Music Arcades: Waylon Jennings: Legends

A couple of days ago, my eye happened to catch a reference in this blog post to "a Waylon Jennings figure". I realised I had no idea what would qualify anyone as a Waylon Jennings figure. The place he holds in my affection come primarily from rubbing shoulders with him in the index of a book, and secondarily from his being a quarter (albeit the smallest quarter) of The Highwaymen. I only bought this collection because £7 for three CDs seemed a good deal, and easy way to explore whether it was worth exploring more of Waylon's work.

So I checked out Waylon's Wikipedia page to see what kind of figure he was: married four times, chronic problems with drink and drugs, antagonistic relationship with the country music establishment, a smattering of near-death experiences, rescued by a helping hand from a fellow outsider star (Willie Nelson in this case). That profile could fit 5-10 country singers, though this review refers to him as "the ultimate outlaw" so maybe "a Waylon Jennings figure" is the vices of 5-10 country singers rolled up into one.

From where I'm sitting, the songs and performances on these three discs are mostly just OK; some above average, some below, but rarely by a great deal. The well-known songs don't stand out above other versions I've heard, and the originals are fine, but not classics. My favourite is the 50th and final song, Dreaming My Dreams With You, which I previously only knew via the Cowboy Junkies.

(In other self-centred news, I just received another book where I feature in the index — next to Henry Jenkins this time. In the main text, I'm quoted talking briefly about this site.)