The Soul & The Edge: The Best of Johnny Paycheck

Johnny Paycheck | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (April 30, 2002)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B0000663XO
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,913 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #27 in Music > Country > Outlaw Country

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

In 1970, after a string of not-quite hits and hard luck, Johnny Paycheck was singing for drinks in L.A. when Countrypolitan maestro Billy Sherrill gave him a second shot at a career. Paycheck's Epic debut with the producer, "She's All I Got," became a country smash and initiated a decade-long stint at the label that included the most commercially successful and some of the most emotionally complex work of his career (his much admired earlier sides--collected on the out-of-his-head The Real Mr. Heartache--notwithstanding). The Soul & the Edge draws from this fertile tenure, and though it omits a large number of charting hits from this period, much of what's here is prime Paycheck--"Slide off Your Satin Sheets," for example, and his signature "Take This Job and Shove It"--with many of these tracks otherwise unavailable on disc. Not to be missed are a conflicted pair of recitations, the notoriously rough and rowdy "Colorado Cool-Aid" (about a drunken knife fight) and the reverent "The Outlaw's Prayer." Best of all is the wrenching "I've Seen Better Days," where Paycheck comes to in someone's front yard, roused by Sherrill's wrenching, string-and-steel dynamics and squinting into the light of another miserable day. --David Cantwell

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid overview of Paycheck's Epic years, May 5, 2002

By 

hyperbolium (Earth, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Soul & The Edge: The Best of Johnny Paycheck (Audio CD)

It's a shame that Paycheck is mostly remembered for his temper, jail-stints, and the hell-raising 1977 hit, "Take This Job and Shove It." A shame, because there's a lot more to Paycheck, including two separate halves of a successful recording career that yielded a wealth of hard-lived honky-tonk and comeback mainstream country hits.

Paycheck found his earliest success as a hard-core honky-tonker on the Little Darlin' label (anthologized on the Country Music Foundation's "The Real Mr. Heartbreak" CD). After splitting with the label's co-founder, and drinking away two years in California, Paycheck mounted a stunning comeback on Epic, spurred throughout the '70s by producer Billy Sherrill. It's these later sides, including hits like "She's All I Got" and "Someone to Give My Love To" that are anthologized here.

Paycheck's career with Epic had two distinct phases. His comeback sides smoothed out the sharp edges of his honky-tonk sound, with studio players providing the backing, and Sherrill's string arrangements layered on top. By mid-decade, however, Paycheck had latched on to the burgeoning outlaw movement, releasing albums such as "11 Months and 29 Days" (the title referring to the length of one of his suspended jail sentences), and charting with grittier hits like "I'm the Only Hell (My Mama Ever Raised)" and "Slide Off of Your Satin Sheets." By the decade's close, Paycheck's personal problems began to interfere with his career, and in '81 he was dropped by Epic. He last charted on Mercury with 1986's "Old Violin," included here.

For such a regular hit-maker, Paycheck's Epic work has only been thinly anthologized on CD. This collection's twenty-three tracks (clocking in at over 75 minutes) are generous and well picked. They provide a good picture of Paycheck's career with Epic, balancing his best-known hits with album tracks and a pair of live takes. But the track list is far from complete, missing hits like "Something About You I Love," "Mr. Lovemaker," "For a Minute There," "Friend, Lover, Wife," and "Maybellene." The non-chronological track ordering and lack of chart info are also disappointing.

Still, despite the omissions, these crisply remastered tapes, coupled with newly penned liner notes from Jonny Whiteside (in addition to words from George Jones and Marty Martel) round out a fine introduction to Paycheck's Epic years, and certainly the best that's currently available on CD.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This is what country music is truly meant to be, November 28, 2002

By 

Larry W. Brutsche (Hamilton, Ohio United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Soul & The Edge: The Best of Johnny Paycheck (Audio CD)

This is country music at its finest. This isn't what is coming out of Nashville today. On this disc every man's emotion is laid bare from happiness, despair, humor to pathos. And, best of all, is the "Old Violin". You can't call yourself a collector of country music until this cd is in your collection. How proud you will be to display this gem!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Compilation of Paycheck's Epic Years, May 2, 2002

By 

T. C Lane (Marina, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Soul & The Edge: The Best of Johnny Paycheck (Audio CD)

Johnny Paycheck rarely gets mentioned with George Jones, Merle Haggard or Lefty Frizzell in Country History as one of the great, influential singers of all time. But he is, and Epic has finally given him a Compilation worth cheering. If it's just the charted hits you want buy, 16 Biggest Hits, which does a nice job. But this digs deeper. Albums cuts mixed with classics make for a better understanding of Paycheck's legacy. This also includes his last Country Top 40 hit, the self-penned "Old Violin" which was released on Mercury records in 1986. Up-to-date liner notes and good sound make this an essential purchase. If this whets your appetite, go for Paycheck's 60's sides which are perfectly captured on CMF's "The Real Mr. Heartache-The Little Darlin' Years". Someday, there'll be a compilation covering Paycheck's entire career. Until then, this CD and the CMF one are all you'll need to remember an unjustly ignored Country legend.