the short list 3: shotgun willie
Another album I almost pitched to 33 & 1/3: Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger. This one made good sense for a number of reasons - one, Willie’s an icon, and one of the few artists of his stature who has yet to receive the 33 & 1/3 treatment, two, the publishers seem to be warming up to country a bit (there’s a Lucinda Williams book in the works), and three, I live in Austin, and Willie is like this entire town’s freaky, stoned, very well loved grandpa.
Red Headed Stranger was the album that turned glitz country on its ear in 1975, and somehow sold and sold and sold, despite feeling throughout like an engine that can’t…quite…turn over. And that’s why, ultimately, I didn’t pitch this one: I don’t love Red Headed Stranger - I’d rather hear Stardust, or Shotgun Willie. I get impatient listening to Red Headed Stranger, and that’s coming from a Tom Waits fan. Still: it does have “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain”, plus this was the album that made Willie Nelson into - ladies and gentlemen…WILLIE NELSON. I did consider pitching Shotgun Willie - it’s good - but it didn’t feel like a story, it just feels like one of many good albums from a legend.
Somehow we now have two posts devoted largely to Willie Nelson; I wouldn’t have predicted this, but I could do worse for a patron saint. Here’s something of his you may not have heard: