(RCA Records January 1978)
- Mamma Don’t Let Your Babies Grow up to be Cowboys
- The Year 2003 minus 25
- Pick up the Temple
- If you can touch her at all
- Looking for a Feeling
- It’s Not Supposed to be That Way
- I can get off on you
- Don’t Cuss the Fiddle
- Gold Dust Woman
- A Couple More Years
- The Worlitzer Prize
Original Liner Notes:
I have made serious mistakes before but probably the most serious was in underestimating the talents of a couple of ornery old coots by the name of Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings. After the rest of the world finally caught up with their ornery music and finally started buying their records, I figured that what would probably happen would be this: Willie would sit at home with his grandkids on his knees and say things like, “Now, see this gold record? I got this for…†And waylon would retire to his mountaintop and become a burly recluse, coming into town once a year, on the day the new Cadillac hit the deals. Once a year they would appear on stage for a moment at the end of somebody else’s show and throw out a quick duet on “Good Hearted Woman.â€
In other words, I thought that success–as that high goddess usually does–would dry up the well.
I should have know better, should have know that the two Godfathers of modern country music know a little bit better than I do what they are capable of, what they want to do, and what they think country music needs. What country music needs right now, I decided the minute I heard this album, IS this album. Some of the stuff that’s passing for country these days–no names needed, you and they know who they are–is nothing but a disgrace.
I humbly submit that the world needs a lot more Willie & Waylon right now and a whole lot less of that other crap.
I’ve not always approved of everything they’ve recorded, but when these two guys really crank it up, nobody–but nobody–can touch them. One listen to these songs made me a believer again. Willie & Waylon invoke the sheer beauty and power of real, honest country music as no one else does.
It’s a cliché, but a cliché I firmly believe in that wine, women, and song are the only worthwhile things this world holds. And I’m very happy that Willie & Waylon are again taking care of the song department, for there are times that song is better than wine or women.
–Chet Flippo
