"Maybe some folks are alcoholics and others are just voluntary drunks. Maybe some folks drink due to their body chemistry and others due to their lazy characters. Maybe some have drinking problems, while others have problems enough to drink."
"There are questions I'm still not wise enough to answer, just wise enough to no longer ask."
"You can shut out the world. But you always have to stop, and the world is always waiting when you do."
George Jones
I got into George Jones late, but when I did, I dug him furiously. Still do. Lucky enough to see him at the Capital Center for the Arts years ago. Magnificent concert. Bought me a double CD of his hits. Got me an autographed picture.
Real country singers convey complex issues through simple lyrics. There is brilliance in that talent. Today's country singers convey simple issues through simple lyrics. They are vapid and boring. Plastic and formulaic.
Guys like George Jones could take gut wrenching life situations, sing about them simply and blow you away with their depth. You connected with what they were singing about, and you were blown away by the way they said it.
Hard drinking, hard fighting, take no shit kind of guy. Real country singers lived the life, fought the fights, learned to love by wasting love and came out of it all with lyrics and music that bypassed your ears and went straight to the heart.
Once again the world gets a little thinner, a little less meaningful, a little less real.
Rest up, George. You earned it.
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