But she never complains
Of the bad times or bad things he's done
She just talks about the good times they've had
And all the good times to come
The heroine of this song doesn't just see the glass as half-full rather than half-empty -- she sees that half-full glass as filled up to overflowing.
My daughters are "mirror-image" twins -- that is, they are identical twins who are opposites in certain ways. For example, one of my daughters is left-handed, and the other is right-handed. (Some mirror-image twins have reversed internal organs -- which isn't really a problem, but which probably comes as a major surprise to any doctor who examines the reversed twin without knowing his or her medical history.)
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| Mirror-image twins |
"Good Hearted Woman" is the mirror-image twin of "Stand By Your Man." Both are about patient, all-forgiving wives who tolerate the behavior of their narcissistic and immature husbands.
"Stand By Your Man" was co-written and recorded by Tammy Wynette, a female singer who was one of the great mainstream, Nashville-based country music superstars. By contrast, "Good Hearted Woman" was written and performed by Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, two male performers who were the giants of Texas-based "outlaw" country-western music.
And the two songs have a very different mood. The woman in Tammy's song seems to be suffering -- she is paying a price for her fidelity to a man who seems to have a lot of issues -- while I see the woman in Willie and Waylon's song as having a smile on her face because her husband is lovable and charming in spite of his foibles.
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| Willie and Waylon |
You can't write about Texas popular music and leave out the outlaws like Willie and Waylon. Their music is as crucial to the psyche and popular culture of Texas as the "Summer of Love" groups are to the psyche and culture of San Francisco. Until they came along, I think a lot of people (like me) viewed country music as formulaic and sappy. But Nelson and Jennings were great songwriters and exceptional singers, who combined finesse and style with raw emotion and a whole lotta soul.
I would have had a hard time choosing just one of them to feature in "29 Posts in 28 Days," but fortunately I didn't have to. Their live duet of "Good Hearted Woman" was featured on the groundbreaking 1976 album Wanted! The Outlaws, which featured previously released material by Nelson, Jennings, Jessi Colter (Jennings' wife), and Tompall Glaser. It was the first country album to sell a million copies. The Nelson-Jennings "Good Hearted Woman" made it to #1 on the Billboard "Hot Country Singles" chart.
Willie and Waylon had written the song in 1969 while they were staying at a hotel in Fort Worth. The story goes that the song was inspired by a newspaper story that Waylon read that referred to Tina Turner as "a good-hearted woman loving two-timing men." He tracked down Nelson, who was in the middle of a poker game. Jennings joined the game, and the two of them worked out the lyrics as they played.
(That may be the best story I've ever read about how a popular song came to be written.)
Before I share the Wanted! The Outlaws version of "Good Hearted Woman," here's Waylon Jennings' solo version of the song, which was released in 1972 and was a #3 country-western hit. The two performances have a lot in common -- including the key change before the second chorus:
Here's the live Nelson-Jennings recording of "Good Hearted Woman." Happy Valentine's Day, ladies!
Here's a link you can use to buy the song from Amazon:
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