3:01
George Jones With Love, 1970
Written by Jerry Chesnut
Okay, I must admit a near-total ignorance of George Jones, a king (albeit dethroned by now) in country circles. I first of him, in fact, from the Daniel Johnston song "Ain't No Woman Gonna Make a George Jones Out Of Me." I had to ask someone who George Jones was. So I knew of this song, but I don't think I'd ever heard it, even the Costello cover. Can I just say, good Lord, it's devastating. Just pure heartbreak set to music, with a vocal that somehow balances wounded dignity and quiet devastation. The song paints a picture of a man watching his wife walk out, and instead of shouting or begging, he just catalogs the small details: the cigarette with lipstick traces, the half-drunk cup of coffee that, he notes, she wanted, unlike how she feels about him. "And from the bedroom those familiar sounds of our one baby's cryin' / Goes unheard." Jones doesn’t oversing it; he just lets the sadness simmer under the surface, and that bitterness and resignation is what makes it hit so hard. Oof.
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