Willie and Ray (2005)

This one surprised me. Ray Price must be 80 or so on this album, but he sounds great. Willie’s vocals are strong as well. This album features Willie, Ray, steel, and fiddle, no harmonica. This allows the listener to focus more on the vocals. I’ve commented on many of these songs in previous blogs, but these versions are as good or better than some of the previous versions. They will stand up well in future head-to-head listens.

I'm so ashamed of my eyes cause they still cry for you

After they both watched my hand wave goodbye to you

And I've told them time and time again that this will never do

And I've told them how you always laughed at teardrops

I'm so ashamed of my arms for missing you

Last night I woke up just in time to see them reach for you

And now my heart confesses it still wants you too

I'm so ashamed of them all for loving you

Willie’s crying again and mad at himself for crying. Tears like memories have a mind and a will of their own. Women laughing at men’s tears goes back to the troubadours, Petrarch, Spencer, Shakespeare, Ovid, and the poets of courtly love.

Ray doesn’t sound too torn up about the fact that he’s “just destroyed the world [he’s] living in.” The bouncy Texas two-step drums and bass make this hard to take too seriously. I guess Willie got this from Ray.

“Something to Think About” shows up on Willie’s reggae album and on Me and the Drummer (and I comment on the lyrics in the blogs on those albums). I don’t think this is the best of the three versions, but I love the lyrics. “Here’s something to think about: I’ll still be thinking of you.”

I comment on “Run That By Me One More Time” in the blog about Live and Kickin’. This studio version may actually be better than the live version because you can hear the excellent lyrics more distinctly.

“Soft Rain” could be taken from Murasaki’s Genji. Perfect love is always destroyed by men. We seek the ideal love, but we never find it. Gatsby, Proust, etc., etc. etc.

“I’ll Keep On Loving You” appears on Last of the Breed and Moonlight Becomes You (and I comment on the lyrics there).

I feel like I have listened to and commented on “I’m Still Not Over You” before, but I can’t find it. He’s still not over her, and he doesn’t want to be. What would he be over anyway? Reminds me of Randy Travis’s “Is it still over, are we still though? Since my phone still ain’t ringin’, I assume it still ain’t you.” Still is still moving; still water runs deepest; but I’m still not over you, no matter what I do. Whether I run or stand still. Whether I hit the road or run home. Whether I drink or cry or try to erase my memories, nothing helps. The paradox of Willie, of course, is that he simultaneously seems to be suggesting that we are never over anything, and yet he always seems to be over everything before it happens with his beatific Buddhist calm.