Merle Haggard - Working Man Blues
After all that retro 60s colour here's one from probably the 70s in film noir shades. This is my all time fav stone country tune which I first heard when JLL did a raunchy Chuckachug version on Mercury 40 years ago this month. That got me to buy my first Merle Haggard best of on UK Capitol which almost made me buy a second stereo as I couldn`t stop playing the darn thing for months. I was so amazed to find a 60s artist who cut country as good as Mr Cash / Willaims / Gibson / Lewis / Robbins / Pierce / Owens.
Bakersfield guys had a much more pure twangy country sound than a lot of the bastardised forms of alleged country sneaking out of late 60s/early 70s Nashville in that dreaded countypolitan- stringdrenched-choir screeching- over mixed mishmash with snoring session players literally doing it in their sleep.
Long before Waylon became an "outlaw" Merle was the genuine fallen to the bottom ex jailbird who picked himself up and kicked musical ass all over the world for the next few decades.
This clip has a few minus points (should be in colour and what the heck are the horns doing there??) but listen to the awesome lyric, Merle's cool incantation and the legend that is Roy Nicholls on lead playing the heck out of it in his solos. Like Steve of the Railmen he kicks musical butt whilst sitting on his own, inspiring ole Merly Whirly to take a lick or two, roll over Muskogee and tell Memphis the news.
To quote young (well, compared to me) Mr Mather its shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiithottttttttttttttttt sooperbbbbb.
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