Jan 142011
Why have I never seen this clip before? Could Waylon Jennings‘ overall presence be any more macho? Look at his upright, angled stance! You can almost taste the chocolate thunder of that suit! Dig that starched, high collar! Best of all, check out how the lines from his erect shirt collar shoot right through his pompadour! And he has that style of looping his right arm under his guitar, rather than coming at the strings from over the top. Kinda looks like the way G.I. Joe would hold a machine gun! The song—and that twangy guitar solo—are all business! It’s never been hard to find a Man’s Man in country music, but is Waylon Jennings The Man Among Country’s Man’s Men?
Funny you should mention country music manliness, Mod. Yesterday, I found an obscure LP by a guy named Kenny Serratt in a thrift store, and snatched it up. Why? Two reasons: one, the dude’s album cover features a lengthy amazing-new-talent-superstar-of-the-future testimonial by none other than Merle Haggard, who wrote or co-wrote a bunch of tunes on the LP. And two — seriously — because I thought, “man, this dude just looks so f*ckin’ MANLY.” I haven’t actually listened to the thing yet, but — how could this album suck with those two things going for it?
Here’s a scan of the cover:
http://cgi.ebay.com/KENNY-SERRATT-Love-Honor-Excellent-Con-LP-Record-/300402244454?pt=UK_Records&hash=item45f15e7b66
In what other musical genre could a guy with a mug like that thrive and prosper? Question two: what has changed about the country music industry that guys who look like truck drivers don’t get signed anymore? That shit is just wrong!
That’s a great video. You can’t top Waylon in this category.
I’d have to put Johnny Cash next to Waylon. If we skip to today’s country stars then Tracy Atkins and Toby Keith are pretty manly.
Here’s my Waylon Jennings story:
100 years ago I took my then girlfriend to a Waylon Jennings concert. She was a huge fan (the manly thing). This was at the tail end of the days when EVERYONE was smoking pot at the shows. This concert was reserve seating and I didn’t go to many country shows. Being stupid and a little out of my element, I fired up and we were very quickly found and booted out the back door. Waylon had just taken the stage and my girlfriend was devastated. She didn’t even smoke. Because they threw (figuratively speaking) us out the back door, we landed in the middle of the tour buses with roadies and stage managers all around. One of them saw my distraught girlfriend and asked what happened. She told him and he gave us two fresh tickets up front. We walked around the building and back in the front door to our new and much better seats.
i love this story!
Yeah, I think Waylon might be the man.
I’ll tell you who isn’t: David Allen Coe. Man is that guy trying too hard…
Only Waylon could look manly in front of a xmas tree