Maps of Music

Good Times (1968)

Where the lyrics of Good Times take you, and where it was really made.

RCA filed Nelson's starkly beautiful late-1967 ballads next to syrupy Nashville Sound recordings from earlier sessions, and the result was released as the album Good Times.

Key places

Recorded at RCA Victor Studios in Nashville (1968)

Recording site Nashville — Discogs lists RCA Victor Studios in Nashville as the recording location. This is a city-level position, so the dot marks central Nashville rather than the studio building itself. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Good Times: eighth studio album by American country singer Willie Nelson
• Released in 1968
• Arrangements by Anita Kerr, Bill Walker and Ray Stevens
• Almost all songs written by Nelson, with three written alongside his wife Shirley
• Ballad-heavy record of twelve tracks
• Includes a cover of Mickey Newbury's ‘Sweet Memories’

Background

• Nelson had a loyal and enthusiastic following in Texas
• His record sales at RCA stayed underwhelming
• Producer Chet Atkins used recording methods that had worked for other stars on the label
• By the close of the sixties, Nelson felt the Nashville sound did not suit his own musical instincts
• He felt the producing method, despite its technical wonders, fenced him in
• He accepted the formula out of ambition and took much of the 1960s to see it clearly

Recording

• Recorded after an LP of cover songs
• Timi Yuro had earlier covered ‘Permanently Lonely’ and ‘Did I Ever Love You’
• Timi Yuro's cover of ‘Did I Ever Love You’ was a duet with Nelson
• Discogs lists RCA Victor Studios in Nashville as the recording location
• Discogs credits engineers Bill Vandervort, Jim Malloy and Tom Pick

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• Born Willie Hugh Nelson on April 29, 1933, in Abbott, Texas.
• Wrote his first song at age seven and joined his first band, Bohemian Polka, as a guitarist at age nine.
• Attended Baylor University for two years before dropping out to pursue music.
• Moved to Nashville in 1960 and joined Ray Price's band as a bassist.

Career

• Songs such as "Crazy" (Patsy Cline), "Funny How Time Slips Away" and "Pretty Paper" became hits for other artists.
• Debut album ...And Then I Wrote was released in 1962; joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1965.
• Helped lead the outlaw country movement after moving to Austin, Texas in 1972.
• Red Headed Stranger (1975) was a critically acclaimed concept album; the single "Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain" became his first number one hit.
• Co-founded Farm Aid in 1985 with Neil Young and John Mellencamp.
• Acted in over 30 films, including The Electric Horseman (1979).
• Received a Grammy Award for Best Country Solo Performance for "Ride Me Back Home" (2019).
• Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1993 and received the Kennedy Center Honors in 1998.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• AllMusic reviewer Jim Worbois called the songs okay, and perhaps subpar for Nelson
• Worbois described the record as odd: one side is very sparse instrumentally, while the other has three different arrangers
• AllMusic singled out the cover of Mickey Newbury's ‘Sweet Memories’ as one of the most interesting tracks

Reappraisal

• Nelson later complained that his vocals were drowned in overly sweet string arrangements and syrupy backgrounds by the Anita Kerr Singers
• Michael Streissguth wrote that RCA seemed flummoxed, slotting the late-1967 ballads next to syrupy Nashville Sound material from earlier sessions
• Nelson later recalled being caught up in the Nashville music assembly line, where conformity was mandatory

Records

• ‘Little Things’ climbed to number 22 on the country singles chart
• ‘Good Times’ stalled at number 44 on the same chart
• The album itself limped to number 29 on the country albums chart
• The Spanish Wikipedia article also gives the country albums chart position as 29

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · es.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Mickey Newbury wrote ‘Sweet Memories’ and, like Nelson, had been dissatisfied with his debut RCA album Harlequin Melodies; his independent recording path later served as a template for the Outlaw movement
• ‘Buddy’ is a favorite of the character Ron Swanson on the NBC sitcom Parks and Recreation, played in season 7 episode 4 ‘Leslie and Ron’
• ‘Buddy’ was played again in the series finale ‘One Last Ride’, during Ron's future preview
• Discogs credits Bill Vandervort, Jim Malloy and Tom Pick as recording engineers

Sources: en.wikipedia.org · www.discogs.com

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