The Willie Way (1972)

I think Willie is trying to sound a bit like Johnny Cash on the opening track, “You Left a Long, Long Time Ago.” “Today might be the day that you walk away, but you left me a long, long time ago.” Real leaving happens in the mind. Willie insists that she go without saying why, without saying sorry. No questions. This is another theme in his music: accepting fate and not questioning or dwelling over the reasons. And yet this contradicts the career he has made out of dwelling and questioning. He lives on “the usual memories that always linger on.” They provide the content for so many of his songs. The lingering memories, the remembrance of things past. He is either trying to outrun or hide from the past, or he is chasing it down, in search of lost time. He’s either trying to lose it or find it. And he does both with equal vigor, often at the same time. The arrangement is pleasantly lacking in strings or back-up vocals, so it seems to be a vast improvement from 1969’s “My Own Peculiar Way.” “Wonderful Future” captures this paradox perfectly because Willie also has a song called “A Wonderful Yesterday.” Tomorrow and Yesterday are always better than Today, and yet this flies in the face of Willie’s live-in-the-present, hakuna matata mentality. He loves and hates three days: yesterday, today, and tomorrow. “Today as I walk through my garden of dreams, I’m alone with the sweet used-to-be.” Sweet memories, sweet used-to-be. That’s where Willie likes to live, in his garden of dreams, in his mind, in the sound in his mind. The heavenly choir of his own mind. “My past and my present are one and the same, and the future holds nothing for me.” Willie is outside time; he has transcended its bounds. Past and present are one. “Yesterday’s kisses still burning and yesterday’s memories still find me. Scenes from the past keep returning. I’ve got a wonderful future behind me.” Memories linger and haunt. They pursue and hound. It’s almost a Greek way of looking at things. Willie sees his future in his past. The Greek goal was to build a lasting legacy, to be remembered, so you always had an eye to your own past. Your future was merely a means of creating a memorable past. Willie has beaten them to the punch because his future is already past. He has outrun time. But now he is in this weird limbo. “You say there is happiness waiting for me, but I know this is just fantasy. Let me trade one tomorrow for one yesterday. Let me live in my garden of dreams.” Willie wants to trade one tomorrow for one yesterday. He wants to live in the past. This recording of Kristofferson’s “Help Me Make it Through the Night” starts out as one of my favorites, but the strings and back-up vocals kick in and ruin it midway through. This version of “Wake Me when It’s Over” is the funkiest one I have come across. It has a gospel, bluesy feel, with a little Hammond organ and an almost R and B drum backing. The harmonica slips in midway through and Willie has fun with the phrasing. May be my favorite version of this song. I can’t say the same about this version of “Undo the Right.” Very straightforward and perfunctory. There are many superior versions out there. This is the first time I’ve heard Willie sing Scott Wiseman’s country/bluegrass standard “Mountain Dew.” I love the spare acoustic setting, but it needs a fiddle and a banjo. “Home is Where You’re Happy” seems to have a harpsichord, and it is a rare Willie tune that only appears here and on “The Ghost.” “Home is where you’re happy, just any house will do.” This fits Willie’s house/home song genre. Home is where the heart is. A house is not a home without you there. This version of “A Moment isn’t Very Long” ranks up there with the best. With the exception of the cheesy strings and back-up vocals on “Help Me Make it Through the Night,” this has been a spare acoustic album. Definitely an important early album with mostly Willie-penned songs in spare settings. I’m surprised this slipped through the Nashville Sound production system. This is the first time I’ve heard Willie’s “What Do You Want Me to Do?” It sounds like a tape recording of some conversation he had with one of his many wives. You can see why these songs were too real for Nashville. They can be painful to listen to because they are all conversations or thoughts we have had but were to embarrassed to admit, even to ourselves. You feel uncomfortable like you are overhearing another couple argue right next to you. “Well I can’t read your mind when you change it all the time, and I don’t know what’s the matter with you. I think I do my share to show that I care, so just tell me what do you want me to do? I’ve tried to be kind. But it don’t work sometimes, and you’re not the same person that I knew. And tell me where should I start to return to your heart, and tell me what do you want me to do? What do you want me to do with the dreams that I own. Should I change them to memories and leave you alone? Maybe I’m not too smart. I guess you know me by heart, and if my chances of winning are few, let my heart step aside with what’s left of my pride, and tell me what do you want me to do?” Willie asks if he should turn his dreams into memories. They are safer and more stable there. More lasting. Even sweeter. Ugh. The cheesy back-up vocals return on the last track, “I’d Rather You Didn’t Love Me.” Why? This could be a top ten album without those few bits of strings and back-up vocals. Nevertheless, I will return to it often for the funky version of “Wake Me When It’s Over.”