Customer Reviews

Waylon Jennings - Greatest Hits

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If you like real genuine country, not today's yuppy country love tunes (They have a place but not 24/7), then try listening to Waylon Jennings. You can't classify the man because he sings all kinds of songs. Compare his deep smooth baritone mixed with the midrange and even high notes. Not to knock Tim Mcgraw, but just listen to the vocals between the two. There's no match. It's like Sinatra Vs. Tiny Tim. (McGraw fans take a breath, it's my opinion)
The only bad thing about this CD is that they left off "Ladies Love Outlaws" which was on the original LP release. Why? Who knows? The song is available on CD.
If you like up tempo, and have cast all country as goat roping whining music, Listen to "Are you Sure Hank Done it This Way", "Lonesome On'ry and Mean", and "Honky Tonk Heroes". After that you'll understand Waylon's roots in rock and roll, as Buddy Holly's Bass player.
If you like a country ballad that tells a story without putting you to sleep like some other artists, play "Amanda". For the classic rugged tunes with great lyrics the famous duet with Willie Nelson of "Good Hearted Woman", "Luckenbach, Texas" and Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow up To Be Cowboys" are songs that you can't hear enough of.
Waylon's outlaw style is personified in the lyrics to "I'm A Rambling Man", and the original penned by Waylon himself, "I've Always Been Crazy". The hit "Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line" is the up tempo version of a man and wife's struggles.
Released in 1979, but some of the recordings and hits date back to the 60's. With some of these great go to songs still being found on juke boxes all over the country today, it shows that outlaw and rugged country fans are loyal to the end. It seems to me some of the newer country fans have lost that. It's kind of like rock and roll today. Many people like the song, and know it, but can't tell you the singer or the name of the band. With so many new artists coming and going after a big album, a second fair but going down album, and a third that bombs, no one can tell who's singing anymore.
With Waylon, there's no mistaking it. If you like this album, I recommend "New Classic Waylon", and for more vintage material in a Live album, Get "Waylon Live". Waylon won a grammy for Macarthur Park, which is a Sinatra type of song. He sings classic Rough outlaw country, ballads, humorous songs, and older rock and roll all with equal ease. If you like a little humorous storytelling, listen to "Nobody Knows I'm Elvis" (Waymore's Blues Part II CD, and "Troubleman" and "How Much is it Worth to Live in L.A." on the New Classic Waylon CD. If you don't like it, then your taste isn't here where so many others are, then you'll have to look for different artists.
The thing about Waylon is that the man could flat out sing. Oh, and you won't find him on the cover of his cd's or albums barefooted with crossed legs, sitting on a white sheep skin rug, with a CD full of pop tunes inside like you will in today's "Country" music rack. He'll be the one in a black vest and hat with Jeans, beard, and those things called cowboy boots.

Now after calling this one of the greatest country albums ever I do have to mention one little problem. I used to have this record on LP and I know that at least three tracks are missing. I keep waiting for a re-release of the original version. Now for the praise. Waylon is one of those artists that has a real history to him. He played bass for Buddy Holly and he is the one that gave his seat on that fatefull plane ride to the Big Bopper. I belive since he was a bass player he likes to add a lot of bass to his music and you will hear it from the first track "Lonesome, Onry, and Mean" all the way to the last track. The song "Good Hearted Woman" is one of the most honest songs ever written. If you have never heard of Waylon or the whole Outlaw Country thing and want to get a fair sample of this is the album for you. Of course you should also check out Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash (Check out his Billboard ad on his homepage), Jerry Jeff Walker, Gary P. Nunn, Asleep at the Wheel, Junior Brown, and Chris Wall. There are probably a hundred others that I should mention but this will give you a good taste of Texas Country music.

hay this is country as it should be foot tappin-storey tellin-and just plain great music. an enjoyable recording to listen to ,as my pop says , great and he aint a country fan.

He HAD to miss that plane so he could become the legendary Outlaw that he was. This album captures the songs that made him famous across genres. It isn't profound or cutting edge. It never claimed to be. It's just a damned fine example of good sing along country music. I had a blast at a new year's party singing along to it. Miss you Waylon. Godspeed.

