Walk Through This World With Me - The Complete Musicor Recordings, 1965-1971 (Part 1) [Box set, Import]

George Jones | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (May 26, 2009)
• Original Release Date: May 26, 2009
• Number of Discs: 5
• Format: Box set, Import
• Note on Boxed Sets: During shipping, discs in boxed sets occasionally become dislodged without damage. Please examine and play these discs. If you are not completely satisfied, we'll refund or replace your purchase.
• Label: Bear Family
• ASIN: B001U5Q1PM
• In-Print Editions: Audio CD
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #23,142 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

Disc: 1

1. I Just Lost My Favorite Girl

2. What's Bad for You Is Good for Me

3. Don't You Ever Get Tired

4. How Proud I Would Have Been

See all 34 tracks on this disc

Disc: 2

1. My Favorite Lies

2. Memory Is

3. Feeling Single, Seeing Double

4. Don't Think I Don't Love You

See all 34 tracks on this disc

Disc: 3

1. Let's Both Have a Cry

2. Back into My Baby's Arms Again

3. Don't Keep Me Lonely Too Long

4. Please Don't Let That Woman Get Me

See all 34 tracks on this disc

Disc: 4

1. Give Me Just One Day Lord

2. Cup of Loneliness

3. Taggin' Along

4. Wandering Soul

See all 34 tracks on this disc

Disc: 5

1. The Girl I Almost Knew

2. I Threw Away the Rose

3. There's Nothing Left for You

4. I Stopped Living Yesterday

See all 41 tracks on this disc

Editorial Reviews

No other period of George Jones' long, legendary career is as murky and mysterious as his stint at Musicor, his home from 1965 through 1971. He left United Artists for Musicor after "The Race Is On" topped the charts in 1964, once again following his producer, mentor, and manager, Pappy Daily, to new, seemingly greener pastures that just happened to be financially advantageous to Pappy. George was UA's flagship country artist, but Musicor had only one other hit-maker on its roster and that was Gene Pitney, the operatic pop singer who flirted with country music in 1965, the year George joined Musicor, and a year after the British Invasion stole much of Pitney's pop audience. George and Gene cut two albums' worth of duets which brought them both a bit of crossover, but Pitney's star continued to fade in the late '60s as Jones' burned bright, so Daily did what any huckster would: he ran his lone star into the ground, having him record almost 300 sides in just over six years, flooding the market with singles and LPs, churning out records -- on Musicor as well as RCA and its budget-line Camden offshoot -- well after George severed ties with Musicor and Pappy by buying out his contract in 1971. In a fitting irony, this profligate parade of product found its counterpart in an utter dearth of CD reissues of Musicor material. A handful of cuts showed up on Rhino's 1991 The Best of George Jones, the Pitney duets were collected on a generous 1994 CD by Bear Family, the same years some cuts appeared on a two-disc retrospective from Epic called The Essential George Jones: The Spirit of Country, but the bulk of the Musicor recordings remained unavailable due to various legal reasons until 2009, when Bear Family released all of them in two big box sets. Walk Through This World with Me is the first volume, covering the first two-and-a-half years of Jones' time at Musicor, a quarter of a decade that produced several huge hits, many forgotten gems, and a bunch of standard-issue Texas honky tonk elevated by the natural grace of George and the grit of his Jones Boys. In a move that seems a test to prove whether the old adage of whether a great singer could sing the phone book is true, Daily would have Jones sing almost any old song, provided that he owned the copyright. He had a stable of regular writers, most quite talented, working overtime to turn out material, and when that failed, he dug up public domain gospel numbers he could arrange, then filled out sessions with current hits and re-recordings. Since Pappy did have Leon Payne, Dallas Frazier, and Peanuts Montgomery on his short list, he gave George lots of good, sometimes great, songs to record, and unlike Col. Tom Parker, he wasn't loathe to have George cut a tune if his company couldn't get the publishing. That said, there are times during this box where it seems as if Daily was almost testing the old adage of whether a great singer could sing the phone book and sound good. Of course, that's giving Pappy a bit too much credit -- he wasn't there for art, he was there for commerce, picking songs and pushing Jones to break Musician's Union rules (according to George, they once recorded a full album in three hours, way beyond the union's three-song limit), but letting the singer conduct the band and set the arrangements, something that's made clear by the session tapes that conclude this five-disc box. This hands-off approach might explain why the first half of the Musicor years doesn't depart greatly from the sound of George's UA recordings; there are a few cuts that show a heavy Roger Miller influence, and a few that bear traces of the Bakersfield twang of Buck Owens, along with some Merle Haggard, but by and large, this is hardcore country with an emphasis on sweet, mournful ballads, and when it comes to this sound, nobody does it better than George Jones. Certainly, there are varying degrees of inspirati

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars so good, it's almost worth the wait ...., July 5, 2009

By 

Michael A. Sugarman "Jones fan" (So. Vermont USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Walk Through This World With Me - The Complete Musicor Recordings, 1965-1971 (Part 1) (Audio CD)

Like at least one other reviewer I also consider G. Jones the finest country singer alive (or dead), so it's a huge relief to finally have this first collection of Jones' Musicor recordings, with the second also now available. I can't really comment about the sound, as I've mostly been listening in the car, but I wouldn't dismiss the listed opinion regarding the possibility of less-than-pristine master tapes from which Bear Family produced these CD's. In any case, the sound seems fine to me, without really anything to compare except for all those dubious Dutch and Spanish CD's of Musicor material, whose sound was sometimes awful. It seems to me that Bear Family has done the best (as they almost always do) with the source material(s) they have. I'm another one who is somewhat put off by the lukewarm sometimes condescending tone of Rich Kienzle in his notes. I've always enjoyed Kienzle's writing and I have great respect for his country music historical knowledge, but one significant aspect of George Jones' artistry has totally escaped Kienzle, and that is Jones' ability to elevate the material, to make a mediocre song good and a good song absolutely great. Come on, Rich! Calling "Flowers for Mama" "bathos-plagued," and complaining about Jones' recitation in the song?? Referring to "I Just Lost My Favorite Girl" as a "flat ballad?" Country Music was built on emotionally raw, maudlin songs like this and Jones proves his magnificence as a singer by carrying off these songs and many such others in this set. I hope no-one is discouraged from buying this set by my or any other review ... No one in country music history, and few other singers of any other genre can match the combination of raw emotion and assured grace which George Jones brings to a song. In terms of percentage, there is probably more good/great material here than on the UA set (also strongly recommended, nevertheless.)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars finally!, June 4, 2009

By 

rock of ages - See all my reviews

This review is from: Walk Through This World With Me - The Complete Musicor Recordings, 1965-1971 (Part 1) (Audio CD)

Been waiting and waiting! So great; cannot wait for volume 2. GET THIS NOW; DO NOT HESITATE!!!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Must Have For Your Jones Collection, June 17, 2009

By 

William D. Ferrell "David F." (WV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Walk Through This World With Me - The Complete Musicor Recordings, 1965-1971 (Part 1) (Audio CD)

What can I say? This is great!!! Some of these tracks have been out of circulation for many years, and there are a few "alternate takes" here (some of which are better than the hit version of the songs... "Walk Through This World With Me" for one).
If you like George Jones, this is a must have collection. His absolute best work was done for United Artists and Musicor. Stay Tuned... Part Two is coming soon.