Revolutions of Time…The Journey 1975-1993 (Disc 1)

"Music establishes an order between man and time. The stripe establishes an order between man and space." —Michel Pastoureau, historian, The Devil’s Cloth, 1991

This is a handsome three-disc compilation that contains songs I have already reviewed in previous blogs. The liner notes are excellent, though, so I will focus on those while also looking at the philosophy and rationale behind the selections.

The booklet opens with a quotation from Willie: “Fortunately, we are not in control.” On one hand, Willie seems resigned to fate, a more Taoist “go with the flow” kind of guy. And yet, at other times he seems to show a more Buddhist or stoic resolve, a more disciplined facing up to hardship. Is it possible to be an easy going stoic? A carefree cowboy? A smiling John Wayne? And looking at the quotation above, it seems that Willie’s music does bring order to time, the way Proust does. So Willie is in control, if only in his art. Even when he is most behind or in front of the beat, he is most in control. Paradoxically, when he seems out of control, that is most unconstrained by the meter, he is most in control. By breaking meter he makes his own meter, which is the supreme level of control. To control free verse is the highest form of control. It is to control without seeming to control. To control without controls, to fly without instruments, and yet to fly nonetheless.

This 1995 collection focuses on Willie’s 18-year tenure with Columbia Records, from 1975-1993, from Red Headed Stranger (1975) to Across the Borderline (1993). Disc one is titled “Pilgrimage.” It contains songs from Red Headed Stranger (1975), The Sound in Your Mind (1976), The Troublemaker (1976), To Lefty from Willie (1977), Stardust (1978), Willie and Family Live (1978), Sings Kristofferson (1979), The Electric Horseman (1979), Honeysuckle Rose (1980), Somewhere Over the Rainbow (1980), and Always on My Mind (1981). The perfectly chronological sequence allows you to hear five years of Willie’s career in a condensed form. The recording information is detailed and thorough, which is not often the case on the albums themselves. Sometimes the compilations are helpful in this way. These five years represent Willie’s first big wave of superstar success, so it is interesting to capture and freeze him at one of his peaks, Grecian Urn-like. As he always tries to freeze and preserve love and time, we freeze him freezing time, a sort of double-freezing or doubly deep freezing.