The 500 - #183 - Red Headed Stranger - Willie Nelson

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

---

Album: #183
Album Title: Red Headed Stranger
Artist: Willie Nelson

Genre: Outlaw Country

Recorded: Autumn Sound (Garland, Texas)

Released: May, 1975
My age at release: 9
How familiar was I with it before this week: One song

Is it on the 2020 list? Yes, at #237, dropping 54 places
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain

Album cover for Willie Nelson's Red Headed Stranger (1975).

As has been documented numerous times in this blog series, I am a huge fan of concept albums -- those records whose individual tracks hold a larger meaning when listened to as a whole. My favourites include 2112 from Rush; The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway from Genesis; Misplaced Childhood from Marillion; and Operation: Mindcrime from Queensryche. A few of my other favourites have even made The 500 list, including The Who's Tommy; David Bowie's The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust; Elton John's Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy; and Pink Floyd's The Wall.

A selection of concept records from the Progressive Rock genre.

Colour me surprised on learning that concept records had been recorded by country artists. Released in the spring of 1975, Willie Nelson's Red Headed Stranger was hailed by critics as one of the best from both the outlaw country genre and as a concept record. Rolling Stone Magazine listed it at #26 in its October, 2022, article, The 50 Greatest Concept Albums of All Time. (I covered the outlaw country genre in detail in my 2023 post about Nelson's 1978 record Stardust.)

Album cover for Willie Nelson's Stardust (1978).

Red Headed Stranger tells the story of a preacher, turned fugitive, who is on the run in the American southwest (Texas to Colorado) after killing his wife and her lover. The titular character then wanders aimlessly from town to town in an alcoholic haze of self-loathing, riding a black stallion while toting behind him the pony of his deceased wife. There is plenty of room for metaphoric interpretation based on that image.

A shot from the film adaptation of Red Headed Stranger.  Nelson, as the

titular antihero, riding his stallion while towing his late wife's pony – ,

loaded figuratively and literally with the baggage of his past.

There is a shift at the midpoint of the record. The story could be interpreted as an allegory for "The American Dream". The Stranger continuing his westward quest, seeking a fresh start to his life. He meets a new love in Denver and the music becomes noticeably more upbeat, with some songs written in a buoyant waltz time. The final track is the instrumental Bandera. However, the song that precedes it, Hands On The Wheel, suggests that redemption for The Stranger has been found in the heart of a woman who loves him unconditionally.

"And I looked to the stars,
Tried all of the bars,
And I've nearly gone up in smoke.
Now my hand's on the wheel,
I've something that's real,

And I feel like I'm going home."

Red Headed Stranger absolutely wowed me. I listened to it perhaps a dozen times in the week leading up to this posting. In future, when I talk about my favourite concept records, this album will certainly be among them. There is something stirring and beautiful in the album's simplicity. Much like the wide open vistas so typical in a western movie, Red Headed Stranger is sparse and uncomplicated, with lots of space for contemplation and interpretation -- none of it hurried.

"Some day when we meet up yonder
We'll stroll hand-in-hand again
In a land that knows no parting
Blue eyes crying in the rain."

The 500 - #260 - Stardust - Willie Nelson

I was inspired by a podcast called The 500 hosted by Los Angeles-based comedian Josh Adam Meyers. His goal, and mine, is to explore Rolling Stone Magazine's 2012 edition of The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. 

---

Album: #260
Album Title: Stardust
Artist: Willie Nelson
Genre: Various - Country, Folk, Jazz, Pop
Recorded: Enactron Truck Studio, Willie's driveway, Malibu, California
Released: April, 1978
My age at release: 11
How familiar was I with it before this week: A Couple Songs
Is it on the 2020 list? No
Song I am putting on my Spotify Playlist: Georgia On My Mind

In 1977, Willie Nelson went for a morning  jog on the beach near his home in Malibu, California, and happened upon musician, songwriter, record producer and arranger Booker T.  Jones. It was a  fortuitous meeting. Nelson was familiar with Jones' work, particularly with his time fronting the instrumental funk/R&B band Booker T. and the M.G.s  (Memphis Group) The pair struck up an easy and collegial friendship.

