Word: possum
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...usual thing of putting in names in search engines to see what I could find. Once, when I typed in "George Jones," I came up with the web site of Earl "Peanut" Montgomery, whom I knew as a songwriter (a good one) and former drinking buddy of the Possum. Peanut also had achieved dubious fame as being the man at the wrong end of one of Jones' most notorious episodes: He narrowly missed being shot by a bullet from Jones' .38 revolver. The incident occurred in late 1978 when the singer, at his lowest ebb after...
...think, as a trilling mandolin sets the scene and the Possum croons (magnificently, of course) for the first verse and a half about sunlight, flowers and such - a reverie, seemingly, about the wonders of nature. You wonder if Jones has been hitting the sappy bottle a little too hard; whether he's trying to turn into a second Gentleman...
Past Gems: 'Once a Day' 'When Your House Is Not a Home 'Three's a Crowd' 'Mr. Fool' This is one of those songs that, through its lyrics and melody, immediately transports you to the place where you imagine the singer to be. It couldn't fit the Possum better. You see Jones slumped over a table in a seedy apartment above an equally seedy bar in some Texas downtown. With one hand on his brow and the other on a bottle of cheap whiskey, he laments his aching for alcohol and the pressure and embarrassment this dependency has placed...
...usual, Jones is lamenting lost love. With irony hurtling down like hailstones, the Possum is at his most world-weary, an affect that works perfectly with this tune. Take, for example, the second verse and the refrain...
...pity - he had a fine voice (it's a bit ragged now), some good material in his repertoire and a good heart. But he had a true fan in Jones, helped in part by the fact that Dickens was one of the more welcoming stars on hand when the Possum made his Opry debut in 1956. And so when Jones was under pressure in the early '60s to churn out record after record for his new label, United Artists, he chose to do a tribute to Dickens. He has paid several complete-disc homages to other singers (Bob Wills, Hank...