This is the best record I've ever had with me on a long road trip. Play it over and again and you won't tire of this outlaw. "Lonesome Onry and Mean" was the first song I learned on guitar (all the way through anyway), and is a great example of Waylons' rock and roll influences. "Are you sure Hank Done It This Way" is a combination of Waylon's rockabilly roots and the "Nashville" sound that he has such disdain for. The throwaway cut here is "Luckenbach, Texas." Waylon himself has proclaimed: "I just hate that song." You get the classic country ballad "Amanda", which is always worth a wet eye or two. All in all a great album by the most wanted outlaw of them all.

The first thing you find when you listen to this release is Waylon's sly sense of humor.RAMBLIN' MAN,ARE YOU SURE HANK DONE IT THIS WAY,and LUCKENBACH,TEXAS shows a man who can laugh at his image.The next thing you hear is a perfect marriage of rock and country to create the outlaw sound that only a few can pull off with conviction.There is a sense of danger in the work of Waylon Jennings;the man who can never fully be tamed.If you want to discover what made the "outlaw" genre in country what it was,this is a good place to start.

This stuff is WAILIN'! Now sure, you could say that others also knew how to wail. I mean, some would argue that AC/DC and Eminem wail, too. But WAYLON JENNINGS: GREATEST HITS is "Real Man" wailin', unlike those short pants-wearing Aussie sissies with the "switch-hitting" name (Eeeeew!) or that big wuss, M&M, a salty peanut, chocolate-covered wannabe in a thin candy-a## shell! No, boys `n' girls, OL' WAYLON is "real man" music for real men and the three or four women who can still recognize real men, and who love `em despite their faults (which are usually the size of the San Andreas).

When Ol' Waylon "Waymore" Jennings cashed in his chips in 2002, that great rodeo star and bullrider extraordinaire, Yoey O'Dogherty, passed his upturned, Jim Beam-filled Stetson amongst his fellow Texas cowboys and declared, "Well boys, this poor world just lost half of its masculinity, but won't the ol' devil soil his shorts and run out the back door of hell tonight!"

Waylon "Waymore" Jennings, in case you didn't know it, was the unofficial leader of those early `70s Nashville Country music rebels labeled the "Outlaws." Waylon was an "outlaw" because he wasn't doing it the way the Nashville suits said it should be done; he took the attitude that it's my life, my music, now step aside before you're wearing my electric guitar for a cowboy hat! Lemme tell ya sumpin': Waylon was the first to meld Country-Western sentiments and style to the energy and raw electric edge of Rock music to create the "new" Country. And the "new" Country doesn't mean "today's" County: Waylon transformed the original Country whine of "My cheating woman left me, my horse left me, and only Jim Beam stuck by my side" to "I tossed my cheating woman over my horse's hide and paddled her behind, and now I'm playing with my guitar instead - and it talks sweeter than she ever did!" (Although Waylon's a nice boy on the sweet `AMANDA.')

Country has degenerated into a bunch of pretty boys in designer jeans and silk jammies whining about how their cheating woman left them and took the Hummer, or was it the red BMW? Heck, it was the new Mercedes! Where's my Jim Beam? Why she ran off with him, too! That little #%*@! WAAAaaaaa.....

Ol' Waylon is the real deal! This is tough, growling, rip-roaring, six-shooter Country with beefy rhythms that bite! And no, Ol' Waylon ain't skeered to show his tender side (while he's pausing to reload his .45), but it ain't that seeeeensitive Country twaddle; it's more like "of course I love you, babe - didn't I let you hold my hand just as soon as the theatre went dark for the John Wayne picture show?"

I saw countless Rock concerts back "in the day." Saw the Police at the Whisky on the Sunset Strip in Hollywood; saw the early Blue Oyster Cult laser extravaganza in the `70s; saw UFO and Bob Seger at The Forum in Inglewood; and saw those loud, smoke machine and strobe light shows that Thin Lizzy perfected on the B circuit. Nobody, but NOBODY was able to match Waylon! That good ol' boy just stood there with his macho charisma, his humor, and that fancy rope-encircled guitar of his, and he put on great shows - between songs, telling outrageously funny stories about when he and Johnny Cash were terrorizing the Country music capital of Nashville.

