the new sound "worked" pretty well on "Hangin' Tough." The songs "Rose In Paradise" and "Crying Don't Even Come Close" are two of my favorites from this record. ("Chevy Van," a cover of a cheesy AM radio hit from the 1970s, is a track I could do without).

Altogether, this is a good record from a period of Waylon's career which tends to be overlooked.

Bought it years ago, and still dig it out and listen to it regularly. 7 out of 10 songs are solid winners, and the other 3 are listenable. A very nice showing!