GEORGE JONES - A PICTURE OF ME WITHOUT YOU

A PICTURE OF ME WITHOUT YOU

GEORGE JONES

SONGWRITERS: GEORGE RICHEY & NORRIS D. WILSON

COUNTRY: U. S. A.

ALBUM: A PICTURE OF ME (WITHOUT YOU)

LABEL: EPIC RECORDS

GENRE: COUNTRY MUSIC

YEAR: 1972

 

        George Glenn Jones(September 12, 1931 – April 26, 2013) was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He achieved international fame for his long list of hit records, including his best-known song "He Stopped Loving Her Today", as well as his distinctive voice and phrasing. For the last two decades of his life, Jones was frequently referred to as the greatest living country singer. Country music scholar Bill Malone writes, "For the two or three minutes consumed by a song, Jones immerses himself so completely in its lyrics, and in the mood it conveys, that the listener can scarcely avoid becoming similarly involved." The shape of his nose and facial features earned Jones the nickname "The Possum". Jones has been called "The Rolls Royce of Country Music" and had more than 160 chart singles to his name from 1955 until his death in 2013.

      Born in Texas, Jones first heard country music when he was seven, and was given a guitar at the age of nine. His earliest influences were Roy Acuff and Bill Monroe, although the artistry of Hank Williams and Lefty Frizzell would crystallize his vocal style. He married his first wife, Dorothy Bonvillion, in 1950, and was divorced in 1951. He served in the United States Marine Corps and was discharged in 1953. He married Shirley Ann Corley in 1954. In 1959, Jones recorded "White Lightning", written by J. P. Richardson, which launched his career as a singer. His second marriage ended in divorce in 1968; he married fellow country music singer Tammy Wynette a year later. Years of alcoholism compromised his health and led to his missing many performances, earning him the nickname "No Show Jones". After his divorce from Wynette in 1975, Jones married his fourth wife, Nancy Sepulvado, in 1983 and became sober for good in 1999. Jones died in 2013, aged 81, from hypoxic respiratory failure.

       Johnny Cash once said, "When people ask me who my favorite country singer is, I say, 'You mean besides George Jones?'"

     A Picture of Me (Without You) is an album by American country music singer George Jones. It was released in 1972 on the Epic Records label.

      Jones's second solo recording on Epic is one of five albums released by the singer in 1972 (three of his own and two duet albums with his wife Tammy Wynette) as producer Billy Sherrill wasted no time in flooding the market with new recordings by "the Possum". Jones's first album, George Jones (We Can Make It), made it to number 10 on the country albums charts but his second effort did better, rising to number three and featuring songs with a wider range of themes than those found on his Epic debut, which celebrated the happiness of new love. The album's title track was the only single release from it, peaking at #5 on the Billboard country singles charts.

     In addition to love ballads, A Picture of Me (Without You) also includes songs more in line with Jones's reputation as country music's greatest interpreter of heartache, like the bitter "On The Back Row" and the Ernest Tubb classic "Tomorrow Never Comes" (which Elvis Presley had recorded the year before). The collection also contains Tom T. Hall's "Second Handed Flowers", the kind of "story song" that had always been a part of Jones's repertoire. After a shaky start, Jones and Sherrill sound more comfortable with each other's formidable reputation as they get to know each other musically. Their creative partnership would often be a compromise between the producer's sonic experimentation and the singer's hardcore country instincts. Biographer Bob Allen quotes the singer in his book George Jones: The Life and Times of a Honky Tonk Legend: "I've got too much respect for country music to abuse it. I don't want a thousand violins and twenty trumpets on my records."

          Lorrie Morgan covered "A Picture of Me (Without You)" on her 1991 album Something in Red and had a #8 country hit with it that same year.

Imagine a world where no music was playing

Then think of a church with nobody praying

If you ever looked up at a sky with no blue

Then you've seen a picture of me without you

 

Have you walked in a garden where nothing was growing

Or stood by a river where nothing was flowing

If you've seen a red rose unkissed by the dew

Then you've seen a picture of me without you

 

Can you picture Heaven with no angels singing

Or a quiet Sunday morning with no church bells ringing

If you've watched as the heart of a child breaks in two

Then you've seen a picture of me without you.