The Electric Horseman (1979)

I’ve had this out-of-print LP for some time now, but no record player to play it on.  A friend just converted it into digital format, so now I can finally review it.  This soundtrack from the Robert Redford movie opens with Willie’s version of “Midnight Rider.”  I’ve reviewed this in a previous blog.  The same version shows up on the compilations “Walking the Line” (1987) and “One Hell of a Ride”; a different version shows up on “It Always Will Be” (2004).  I’m actually enjoying the little snaps and pops from the record needle.  Haven’t heard those since the early eighties.  I don’t have personnel, but it sounds like Mickey Raphael on harmonica.  The same version of “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys” (track 2) can also be found on the compilations “One Hell of a Ride” and “The Essential Willie Nelson”; a different version can be found on “Wanted: The Outlaws.”  I can’t believe Willie hasn’t recorded more versions of this classic song.  Sounds like it could be on “Red Headed Stranger” (1975).  I have a half dozen versions of “Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys” (track 3), but this one is the classic version (if not the best).  This version of “So You Think You’re a Cowboy” (track 4) can only be found here, so that makes this album worth buying. That and the fact that Willie’s voice is so strong in the 1970s.  True fans need to have any recordings of his from the 1970s. The only other version I can find is on “Honeysuckle Rose” (1980), but Emmylou Harris sings it without Willie.  The lyrics are especially Proustian:

So you think you're a cowboy but you're only a kid
With a mind to do everything wrong
And it starts to get smoother when the circle begins
But by the time that you get there it's gone

So you think you're a winner but you're losin’ again
The cards have already been dealt
And the hand that you're playin’ means nothing at all
And knowing is all that is left

So live life as you find it the best that you can
Tomorrow cannot right the wrong
Don't wait for tomorrow to bring you your dreams
‘Cause by the time that you get there they're gone

It’s got all the classic Willie-Proust concepts: mind, time, and tomorrow.  He’s got a “mind to do everything wrong.”  “Tomorrow cannot right the wrong” flies in the face of “the healing hands of time.”  Tomorrow both can and cannot heal today.  Live in the present; don’t wait for tomorrow, unless, of course, you want to hang out in the past with a memory or two.  Once again, Willie is out-foxing time by not playing by its rules.  He won’t wait for tomorrow; he won’t wait for time to run its course.  He hits the fast forward button, the TIVO, and has it all when he wants it, on his own terms.  Just like his phrases, his meter, his time.  No need to wait for the beat, the four bars.  Get there on your own terms, in your own sweet time.  This version of “Hands on the Wheel” (track 5) only appears here; the other version appears on “Red Headed Stranger” (1975).  The “Red Headed Stranger” version is the better of the two, but this rare track, even with the syrupy strings, makes this LP worth buying.  That and Mickey Raphael’s harmonica.  Willie produced the first side of this LP, but tracks 6-10 are disco tunes, which I won’t review here.  I wish Willie would sing on a few disco songs just to round out his exploration of genres.  He’s done everything else.