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WAYLON JENNINGS: THE NASHVILLE REBEL
Waylon Jennings' refusal to conform to the rigid demands of the Nashville establishment earned him a reputation as a rebel, and at one period during his career he was actually dubbed "the Nashville Rebel." From relatively humble beginnings in Littlefield, Texas, where he was born in June 1937, and a brief spell playing bass guitar for Buddy Holly, Jennings weathered the storm of protest about his dress and attitudes to country music and emerged as a cult figure.
His acceptance extended into rock circles, Jennings having long expressed a wish to record a rock album. In 1974, he and former Crickets Jerry Allison and Sonny Curtis recorded two old Holly tracks, "That'll Be The Day" and "It Doesn't Matter Anymore," as the framework for a proposed tribute to Holly.
Originally restricted by staff producers with fixed views on country, Jennings' early material was basically conventional modern country, highlighted only by his brilliant interpretation of lyrics - as on "MacArthur Park" and "Days of Sand and Shovels" (both in 1966) - and his soulful voice.
Producers like Herb Alpert, Danny Davis, and Chet Atkins did little to draw out Jennings' latent talent, and it was possibly this stifling of creative development that caused the artist to "buck" the system and eventually strike out on his own.
Following a successful but unremarkable period with RCA Victor, Jennings almost broke with the label over policy, and only when they agreed to let him produce his own sessions were the foundations laid for his acceptance outside country music.
Along with Billy Joe Shaver and Tompall Glaser, Jennings had been called "one of the last real cowboys," but he was no range rider, rather a man fighting for the freedom of country music and striving to put back the individuality that Nashville had taken away over the years. Many country fans accused Jennings of veering away from country completely, nut that couldn't have been further from the truth.
Jet-Age Cowboy
As Roger Schutt, and American magazine and TV writer observed in his liner notes for Jennings' "Honky Tonk Heroes" album: "It's more than just a possibility that the songs in the album will become the 'Cool Water' and 'Tumbling Tumbleweeds' anthems of the jet-age cowboy."
The album, released in 1973, contained songs written by Billy Joe Shaver ("Honky Tonk Heroes," "Old Five And Dimers," "Willie The Wandering Gypsy And Me," "Low Down Freedom," "Ride Me Down Easy," "Ain't No God In Mexico," and "Black Rose"); Donnie Fritts and Troy Seals ("We Had It All"); and co-productions by Shaver and Jennings ("You Ask Me To") and Shaver and Hillman Hall ("Omaha").
Another aspect of Jennings' early associations with RCA that encouraged him to fight for his principles was the reluctance of the company to let the Waylors (Jennings' road band) accompany him on recordings. When he became an independent entity so far as production was concerned, he augmented the usual back-up musicians like Joe Allen, Ralph Mooney, Hargus Robbins, David Briggs, Jimmy Caps, and Charlie McCoy, with his own hard-driving, rock-based group. (Mooney joined the Waylors in 1970 on pedal-steel guitar.)
Jennings' intention with the "Honky Tonk Heroes" album was to create a new style of cowboy song, and this was a recurring theme throughout his recordings. They weren't "western" cowboy songs in the true sense, but ballads laying down his beliefs, odes to close friends ("Willie The Wandering Gypsy" was written about Willie Nelson, another Nashville "outlaw"), and gentle love songs. His own songwriting output was prolific, and over the years Jennings wrote some beautiful material in the shape of "Anita, You're Dreaming" and "Just To Satisfy You" (both written in conjunction with Don Bowman); "Sure Didn't Take Him Long" and "I Think It's Time She Learned" (written with Jessi Colter, Waylon's wife); "This Time;" and "Rainy Day Woman."
A close study of his recorded material, however, shows that Waylon Jennings was anxious to take in as broad a spectrum of contemporary music as possible and not restrict himself to the close confines of country. Among the composers he drew upon over the years were Jim Webb, Chuck Berry, Paul Simon, Neil Diamond, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, J.J. Cale, Gregg Allman, Bob Dylan, Lennon and McCartney, and even Bill Martin and Phil Coulter.
The vast changes in Jennings' attitudes to his music are reflected through his various sleeve photographs. Until his almost revolutionary "Ladies Love Outlaws" album, produced by Ronnie Light in 1972, Jennings was almost staid in appearance, but then the cowboy, struggling for so long to be accepted, burst through and a new image presented itself. The sideburns and hair grew longer and unkempt, and the frock coats were replaced by faded jeans and leather boots. Jennings had rid himself of the Nashville shackles, and he wasn't afraid to voice his opinions to the world.
