If anybody remembers Jackson these days, it's probably for his big crossover hit (#4 on the pop charts), "Waterloo." Hard to imagine a song like that crossing over to the pop charts these days. For that matter, it's hard to imagine a song like that getting airplay on the country stations. That's because country stations now aren't really country in the sense they were in Jackson's heyday, the late '50s and early '60s, which was the golden era of country honky-tonk singers. Even the Grand Old Opry might be all that fond of Jackson's kind of music, since back in 2006 Jackson sued the Opry for age discrimination. Jackson had been a member of the Opry for 50 years, but he thought he was being pushed aside for younger singers. One thing's for sure, there's nobody like him around now.
One of my personal favorites is the flip side of "Waterloo," a great little ditty called "Smoke along the Track."
And for those of you who like a little noir music, here's the great "Life to Go," written by a young George Jones.
When it comes to honky-tonk, Jackson's one of the all-time greats.
8 comments:
I still remember all the lyrics of "Waterloo," which must say something. Back in those days there were a lot of country-pop crossovers, like "It's Only Make Believe" and "He'll Have to Go."
Little General Napoleon of France tried to conquer the world but lost his pants
Jeff
Loved WATERLOO, and like Jeff, still remember the words. None of the Oldie radio stations around here play it anymore.
Life to Go -- classic country tune.
Stonewall racked up quite a few biggies, including a cover of the old Lobo hit, Me and You and a Dog Named Boo. My favorites are Life, Why I'm Walkin' and BJ the DJ.
Those are all good ones. I've liked everything I ever heard by the guy.
Smoke Along the Track is my favorite Jackson song. After a long absence, Stonewall is again performing on the Grand Ole Opry.
And I'll bet he's as good as ever.
He sounds very good. You can check opry.com to see if he's appearing, and then listen to the broadcast on the Internet.
Thanks for the tip!
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