Friday, May 14, 2010

Face of a Fighter (2004)

The liner notes don’t give me much on this album except to say that these recordings are from the early 1960s, but I dug up a review from Chet Flippo which states:

“Face of a Fighter is a gem: stark vocals and clean production of some of Nelson's earliest and least-known compositions. Though these songs were once released as part of Double Barrel's Willie Nelson 1961, that LP probably sold about 4000 copies in Austin and suburbs. The title tune is terrific ("Mine is the face of a fighter/But my heart has just lost the fight"), but the real treasure here is "The Shelter of Your Arms," written when the artist was (for him) still fairly optimistic. Some of the lines are: "If I die while I'm asleep/I pray my dreams He'll let me keep/And carry me through eternity/In the shelter of your arms." Very sweet and very untypical of Nelson's bitter songs. All he asks here is that, when he dies tonight, God will at least grant him the fantasy of being eternally happy with you (since you're the only one who hasn't been a lying, cheating bitch)."

After checking the song titles in my ITUNES collection I have determined that all 14 tracks from Face of a Fighter are included in the three-cd Complete Ghost series (which I have already reviewed). This is a cheaper, more concise collection, but you are obviously better off getting the Ghost instead of this. I think I’ll use my normal writing time to search for those hard-to-find albums that continue to elude my grasp.

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