Reviewed by Jeanne
Some people think Willie Nelson is a national treasure. I
happen to one of them. I’ve listened to
his songs for decades, marveling at the range of subjects and how he manages to
find just the right words to express a mood, explain an emotion, or capture a
moment in time. No wonder his songs have
been covered by so many artists in so many different musical genres!
In the opening, Willie explains that he believes song just
happen. The words come first, with
phrases just popping into his mind, and then the melody will follow. It’s a mysterious process and it should
remain a mystery. Sometimes if you try
to analyze the creative process, take it apart and see how it works, inspiration
just vanishes. Willie wants to keep the
mystery because then the listener is “naturally free to interpret them however
you like.” (I tried to refer to him as Mr. Nelson but that just seemed wrong,
somehow.)
Most of the commentary has to do with the circumstances around
the songs, not interpretation, but that’s fine by me. The songs are arranged according to mood, so
there are headings such as “Twisted and Confused,” “I’m Still Here,” and “Love
Has a Mind of Its Own.” There are 160
songs in all—which sounds like a lot, but is just about a tenth of what Willie
has written—and most are them are brief.
The longest one is Tougher Than
Leather, the song about an outlaw that became the title of an album. I took turns just reading through the various
categories and then checking the index to see what he’d said about a particular
song.
Being one of those oversized coffee-table style books, it’s no
surprise that illustrations abound.
There are even photos of some of the handwritten lyrics. My favorite
photo is one of Willie and his grandmother sitting on a porch swing—Willie impish
and grinning, his grandmother patiently smiling as if to say, “What am I going
to do with this boy?”
Red-Headed Stranger fans will find a lot to like in these
pages.
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