Willie Nelson “You Don’t Know Me”
My roommate in college didn’t have a lot of luck with the ladies. But it wasn’t his fault, you see, he was a north Oklahoma redneck who loved Metallica, always wore black and was doing the comb over thing by the age of 20. (I’m not making this up people. Now, I’m not making fun of him because there but the grace of God go I. But if I think about it for a minute, I like Metallica, but I wouldn’t call it love, and my wardrobe has more than one color, and I’m more of a Kansas redneck instead of Oklahoma redneck, and I have nice hair, not obsessive girl pretty hair, but I like it and it’s not receding at the moment, so really, I actually have no chance of falling into any of his pitfalls) Anyhow, he was a combo of attributes you wouldn’t see very often. Sure the girls thought he was nice and cute, but only in a “just friends” sort of way. A little tip here ladies (and I have it on good authority that we have female viewers of this web-site) we only say we’re friends with you because we think it’ll give us a chance to carry on a little “smoochie-smoochie” later. So when he was invited up to two cute girls dorm room, we were all excited for him. I mean our little man, alone with two girls, we couldn’t have been happier for the young lad. But as Paul Harvey would say, “and now, the rest of the story.” You see these two gals weren’t your normal co-eds; they were practicing Satanists, complete with their own shrine in their closet. (Bet you didn’t see that one coming, neither did my roommate) My point is, things aren’t always as they seem. Something else that it isn’t as it seems, Bob Wills classic song “Bubbles in my Beer,” wasn’t written by Bob, or Tommy Duncan or even by Leon. Instead Cindy Walker penned that song. I’ve been on this earth for 3 decades and didn’t even know her name, let alone that she wrote over 500 songs, the first at the age of 12. I found all of this info out when Willie Nelson released an entire CD of her songs. And just let me say, thank you Willie for introducing her music to me. See, just like my roommate, it pays to do a little research.
In Bruce Robison’s song “What Would Willie Do,” one-line states: He even had a hit country song with Julio Iglesias. And let’s not forget that he did a CD full of blues songs. Cage and Van can attest to this fact. In one of their first gigs, if not the first, a guy at the bar kept requesting “Milk Cow Blues.” Since neither Van nor Cage new that song at the time, they invited the man up on stage to sing it, and music history was made. Next time you see Van live, request “Milk Cow Blues” for me. Something even odder than Willie singing duets with Julio or singing the blues is Willie singing an old Bob Wills tune. But on this CD he does several of Wills classics. Granted, he does some of them better than others. I almost wrecked the old Blazer when “Cherokee Maiden” came on. Let’s just say it’s not as “smooth” as Ray Benson’s version. But the rest of the Wills songs are good. He also does other classic country favorites in a uniquely Willie Nelson sort of way. These are some great songs that need to be heard again. Seriously, one bar of these songs beats any ba-donka-donk song all to pieces.
My favorites songs on the CD include “Not That I Care,” “Dusty Skies,” “Warm Red Wine,” and “It’s All Your Fault.”
Put a nickel in the jukebox
And let it play
For my heart is loaded with pain
Pull the cork from the bottle
Of the warm red wine
And fill my glass up again
Fill my glass up to the brim
Till it flows o'er the rim
Like the tears flow in this heart of mine
And I'll say so long
To the dreams that are gone
On account of the warm red wine
A little while back, I sent an e-mail to Van to tell him that Roy Clark was going to be in Ponca City and invited him and his “old lady” to come watch it. He forwarded said e-mail to his “old lady” and she promptly sent me an e-mail back saying something about how she’s younger than me, look in the mirror, blah, blah, blah. She came across kinda defensive in the e-mail, so I took it that she’s ashamed of her age. So I dedicate “Don’t be Ashamed of Your Age” to Kelle. For the record, I act and think like I’m 12, even if the calendar says that I’m in my early 30’s.
So what have we learned today, I’m the king of segues, seriously, if you broadcast for the 10 o’clock news you should call me, I’ve got plenty if ideas, Willie’s not great at singing “Cherokee Maiden” but does a stellar job on the rest of the CD, you should request “Milk Cow Blues” early and often at all Van Marsalis shows, and most importantly, always, and I do mean ALWAYS, find out the religious leanings of any girl before you go to her dorm room.