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mahatmakanejeeves

(56,888 posts)
Sun Sep 12, 2021, 08:23 AM Sep 2021

On this day, September 12, 1931, George Jones was born.

Thu Sep 12, 2019: Born on this day, September 12, in 1931: George Jones

Donny Ferguson remembered this year.

Happy birthday, Possum.



Wed Sep 12, 2018: He would have turned 87 today -- George Jones

George Jones



George Jones performing at Country Fever in Pryor Creek, Oklahoma, in 2005

George Glenn Jones (September 12, 1931 – April 26, 2013) was an American musician, singer and songwriter. He achieved international fame for his long list of hit records, including his best known song "He Stopped Loving Her Today", as well as his distinctive voice and phrasing. For the last twenty years of his life, Jones was frequently referred to as the greatest living country singer. Country music scholar Bill Malone writes, "For the two or three minutes consumed by a song, Jones immerses himself so completely in its lyrics, and in the mood it conveys, that the listener can scarcely avoid becoming similarly involved." Waylon Jennings expressed a similar opinion in his song "It's Alright": "If we all could sound like we wanted to, we'd all sound like George Jones." The shape of his nose and facial features earned Jones the nickname "The Possum."

Born in Texas, Jones first heard country music when he was seven and was given a guitar at the age of nine. He married his first wife, Dorothy Bonvillion, in 1950, and was divorced in 1951. He served in the United States Marine Corps and was discharged in 1953. He married Shirley Ann Corley in 1954. In 1959, Jones recorded "White Lightning," written by J. P. Richardson, which launched his career as a singer. His second marriage ended in divorce in 1968; he married fellow country music singer Tammy Wynette a year later. Years of alcoholism compromised his health and led to his missing many performances, earning him the nickname "No Show Jones." After his divorce from Wynette in 1975, Jones married his fourth wife, Nancy Sepulvado, in 1983 and became sober for good in 1999. Jones died in 2013, aged 81, from hypoxic respiratory failure. During his career, Jones had more than 150 hits, both as a solo artist and in duets with other artists.

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Influence beyond country music

Unlike some of his contemporaries, Jones stuck with country music with a vengeance. Jones never reached the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 and almost never had any of his music played on mainstream popular music stations in his career. Ironically, without even trying, Jones' unabashed loyalty to strictly country arrangements attracted the admiration of musicians and songwriters from a wide range of genres. In an often-quoted tribute, Frank Sinatra called Jones "the second best singer in America". In a Rolling Stone interview in 1969, Bob Dylan was asked what he thought was the best song released in the previous year and he replied, "George Jones had one called 'Small Town Laboring Man'," and in his autobiography Chronicles, Dylan states that in the early 1960s he was largely unimpressed by what he heard on the radio and admits "Outside of maybe George Jones, I didn't listen to country music either." Country rock pioneer Gram Parsons was an avid George Jones fan and covered Jones' song "That's All It Took" on his first solo album. In the documentary Gram Parsons: Fallen Angel, Pamela des Barres recalls seeing Parsons singing Jones' song "She Once Lived Here" at an empty Whiskey A Go Go in Los Angeles: "It was my peak, peak moment, not sitting on Jimmy Page's amp...that was my peak moment." Parsons reignited Keith Richards' interest in country music in the early seventies and after Jones' death in 2013 the guitarist wrote, "He possessed the most touching voice, the most expressive ways of projecting that beautiful instrument of anyone I can call to mind. You heard his heart in every note he sang." Richards recorded "Say It's Not You" with Jones for The Bradley Barn Sessions in 1994 and recalls in his autobiography hearing him sing for the first time when the Rolling Stones and Jones were on the same show in Texas in 1964: "They trailed in with tumbleweed following them, as if tumbleweed was their pet. Dust all over the place, a bunch of cowboys. But when George got up, we went whoa, there's a master up there." In the documentary The History of Rock 'N' Roll, Mick Jagger also cites Jones as one of his favorite country singers. John Prine mentions Jones in his song "Jesus the Missing Years". Jones fan Elvis Costello had a surprise hit in the UK when he covered "A Good Year For The Roses" in 1981. Elliott Smith told an interviewer about his idea of Heaven: "George Jones would be singing all the time. It would be like New York in reverse: people would be nice to each other for no reason at all, and it would smell good." In a 2001 interview with Mark Binelli from Rolling Stone, Leonard Cohen asked, "Have you heard George Jones' last record Cold Hard Truth? I love to hear an old guy lay out his situation. He has the best voice in America," and the day Jones died, Cohen performed "Choices" on stage in Winnipeg, Canada as a tribute to the country legend. In 2013, Robbie Robertson told Uncut, "He was the Ray Charles of country music - the one who could make you cry with his voice...We wouldn't listen to country music, the guys in The Band, but we'd listen to George Jones..." Robert Plant told Uncut's Michael Bonner in 2014, "I now have to listen to George Jones once a day. Amazing singer. What a singer." James Taylor, who wrote "Bartender's Blues" with Jones in mind and sang background vocals with him on the recording, told Rolling Stone, "He sounds like a steel guitar. It's the way he blends notes, the way he comes up to them, the way he crescendos and decrescendos. The dynamic of it is very tight and very controlled - it's like carving with the voice." Other disparate artists who recorded with Jones include Dennis Locorriere and Ray Sawyer of Dr. Hook, Mark Knopfler, the Staples Singers, Leon Russell, B.B King, Blackberry Smoke and Linda Ronstadt. In 1995, Burt Reynolds wrote, "He is to country music what Spencer Tracy is to movies."

