“I DON’T EXPLAIN IF YOU DON’T UNDERSTAND." ~Waylon Jennings

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THE COMPLETE MCA RECORDINGS
by Waylon Jennings
released: 2004
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At one time I owned, individually, all four of the WAYLON JENNINGS albums collected in this 2-disc set: WILL THE WOLF SURVIVE? ('85) / HANGIN' TOUGH ('87) / A MAN CALLED HOSS ('87) / FULL CIRCLE ('88).
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Then one night in 1995, Julie Newmar, Susan Dey, Valerie Bertinelli, Judy Norton, Sally Field, Gene Tierney, and Dolly Parton broke into my house. The first six held me down and -- Oh! -- the things Dolly said she would do to me unless I gave them my Waylon CDs. Well, naturally, not being a total lunatic, I turned over the Waylon discs, and back out through the bathroom window those women went. I'm a little ashamed to admit that I was a victim of strong-arm robbery, but it was either that or death by suffocation... that is, AFTER the unspeakable acts of mind-melting, "Mama!"-crying torture that would have been perpetrated upon my body -- a fate worse than life itself!
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Now, I'll admit that initially I thought perhaps this all occurred while I was fast asleep and dreaming because, at one time or another, I have fantasized about all of those women (except for the gang's BigWig, of course), and also because Gene Tierney looked awfully alluring for a woman four years dead. And because, let's face it, that Parton part smacked of Nightmare City! And why MY Waylon albums? Why wouldn't they have just sent Chauffeur James out to get their own? I couldn't say, yet mysteriously, all four of these Waylon discs were missing in the morning and I discovered that I now had some rather interesting bruises.
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At any rate, I just recently reacquired those four Waylon albums, which were stolen from me, by purchasing THE COMPLETE MCA RECORDINGS. And I gotta tell ya, they sound every bit as good as I remembered. Well, to be Cowboy Code Honest, Disc 1 (WOLF & TOUGH) is a bit uneven. Oh, heck yeah, there are some first-rate Waylon cuts here: The bittersweet WHERE DOES LOVE GO?; the barking THAT DOG WON'T HUNT; the humorously sexy I'VE GOT ME A WOMAN; the #1 C&W hit ROSE IN PARADISE, with its nimble, smoky Country pickin'; and the raw, fully rollin' and half rockin' duet with Johnny "Man In Black" Cash, EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES.
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But while Waylon's terrifically expressive baritone rumbles through everything with its trademark intensity that conveys an "approach cautiously" warning, there is some (what I would term) "filler" here. This is not a defanged Waylon, but a Waylon perhaps a bit long in the tooth, fairly tame and satisfied to just snarl from his comfortable spot on the front porch rather than charging across the yard to take a big ol' bite out of some knuckleheaded trespasser.
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But now we address Disc 2, and the return of the DANGEROUS OUTLAW, the REAL Waylon "Waymore" Jennings:
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Tracks 1 through 11 constitute Waylon's audiobiography, A MAN CALLED HOSS; each song representing a chapter in his legendary life. It opens with LITTLEFIELD, a high-powered Country Swing piece that has the sweet fiddle juxtaposed with Waylon's "bulldozing" electric guitar clearing the way and announcing the Outlaw's return in no uncertain terms: "I'll bet I was the only boy that was ever expelled from Sunday school / Lover, fighter, wild horse-rider, and purdy dern good windmill-maker / Look out world, here I come!"
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The whole album's a winner: Sad, rough and rowdy, tender, and just flat-out rocking. "Sometimes it's hard to live like I was raised, trying to survive these modern days the old-fashioned way", Waylon sings in the closer, WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?, just before launching into a full-blown electric guitar and tenor saxophone blitzkrieg to the fade out and tearing us a new one in the process. (Crank it up!)
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And if anything, FULL CIRCLE (tracks 12-21) is even better: "I was so ugly, the doctor slapped my Mama when I was born" is the hilarious opening line of TROUBLE MAN, which quickly transforms into a ferocious Maverick Man anthem. Watch it! This ol' boy ain't bluffin' -- this one BITES! And Waylon never sounded better.
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FULL CIRCLE moves from touching ballads evoking pathos to blistering Country rockers with Waylon's guitar snapping and that guttural growl in his voice enough to scare the hell out of demons!
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Shortly after FULL CIRCLE's release, I went to see the Outlaw perform at a small club in Los Angeles. On the way there, I wondered if he'd have enough guts to sing HOW MUCH IS IT WORTH TO LIVE IN L.A.? -- a funny critique of Angeleno insanity. Ha! He wasn't called an "outlaw" for nothing... he sang it, much to my delight. (And I didn't see anyone stand up and tell him, "Hey, you can't do that song HERE!")
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This collection closes with the bonus track, a duet with John Anderson, SOMEWHERE BETWEEN RAGGED AND RIGHT -- a real wang dang doodle!
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WAYLON JENNINGS: THE COMPLETE MCA RECORDINGS (including a nice booklet) is a great buy, whether you're already a Waylon fan or just about to discover the greatest singer to ever emerge from the Country-Western genre. I'm so glad to have this music again after that unfortunate little incident way back when.
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Wait a minute -- there's someone at the door. It sounds like a gaggle of girls. Probably selling Girl Scout cookies. I'll be right back...
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~ Stephen T. McCarthy
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