Tuesday, April 21, 2009

One of the Greatest. Songs. EVER.

....right now, at Outlaw Country, Sirius Ch. 63, by another of my Texas favorites: "And I just thought I'd mention, my Grandma's old age pension, is the reason why I'm standing here today...I got all my country learnin', milkin' and a-churnin', pickin' cotton, raisin' hell, and bailin' hay, I been to Georgia on a fast train, honey, I wasn't born no yesterday...I got a good Christian raisin' and an eighth-grade education, ain't no need in y'all a-treatin' me this way..."
God only knows how many times that Billy Joe Shaver staple's been recorded, but it's a great one. I know Shaver recorded it first on his 1973 album Old Five and Dimers Like Me, but he did an even better, more rockin' version on his Tramp On Your Street cd, recorded with his son Eddy Shaver 20 years later. It's not that often that I think newly-recorded versions of classics by the original artists measure up to the original recordings, but yeah, that later recording of "Georgia On A Fast Train" blows the doors off the original. (Cory Morrow nails it on his 2-cd live set Double Exposure as well.) Also on the Tramp On Your Street cd is a great newer recording of "Oklahoma Wind" with Waylon Jennings. As far as I know that song was first recorded by Shaver in 1982, but I've never heard that version.