Today’s post was written by Paul.
For Hank Williams birthday tributes, I generally alternate between dark songs and light songs. Hank wrote plenty of both, the song I’m sharing today is one of the lighter ones. If you missed the other Hank tribute videos, you can see them here.
English teachers might refer to this as the gerund song! They include: longing, thinking, dreaming, yearning, pinning, and falling. In fact, I think I may have left some out, like “wanting.”
If you noticed my eyes dropping below the line of the camera, it was me reading my notes to make sure I knew which gerund was coming next! 🙂
All of this song is well-written, but to me, the best line comes close to the end of the song: “It looks like I’ve been cheated out of my rib.” In Hank’s day, the majority of Americans attended church, read the Bible, or at least had been taught the key parts of the Bible. They would have readily understood this Biblical allusion to man’s “helpmate.” Unfortunately, the meaning of that line might be lost on most Americans today.
I mentioned that I chose this song because it’s lighthearted. Specifically, I chose it because it’s self-deprecating, meaning that the speaker is making fun of himself. Although he was one of the top stars of country music, Hank often made fun of himself in his songs. Other examples are “Move It on Over” and “I’ve Been Down that Road Before.” It seems like this type of humility died along with other great aspects of country music. For the most part, top stars haven’t poked fun at themselves in decades. While some might portray themselves as somehow marginalized (perhaps because of a rough background they endured), they don’t show vulnerability in this particular way, and they seem to take themselves very seriously, even though many of them posses little musical talent or ability.
A couple of years ago, or thereabouts, Beyonce released a cover of Dolly Parton’s “Jolene.” Beyonce seems like a nice person, so what I’m about to share is not a critique of her personally. I’m just trying to illustrate the point above.
In “Jolene,” Dolly wrote with great humility, saying things like, “I cannot compete with you, Jolene.” I’ve never listened to Beyonce’s cover of the song, but I’m told that she “flipped the script;” instead of pleading with Jolene and acknowledging her vulnerability, she instead boasted about herself, touted the amazing relationship that she has with her man, and warned that Jolene cannot compete with/handle her.
Because it is a cover song, I suppose that in some sense, this update/reversal shows creativity, but my point is that it strips away the vulnerability, the part that makes the singer seem human, like the rest of us, capable of not measuring up at times. In “Nobody’s Lonesome for Me,” Hank doesn’t say that he’s an amazing catch. He just says he has a big heart.
Most people have probably felt like Hank in “Nobody’s Lonesome for Me.” At times, when we’re not paired up with a significant other, it can seem like everyone else is. It’s a fun song, and I liked it the very first time I heard it. Because Hank died so young (29), quite a few songs/recordings were released posthumously. I’m pretty sure that’s the case with this song. Hank died in 1953, and according to Google, this song was released in 1955.
Hank had a practice of going into the recording studio alone and laying down a track of himself singing songs, with only his own guitar as accompaniment. Copies of those recordings were distributed to his band members (like the amazing steel player, Don Helms), and they learned the songs from what Hank recorded. In 1985, those recordings were released in their raw form on an album called, “Just Me and My Guitar.” I remember that my Uncle Junior (Granny’s oldest brother) owned and treasured a copy of that record.
Though they were eventually released in their raw form, many of those recordings were earlier used to publish “new,” full-band singles after Hank’s death. His band went into the studio and dubbed their parts around Hank’s voice and guitar. When Hank made those demo recordings, audio quality wasn’t the goal. The recordings were merely for reference, to help the band members learn the songs. Because of that, they may have used one mic to capture both his voice and guitar, rather than two for a more isolated, controllable sound. Because of this, some of the posthumous releases have a certain sound that I can usually recognize. “Everybody’s Lonesome for Me” has that sound: lower audio quality and perhaps a little less perfection in Hank’s vocal, but still very good, nonetheless. Lord willing, I’ll upload another Hank tribute in September 2027.
Paul
Original singles released on Spotify.
Shepherd of My Soul (Album released in 2016).
The Wilson Brothers Words of Life Album released in the 70s.