Booker T. (front) and the M.G.'s.

At the time, Nelson was riding high, enjoying the critical and commercial success from a string of popular releases, including his 1975 record, Red Headed Stranger (#183 on The 500). That record made Nelson one of the biggest artists in the country genre and also gave him mainstream recognition.

Album cover for Red Headed Stranger.
We'll get to it in November, 2024

Nelson was not afraid of taking chances. Earlier in the ‘70s, he had abandoned the country music establishment in Nashville and moved to Austin, Texas, to develop his own sound. Along with contemporaries Waylon Jennings and Hank Williams Jr. he eschewed the staunchly conservative limits of the Nashville Sound in favour of a growing sub-genre of music dubbed "Outlaw Country". The Nashville Sound, which had originated in the 1950s, blended the smoother elements from popular music of the time, including string accompaniment, backing vocals and slick production. Outlaw Country stripped the music back to its roots, from turn of the century cowboy ballads to the blues, honky-tonk music of the 1940s. He augmented the emerging style by incorporating elements of jazz, folk and southern rock into the sound.

Nelson’s chance meeting with Jones during his Malibu run spurred him into taking another risk.  At 44, he wanted to record an album of American pop standards from his childhood and asked Jones for help. They  started with an arrangement of Moonlight In Vermont, a 1944 jazz standard  previously been recorded by a who's-who of ‘50s and ‘60s crooners, such as Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Frank Sinatra and Ray Charles.

The executives at Columbia Records, with whom Nelson was contracted, were hesitant to publish and instead encouraged him to release another record in the outlaw country vein. However, Nelson's contract gave him artistic liberty to record what he wanted. Despite the lack of enthusiasm from Columbia Records, Nelson to approached Canadian guitarist and record producer Brian Ahern who owned the Enactron Truck Studio, a mobile recording facility housed inside a portable trailer parked in nearby Hollywood Hills. In December, 1977, the truck was relocated to Nelson's driveway and recording began.

Ahern (back) at the soundboard of the Enactron Truck Studios (1978)

Nelson selected songs from The Great American Songbook, a "loosely defined canon of significant 20th Century American jazz standards, pop songs and show tunes", including Hoagy Carmichael's Stardust (1927) and Georgia On My Mind (1930); Irving Berlin's Blue Skies (1926); and Someone To Watch Over Me (1926) by George Gershwin.

Once again, Nelson's instincts were right. The album went to the top of Country charts in the United States and Canada and even fared well on the popular music charts. It has been certified platinum five times (more than five million units sold in the United States). It is also at #260 on the 2012 edition of The 500. In November, 1978, Willie was featured on the cover of Newsweek with the title "King Of Country Music".

This got me thinking. If I was as talented as Willie Nelson...and had an incredible arranger like Booker T. Jones at my disposal...and a state of the art recording studio parked in my driveway...what songs from my youth would comprise my album?

I limited myself to songs I loved before I turned 15 (in the summer of 1980) and which could be arranged into a style similar to the tracks on Stardust. As I mowed the grass recently, I mentally sorted through dozens of songs from my youth and settled on the following list of 10 tracks. 

I'd love to hear your list in the comments below or through social media.

Consider Yourself -- Oliver Soundtrack

All Shook Up -- Elvis Presley

Lido Shuffle -- Boz Scaggs

How Deep Is Your Love? -- The Bee Gees

Don't Bring Me Down -- Electric Light Orchestra

Surrender -- Cheap Trick

Honesty -- Billy Joel

Renegade -- Styx

Freewill -- Rush

More Than A Feeling -- Boston

Similar to Stardust, I gave my record a one-word title from one of the tracks, Freewill. Below is a mock-up of my imagined album cover, replete with my pseudonym Marc Quinn.

How about you?