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Number-one country hits

1. "White Lightning" (1959)
2. "Tender Years" (1961)
3. "She Thinks I Still Care" (1962)
4. "Walk Through This World with Me" (1967)
5. "We're Gonna Hold On" (with Tammy Wynette) (1973)
6. "The Grand Tour" (1974)
7. "The Door" (1975)
8. "Golden Ring" (with Tammy Wynette) (1976)
9. "Near You" (with Tammy Wynette) (1977)
10. "He Stopped Loving Her Today" (1980)
11. "Still Doin' Time" (1981)
12. "Yesterday's Wine" (with Merle Haggard) (1982)
13. "I Always Get Lucky with You" (1983)

Five and a half years ago at DU: Breaking News: George Jones, Country Singer, Dies at 81



George Jones - LIVE "He Stopped Loving Her Today"
9,639,718 views Dec 29, 2007

Backstage Vegas TV
31K subscribers

Ronnie Prophet toured with the legendary country music superstar, GEORGE JONES
Sept. 22 - Nov. 6, 2005. George and Ronnie were lifelong friends.

From THE RONNIE PROPHET SHOW July, 1980.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/RonnieProphet

Contact BRANSONSONMEDIA@GMAIL.com for license or original footage



#GeorgeJones #BartendersBlues #HonkyTonk
George Jones - "Bartender's Blues"
573,140 views Feb 28, 2012

GuriMalla2010
112K subscribers
Album: Bartender's Blues
Utgitt: 1978
Låtskrivere: James Taylor
Label: Epic ‎– KE 35414

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George Jones Cold Hard Truth
834,136 views Jan 25, 2009

Lorraine Billows
1.52K subscribers



#GeorgeJones #APictureOfMeWithoutYou #HonkyTonk
George Jones ~ "A Picture Of Me Without You"
5,561,907 views Jul 12, 2010

GuriMalla2010
112K subscribers

Album: A Picture of Me (Without You)
Utgitt: 1972
Låtskrivere: George Richey / Norris D Wilson.
Labels: Epic

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Grand Ole Opry
Published on May 6, 2013

Alan Jackson performs "He Stopped Loving Her Today" at the funeral service of George Jones on May 2, 2013. With special thanks to the Jones family and artists involved, the Opry is authorized to post this moving performance from the service. © 2013 Possum Tracks Touring Co.

Donny Ferguson 🗽 Retweeted:

Happy Birthday to my hero #GeorgeJones!! You will always be the very definition of a legend. #HappyBirthdayPossum


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