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Post by bboat11 on Mar 23, 2021 21:54:22 GMT -5
Sorry but BBIC was just ridiculous IMO. Nothing good about it for me. Glad it left although I wish it wasn’t in the Top 20 lol just imagine listening to "Big Ball's In Cowtown" and thinking "Man, this fiddle sounds like shit!"  |
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Post by bboat11 on Mar 23, 2021 21:58:12 GMT -5
15. "The Eagle" - Jamey Johnson ft. George Strait
Album: Living for a Song - A Tribute To Hank Cochran (Jamey Johnson)
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Post by tim on Mar 23, 2021 22:01:41 GMT -5
Sorry but BBIC was just ridiculous IMO. Nothing good about it for me. Glad it left although I wish it wasn’t in the Top 20 lol just imagine listening to "Big Ball's In Cowtown" and thinking "Man, this fiddle sounds like s**t!"  Right! I actually think the double entendre that the song title has might explain it coming across as "ridiculous" to some (one has to put the song in context of the time period in which it was written/recorded which was 1949). That is to say that they aren't celebrating a certain fella (wink, wink) but rather a dance...nothing more, nothing less lol. |
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Post by bboat11 on Mar 23, 2021 22:02:12 GMT -5
"The Eagle" had the opposite chart run from "Big Ball's In Cowtown", lmao. It was barely ever even a top 20 contender, and yet managed to sneak up to #15 at the last possible second thanks to taylor is terrified's unpredictable taste! This song is alright, but certainly didn't deserve top 15 here imo. It has cool imagery in the lyrics, but the melody gets old very quickly. It's the sort of song that I will only revisit because George is on it. That's the way I have felt about literally every Jamey Johnson song I have ever listened to tho, so maybe I'm not the best resource on this lmao. |
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Post by tim on Mar 23, 2021 22:03:11 GMT -5
"The Eagle" got a lot more support than I ever thought it would as I actually thought this might end up somewhere in the bottom 5. It's a fine song, but it isn't anything I feel the need to revisit.
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Post by bboat11 on Mar 23, 2021 22:06:42 GMT -5
14. "I Just Can't Go On Dying Like This"
Album: Strait Out Of The Box
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Post by bboat11 on Mar 23, 2021 22:12:22 GMT -5
There's the song that apparently made gonecountry 's ears bleed! The original version of "I Just Can't Go On Dying Like This" is quite easily the most dated song in George's entire catalog. This was also one of the only songs George ever wrote and recorded before he hit it big and decided he wasn't as good of a songwriter as many of the people who were pitching songs to him. I think its dated nature gives it a certain quaint charm, personally. I think the melody is quite catchy, and this could have probably been a hit if it had been re-recorded with the same arrangement a decade or two later. George did end up re-recording it for his Love is Everything album a few years back, although he turned it into a ballad! The juxtaposition between these two versions is like night and day, lmao. I love them both, but I imagine most people have firm opinions towards one or the other. This newer version finished at #8 of 13 in the album rankdown. |
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Post by tim on Mar 23, 2021 22:17:16 GMT -5
I've always enjoyed "I Just Can't Go On Dying Like This" and it's still a song that I like to dust off and put on from time to time. I wasn't expecting this to make the top ten, although I do wish it had made it a couple of spots higher. The re-recorded version is ok, but I steadfastly remain partial to the original.
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Post by bboat11 on Mar 23, 2021 22:17:58 GMT -5
13. "Six Pack To Go" - ft. Hank Thompson
Album: Strait Out Of The Box
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Post by bboat11 on Mar 23, 2021 22:21:03 GMT -5
"Six Pack To Go" is catchy and clever, and George and Hank are yet another duo who has a lot of chemistry when they sing together. This song was one of our biggest wildcards through this rankdown, as it didn't settle into any particular position. It was at times a top 15 contender, at other times barely a top 20 contender, and at other times nearly a top 10 contender  It just kinda finished wherever it landed when the last list came, lol. |
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Post by tim on Mar 23, 2021 22:22:12 GMT -5
I'm pleasantly surprised to see how well "Six Pack To Go" did! This was at about the point where everything started getting rather stacked on my list, so this one just happened to fall back a bit. This was at one point in time in my top ten and I can't fault anyone for doing so if they did!
