Maps of Music

The Words Don't Fit the Picture (1972)

Where the lyrics of The Words Don't Fit the Picture take you, and where it was really made.

A song that became a Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson staple was finished over a late-night poker game in Fort Worth, and this album holds Nelson's first solo recording of it.

Key places

Recorded at RCA Studios in Nashville (1972)

Recording site Nashville — The album was recorded at RCA Studios in Nashville. The source gives only the city, so this point marks central Nashville and not a specific studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• The Words Don't Fit the Picture: fourteenth studio album by country singer Willie Nelson
• Released in 1972 by RCA
• Contains only Nelson originals
• Personnel lists Nelson alone, on vocals and guitar
• Issued on 8-track cartridge (RCA P8S-1892), unlike most Nelson albums of the period

Background

• By 1972 Nelson had made fourteen albums for RCA
• RCA head Chet Atkins kept the Nashville Sound formula, which did not suit Nelson's stylized musicianship
• Promotion behind Nelson's LPs had been historically non-existent
• The label reacted with confusion to the 1971 concept album Yesterday's Wine, a suite of songs on mortality
• Nelson's live shows bore little resemblance to his RCA albums
• Atkins refused to let him record with his band, leaving him disillusioned

Recording

• As Atkins scaled back his production duties at RCA, Nelson worked more with Felton Jarvis
• The album was recorded at RCA Studios in Nashville
• It contains Nelson's first solo recording of "Good Hearted Woman", a song he wrote with Waylon Jennings
• Nelson also wrote "Stay Away from Lonely Places" with Don Bowman

Cover

• The cover was shot by Jimmy Moore
• Nelson poses with his wife Connie and producer Felton Jarvis, Jarvis dressed as a chauffeur, in front of a Rolls-Royce
• The image points to the stylistic change Nelson was about to make

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

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

Reappraisal

• AllMusic reviewer Jim Worbois called it another fine album of Willie originals
• Worbois wrote that it is not quite as strong as some of Nelson's other albums from around this time, but still good
• The review places the album among Nelson's solid mid-period work rather than his peak

Records

• Issued on 8-track cartridge (RCA P8S-1892), a format not common for Nelson albums of this period
• In 2017, reissue label Vinyl Me, Please remastered and reissued the album for the first time
• Six years after that, the Netherlands-based label Music on CD issued it on Compact Disc under license from RCA/Sony

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• "Good Hearted Woman" began as Waylon Jennings's song; he asked Nelson to help finish it during a late-night poker game at the Fort Worther Motel in Fort Worth
• Connie Nelson recalled that Willie's only contribution was one line, and Jennings then gave Willie half the song
• Don Bowman had written "Just to Satisfy You" with Jennings, which Jennings and Nelson later took to the top of the charts in 1982
• Jennings and Nelson had been fighting many of the same battles with RCA
• The album was issued on 8-track, which was unusual for Nelson releases of the time

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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