Of course, Johnny Cash has been all the rage these last couple of years, and sure, Cash was cool. But listen, if you like "The Man In Black", yer gonna LOVE Waylon! I mean, sheesh! Just look at that picture on the cover! Dudes and dudettes, that's "cool" and "mischief" simultaneously personified. And wait'll ya hear these wailin' tunes! Ol' Waylon was the best entertainer I ever saw on a stage. And if I could look and sound like any other person in history, I'd look and sound just like Ol' Waymore.

WAYLON JENNINGS: GREATEST HITS is one of my Top Ten favorite albums ever! My one complaint is that the (currently out-of-print) import version contains two songs that are now inexcusably missing from the cheap domestic copy. And those missing songs are outstanding: ONLY DADDY THAT'LL WALK THE LINE and the classic, LADIES LOVE OUTLAWS. Whoever is responsible for this at RCA should be pistol-whipped within an inch of his life! But the fact remains that if yer gonna own only one Waylon disc, it simply MUST include HONKY TONK HEROES, and until somebody does a Waylon's Greatest Hits or Best Of collection right, this remains the only one with that unforgettable slice of Waymore night life. And HONKY TONK HEROES may have been Waymore's best song, but he humorously expressed his love for (his soon-to-be wife) the darling Jessi Colter in the missing LADIES LOVE OUTLAWS:

Jessi liked the Cadillacs and diamonds on her hands

Waymore had a reputation as a ladie's man

Late one night a light of love finally gave a sign

Jessi parked her Cadillac and took her place in line.

'Cause ladies love outlaws like babies love stray dogs

Ladies touch babies like a banker touches gold

And outlaws touch ladies

Somewhere deep down in their soul.

And Waylon proved that outlaw/woman connection in a funny passage from his autobiography. It seems Waymore was on a television show with the Jefferson Airplane's Grace Slick and she mistakenly thought she was going to physically intimidate this outlaw. (Slick is one dumb chick!)

"...Grace Slick was raising hell about America ..... I was getting mad, telling her that I'm the first to agree there's a lot wrong with our system, but it's still the best out there, and she's talking about communism and striking karate poses. `There ain't a chance in the world me being afraid of you,' I said, and that turned her on." Waylon says that she was all set to dump her German boyfriend that day.

Hey, why are you still reading this review? Dang! What's wrong with you? Why haven't you ordered this album already? Look, don't make me have to come over there!

WAYLON JENNINGS-GREATEST HITS: The King of the Outlaws may be dead and gone, but as they say in country music circles, his memory lives on, and I ain't talkin' about Jesse James, folks. Waymore, as he was affectionately known, and runnin' buddy Willie Nelson spearheaded the so-called "Outlaw Movement" of the seventies, the rowdy and roots-rich antithesis of the pop-oriented "Hunks in Hats" that pass for twanger music these daze. The titles on this, one of THE truly essential hits collections, country or otherwise, tell much about the man's point of view long before you give 'em a spin. LONESOME ON'RY AND MEAN, LADIES LOVE OUTLAWS, and I'VE ALWAYS BEEN CRAZY are all wry, tongue in cheek variations on the "outsider" attitude that made the man so endearing and his music so enduring. The definitive cover of Ed Bruce's MAMMAS, DON'T LET YOUR BABIES GROW UP TO BE COWBOYS and the genteel LUCHENBACH, TEXAS, both enhanced by Willie, the funky boot-kicker ONLY DADDY THAT'LL WALK THE LINE, and poignant belly rubber AMANDA also bear up to repeated listenings. Accept no soulless, dimpled, beefcake substitutes! Waylon---no last name ever need be utterered---was the real deal and deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Hank, Merle, Buck and any other true country-to-the-core legend that ever lived (or died).

RATING: FIVE WAILS

This CD is the best available Waylon Jennings CD. It is essential to any fan who enjoys Outlaw Country music. However, Waylon Jennings' Honkey Tonk Heroes is a superior CD. I wish this five star CD was still in print. Waylon's Greatest Hits will have to do for now.

Waylon Jennings is a musical genius and the best that I know! Once you start listening to his music, everyone else just doesn't add up. No one will ever compare! This is one of my favorite cd's because of "Mama's don't let your babies..." and "Amanda", and all the rest. I would recommend any of Waylon's cd's.