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Post by bboat11 on Mar 23, 2021 22:24:10 GMT -5
12. "What Would Your Memories Do"
Album: Strait Out Of The Box
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Post by bboat11 on Mar 23, 2021 22:28:45 GMT -5
"What Would Your Memories Do" has an interesting premise! What happens if somebody's memory drives you out of your mind? What happens to all those memories if they can no longer torment you? Like, it's really meta if you think about it too hard  I particularly like the lyric "I wonder what would happen if one morning your memories woke up to find my mind gone. Would they go as crazy without me as I am without you? Would they last as long?" That being said, the melody is not particularly exciting, so this is one that I can only listen to in small doses compared to just about everything that is left. |
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Post by tim on Mar 23, 2021 22:30:51 GMT -5
This was actually one of the three songs included here that was scrapped from George's fourth album and Vern Gosdin ended up not just recording it but released it as a single in 1984. I think I remember George mentioning that he actually prefers Vern's version over his own.
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Post by bboat11 on Mar 23, 2021 22:36:24 GMT -5
11. "You Gotta Go Through Hell"
Album: Strait Out Of The Box - Part 2
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Post by tim on Mar 23, 2021 22:41:03 GMT -5
Phew, I'm glad to see that "You Gotta Go Through Hell" didn't make the top ten. I don't know what it is exactly, but something about this song has just never worked for me. I believe this actually started out dead last on my list and in the end I bumped it up a few spots lol. Anyways, I think this song probably sounds and works better in a live concert environment than it does from a studio perspective. I also have to add that I was left feeling rather disappointed with how MCA approached the entire Strait Out of the Box: Part 2 project and this song kind of gets wrapped up in how I feel about all of that.
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Post by bboat11 on Mar 23, 2021 22:44:29 GMT -5
Our final song to miss out on the top 10 is "You Gotta Go Through Hell", one of the new songs from George's recent sequel to the Strait Out Of The Box collection. Man, what a disappointment this boxed set turned out to be compared to the first one!!! One of the coolest things about the first collection was the fact that George gave us so much previously unreleased material from the vault.....and then the new one featured literally none of that. Surely there were MANY unreleased jams from the '90s and '00s to where he could have offered us a handful of new songs  Meanwhile, most of the album tracks that he chose to include were the "wrong" ones... The only new songs on the entire collection were "Kicked Outta Country" and "You Gotta Go Through Hell". This one took me awhile to get used to because I low-key HATE Chuck Ainlay's production of George after so many years of Tony Brown's iconic work... It's so oddly bombastic and cheap sounding. That being said, he has been improving (the sound of the Honky Tonk Time Machine album was so much better than Cold Beer Conversation!), so as this newer sound has been growing on me, so has "You Gotta Go Through Hell". This song struggled early on, but then nearly made the top 10! In the end it only missed the top 10 by one point... |
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Post by bboat11 on Mar 23, 2021 22:46:48 GMT -5
Alright, here's the top 10!!!
Any Old Love Won’t Do
Check Yes Or No
Designated Drinker
I Don’t Want To Talk It Over Anymore
I Hate Everything
I Know She Still Loves Me
Jackson (Live)
Kicked Outta Country
Murder On Music Row
The Best Day
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Post by bboat11 on Mar 24, 2021 21:27:47 GMT -5
10. "I Don't Want To Talk It Over Anymore"
Album: Strait Out Of The Box
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Post by bboat11 on Mar 24, 2021 21:31:05 GMT -5
"I Don't Want To Talk It Over Anymore", the final 1970s pre-career song from the Strait out of the Box collection, kicks off our top 10! I have always loved this one a lot. The melody is really engaging to me, and while George's young voice might make songs like "I Just Can't Go On Dying Like This" a little off-putting, it is perfect for this song. This song brings out early indicators of the velvety warmth in his voice that many people would go on to love so much throughout his career.