Solidly Country
"I'm a part of country music and that's where it's at," he commented. "I say and I do what I do because I love the music and sometimes I feel there are wrongs. I'm not out to change things. I may criticize at times, but I'll be the first to defend country music and what it stands for."
Strangely enough, Jennings, while earning the respect of musicians and singers the world over, hadn't made a great impact outside America by the mid-'70s. His 1972 appearance at the International Festival of Country Music at Wembley, England, was marred by an inadequate sound system that did nothing to enhance his image. The organizers maintained that Jennings' performance - and that of Jessi Colter - was below standard, and yet those close enough to the stage heard Jennings' vocal mike "breaking up."
Waylon was philosophical about it and decided that even if the PA hadn't been faulty, maybe he wasn't ready for British audiences at that particular time. His albums released in Britain didn't measure up to the sales achieved by Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, or Charlie Pride. In America, however, Jennings was a giant and his albums were colossal successes.
His numerous appearances at the Troubadour in Los Angeles and the Boston Line Club in New York, both noted rock venues, drew his music even closer to the pop field, but in doing so it gave an even wider acceptance to country music. In spite of Jennings' close associations with rock musicians he had no intention of deserting country music. "I couldn't go pop with a mouthful of firecrackers," he said, "and whatever I do will be solidly country."
In his native Texas, he was a disc jockey and occasional performer, appearing in talent shows and clubs both in Texas and Arizona. In 1966, he left Arizona for Nashville and signed with RCA under the direction of Chet Atkins. The same year, he appeared in a low-budget Nashville movie appropriately titled "The Nashville Rebel," but it took another seven years for his career to flourish and to make any marked impression on the city.
Jennings was a modern cowboy without a horse, a rebel with a cause, and was joined by other Nashville system-kickers. Kris Kristofferson, Billy Joe Shaver, Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Tompall Glaser, and, to some degree, Tom T. Hall all had a new message to spread, and their claim grew too big and successful to ignore.
Outlaw Clan
Nashville begrudgingly accepted their presence and admitted that the "rebels" had something tangible to offer country music. Jennings and Kristofferson gave country music something it had always lacked - sex appeal - while the remaining "outlaw" members injected "Music City, USA" with a new style of country music performer.
As a performer, Jennings was the most popular of America's '70s "outlaw" clan, and his appeal stretched to one of the most unlikely sections of America's community, the Navajo Indians of New Mexico. The Indians liked Jennings and they respected his music. Each year on December 31, Jennings performed for them at the Catholic Indian Center in Gallup, and the tribe adopted the singer's old hit, "Love Of The Common People," as their unofficial anthem.
Success to Jennings didn't simply mean financial reward, success was putting something vital back into country music and coming to terms with the establishment. Nashville was taking the country out of country music, but Jennings, with his searing, soul-rending voice, let people know that country was their music.
His ambition in the mid-'70s seemed to be in the direction of rock & roll from the days when Buddy Holly and the Crickets were recording songs like "Brown-Eyed Handsome Man," "Peggy Sue," and "Everyday." He is quoted as saying: "I'm going to let my music take me wherever I go. Instruments don't make country. We're entitled to a heavy rock beat if it complements our songs. Why should we lock ourselves in?"
For all his cult successes, Jennings was modest to the point of even putting down his own guitar playing. "Hell, I ain't no great guitar player," he said. "I just play my stuff. I'm very self-conscious about my guitar playing for some reason. I'm a singer, I never practice on my guitar."
In the mid-'60s, Jennings was a hell-raiser, and stories of his wrecking exploits with Johnny Cash, with whom he shared a bachelor pad, were legion. Later, the violence was replaced by a constructive rebellion aimed at doing what he felt was right for American country music.
If anyone told Waylon that they didn't dig the kind of country music he was into, he was likely to tell them to go to hell. But secretly he may have hoped that they were into his particular scene, and it probably bothered him to think that he wasn't getting the message across.
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To learn more about Waylon's life, I suggest reading "Waylon: An Autobiography," by Waylon Jennings with Lenny Kaye. Warner Books, 1996.
Back to first Waylon page in Art Gallery of Alfred J. Smuskiewicz