As a solo artist himself, however, Nelson was constrained by the producer-centric power structures of The Nashville Sound. He was a longtime fixture in the Nashville music business, mainly as a songwriter (he was a hit maker for many other artists, writing songs like “Crazy” for Patsy Cline). Nelson was pushing 40 when Shotgun Willie was released. “Sad Songs and Waltzes” and Willie Nelson’s Career And the hard lessons learned by that process show up in the song’s spare production, which works with its deceptively simple lyrics to show how market economies alienate human beings from themselves and one another. The song perfectly embodies the artistic maturity gained by Nelson’s long breakup with the Nashville machine. Here I want to discuss the simple, singular genius of one song from this period, “Sad Songs and Waltzes” from Shotgun Willie. Without these works, there is no path to Red Headed Stranger or Stardust or the collaborations with Waylon Jennings and Merle Haggard that would come to define Country music in the decades to come. The experiment was not long Nelson ended up recording only two albums under the Atlantic label, Shotgun Willie and Phases and Stages, but the two albums worked out to be an essential bridge in Nelson’s gradual transformation from a fixture of the Nashville establishment to an iconic Outlaw and the singular artist we know and love today. Atlantic had just begun a Country division and Nelson was brought in as a cornerstone for that new endeavor. For many people, myself included, his most interesting stage is probably his brief stint with Atlantic Records in the early 1970s. Yet his career can be divided into rather neatly-defined stages. He is probably the artist for whom the term “Americana” was most properly invented. And his music has defied easy categorization, slipping seamlessly between wide varieties of country music, jazz, and American standards. He has simply been here so long it seems he has always been here doing what he does. At this point already, the unbroken length and quality of his career is almost without precedent in American music. He is an icon, yet many people will still be shocked at the depth and profundity of his body of work. Someday, when the world finally loses Willie Nelson, there will be an eruption of sadness. If you want to hear some good, old fashioned punk, don’t buy this seek out some of Sham’s earliest work and see how they sounded in their glory days. Who Killed Joe Public? is the sound of a band that has very little left to offer. There are some catchy hooks on the album but that’s all they really end up amounting to. Even the driving, punk closer, “Army of Tomorrow”, is ruined by lacking lyrics and melody despite some of the best instrumentals on the album. V’s vocals sound especially weak spouting an attempted social commentary that just falls flat. “The Last of London” is a reggae song that is much too long and has no real direction.
These tracks are some of the most baffling such as the pop rock effort, “Then There Were None”, and the Beatle-esque, “Hall of Fame”. Tim V is a very limited vocalist I know it may sound strange saying that about a punk band because its pretty much expected but it shows on the less punk oriented tracks on the album. I think I even heard an imitation of the 60s Batman theme song on one track (wait, maybe that’s not such a bad thing). “The Verdict Is Vengeance” spouts clichÈ, political punk lyrics in a weak performance. The instrumentals on “Skin and Bone” bring to mind the Sex Pistols’ “Silly Thing” except without the solidity when V sings “whatever the weather, there’s no one better” its just laughable. Most of them are simply reminiscent of songs that were written by other bands to more successful effect. However, from then on, the punk rock tracks took a turn for the worse. It’s nothing original but it’s a fun, typical Oi! track with its football chant chorus and some decent melodic work. The opening track, “Shout”, gave me hope that this album wouldn’t be all bad. Now, however, they are merely a shadow of their former self. Sham 69 was a highly influential punk band from the 70s responsible for popularizing the use of football chants in their music and giving birth to the ‘Oi!’ subgenre. Why? Why do the bands of yesteryear insist on never saying die? “There’s the scar of every sad has-been” says new singer Tim V on “Hall of Fame” and I can’t tell whether it’s said with irony or self-delusion.
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