ITUNES Originals (2005)

I spent a few hours last night trolling through the ITUNES singles catalog looking for Willie Nelson songs that I don’t currently own.  I found about ten, going through seven pages of songs with 200 songs per page.  Most of these were songs Willie contributed to tribute albums for other artists.  I’ll review those in a future blog.  I also found this gem, which contains 21 tracks, some of which contain commentary by Willie.  It opens with an interesting version of “Whiskey River.”  Willie claims in track 3 that “you are what you think.”  He believes this, and it fits with his Proustian philosophy of time and mind, which also fits with modern neuroscience.  That we create time and memories with our mind and with our art.  We don’t just passively record time.  Track 4 contains a meandering, jazzy version of “Always on My Mind.”  I wish I knew who the musicians were on these recordings.  Sounds like Willie on Trigger and Mickey on harmonica.  Willie dedicates this version of “Pancho and Lefty” (track 5) to Hag and Townes Van Zandt.  Willie’s vocals are much more prominent in this version because the setting is much sparer.  Just guitar, bass, drums, harmonica, and a few folks in the background filling in during the chorus.  You can hear Trigger more clearly and distinctly than on most other recordings.  Jody Payne sings toward the end of this track, and his voice seems to be on its last legs (to mix anatomical metaphors).  I can never have too many versions of Willie’s classic “Funny/Crazy/Nite Life” medley, and this one ranks up there with the best of them (track 7).  At this point, I have 2,055 Willie Nelson tracks, which accounts for 4.4 days of music and 11.62 gigabytes.  Some of these tracks are duplicates which appear on compilations and original albums, but even these have different mixes, so I have almost a full working week’s worth of Willie, or over 100 hours of non-stop, no-repeat Willie.  Mickey’s Harmonica picks up on “Crazy.”  I wonder if sister Bobbie is on piano.  Any serious fan has to buy this collection to hear Willie re-doing so many of his classic songs in 2005.  His voice has faded in some ways, but gained character in others.  And the guitar work has become more jazz-like, more Jerry Garcia-like, more spacey and trippy.  I’d love to know how Willie recorded these tracks.  I’m guessing he just walked into the studio with his road band and did them all in one take and had lunch and did another show that night.  In track 8 Willie talks about “following your instincts.”  Instincts of the mind, instincts of time.  Swing is the instinctive feel, the emotion of time.  Art is setting time to emotion, or setting emotions in time.  “Beer for My Horses” (track 9) may be the most interesting track thus far on this album because it differs so much from the original hit single with Toby Keith.  “On the Road Again” (track 11) actually stays pretty true to the original hit version.  Willie tells the story of playing chess with Ray Charles in the dark with all the pieces the same color, and Ray beat him three times in a row.  This version of “Georgia on My Mind” (track 13) gave me the chills.  It has a little funk to it.  May be the best recording on the album so far.  Mickey’s harmonica sounds like it did on “Stardust.”  I only have two other versions of Willie singing “Texas,” so it was a real treat to find another version here (track 15).  Trigger steals the show on this track.  Texas is the only place for Willie, where his “spirit can be free.”  In the video for “Mendocino County Line” (track 17), Willie rode his horse down the main street in Austin.  Lee Ann Womack joins Willie for this recording, which upon closer examination appears to be the same one that hit the radio, which wouldn’t be an ITUNES original.  I’ll have to research that.  In track 18 Willie says, “All we have is right now.”  He tries to live in the present moment (despite all his songs about memories and the past).  A serviceable version of “Still is Still Moving to Me” (track 19).  Mickey’s harmonica works overtime on this one.  “Superman” (track 21) only appears in one other place (on Willie’s “Lost Highway” compilation).  Willie calls out to “little sister” to play a piano solo, followed by Mickey on Harmonica and Jody on guitar.  A fun song that Willie should sing more often.  “Tryin’ to do more than you can, but you ain’t superman.”  Willie ends with “How’d that sound, Freddy?”  Must be Freddy Fletcher (or Powers?) producing.