It was on pace to finish in the 8-10 range for much of the rankdown, which I was happy to see because I had no idea what to expect from these early songs, but this is easily one of my favorites from them!
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Post by tim on Mar 24, 2021 21:33:41 GMT -5
Oh, we're jumping over here now!
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Post by tim on Mar 24, 2021 21:36:07 GMT -5
On that note, I'm actually glad to see "I Don't Want To Talk It Over Anymore" make it into the top ten because it was one of those that I really wanted to include in my own. I think it initially started out somewhere in that range, but towards the end it got bumped down a spot. George's vocal delivery on this is just fantastic and the way in which he sings both the versus and chorus is really what holds my attention throughout the entire song.
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Post by bboat11 on Mar 24, 2021 22:13:32 GMT -5
9. "Any Old Love Won't Do"
Album: Strait Out Of The Box
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Post by bboat11 on Mar 24, 2021 22:18:16 GMT -5
"Any Old Love Won't Do" is my JAM!!!! Lmao I love this one so much 😂 I am just so happy that this ended up being such a solid top 10 contender, because I honestly had no idea what to expect. It has a very simple, singsongy melody that I figured might cause some people to tank it. I love the simplicity of this song quite a bit, personally, especially when it starts having key changes ad nauseam in the fadeout 😂
In the end this is our first song to be in everybody's top 20!! It was much less polarizing than I expected :)
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Post by tim on Mar 24, 2021 22:19:05 GMT -5
I've always really liked "Any Old Love Won't Do", but for whatever reason it isn't one of those early cuts from the box set that I seek out to revisit. It's a great track though and out of the three songs George included from the "lost sessions", this likely would've been the best one to re-record had he decided to do so.
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Post by bboat11 on Mar 24, 2021 22:23:43 GMT -5
8. "Jackson (Live)" ft. Martina McBride
Album: The Cowboy Rides Away - Live from AT&T Stadium
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Post by tim on Mar 24, 2021 22:24:54 GMT -5
8. "Jackson (Live)" ft. Martina McBride Well that came as a surprise! |
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Post by bboat11 on Mar 24, 2021 22:28:52 GMT -5
The live recording of "Jackson" from George's final concert of his retirement tour was not even really a top 10 contender here, until (once again) taylor is terrified 's list provided a big shakeup right at the end!! Unlike the For the Last Time: Live from the Astrodome album, George's The Cowboy Rides Away: Live from AT&T Stadium album is quite literally the WORST live album I have ever heard.... >  The audio quality is just sooooooo poor that they had to slather up all the vocals with so much autotune that they have none of their natural timbre left whatsoever. I have honestly never even listened to this whole album from front to back in one sitting, because it is just so excruciating. "Jackson" is definitely one of the best recordings on the album for George, but Martina still sounds unrecognizable imo. Just like "Take Me Back To Tulsa" on the Astrodome album, this is the one recording on this album that was not released elsewhere as a studio version, so it was the one that made sense to include. No, it wasn't just the Martina Stan trying to shoehorn her in wherever I could ;) |
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Post by tim on Mar 24, 2021 22:29:13 GMT -5
In looking back at my top ten ranking for "Jackson", I'd have to say that I likely bumped this one up a bit too high. My reasoning for doing so isn't based so much on the actual version included on George's live album, but rather the fact that I had the opportunity to actually see them perform this live together when she was on tour with him (I can't remember if it was once or twice lol!). At any rate, the recording of this song with the two of them together always brings back those wonderful concert memories that I've gathered over the many years of seeing him live and this is certainly one of those special moments.
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Post by tim on Mar 24, 2021 22:31:01 GMT -5
George's The Cowboy Rides Away: Live from AT&T Stadium album is quite literally the WORST live album I have ever heard.... > The audio quality is just sooooooo poor that they had to slather up all the vocals with so much autotune that they have none of their natural timbre left whatsoever. Yea, I don't think it was the best idea to try and record a live album from a stadium of this size. There's just too much engineering that has to go into that to actually make it work and the end result was a lot of autotune. |
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Meanwhile, most of the album tracks that he chose to include were the "wrong" ones...
