Walls Can Fall

in terms of sales, this was George's biggest album during his MCA years. The album is GOLD {500,000 copies sold} and that's basically due to the lead-off song, "I Don't Need Your Rockin' Chair". This became something of an anthem in George's concerts from 1992 through 1998...each performance being a blistering showcase of a wild George Jones pointing his finger and wiggling his body...having fun with the whole process of getting old and showing everyone that even though he was 61, it didn't mean he was broken down or slow. The rest of the songs are wonderful, particularly "There's the Door" and "Wrong's What I Do Best". I love the title track too...Merle Haggard's "The Bottle Let Me Down" as well as "Drive Me To Drink", "You Must Have Walked Across My Mind", "Finally Friday", and "There's the Door" made this album his first honky-tonk project in decades...it had been quite a while since the majority of a George Jones album was drinking songs! This album hit #24 on the country chart and also hit #77 on the Billboard Top 200 pop album chart...making this one of his all-time greatest commercially successful albums...an eerie song for me is "What Am I Doin' There", a clever twist on the classic cheating song theme once famous in country music.

George Jones is just wonderful. Finally Friday is the best picker upper and really gets me off to a great weekend! I just get totally energized when I hear this song.

Hardly anyone would disagree that George Jones is truly one of the finest vocalists country music has ever had, and the fans know it as well, per the 150 country top 40 hits he has had in his career. However, people would think differently of the fact that he has recorded nothing but hardcore country throughout his career. During his early years when he recorded songs like "White Lightning" & "She Thinks I Still Care", that sentiment proved true. But when he moved to Epic Records in the early 1970s (the same label as his then-wife Tammy Wynette) & producer Billy Sherrill, George dove headlong into the equally-famous & infamous "Countrypolitan" sound that may have won country music a wider audience, but was reviled by Nashville elite as defanged country. George apparently did not mind too much as long as the hits kept coming & they did, but maybe by the late 1980s, even he grew tired of the whitewashed sound, and as he approached his 60th birthday, sought to shake things up a bit.

George did so by signing with MCA Records in the early 1990s, and began a slow yet steady journey back towards hardcore country. The sweeping strings of his Epic days may have been done away with, but still there was some hints of conceding to the more easily palatable contemporary country that was in vogue at the time & still is. 1991's AND ALONG CAME JONES succeeded with this mixture somewhat in creating one top 40 hit with "You Couldn't Get The Picture", definitely one of his rootsiest efforts in some time. Only one such hit would be a disappointment in a younger artist's career, but for someone George's age with his history, it was high praise indeed. George's status as a legend with still some considerable commercial juice left in him continued on 1992's WALLS CAN FALL.

If anyone thought that George Jones was dead in the water musically, one only needed to hear the opening track "I Don't Need Your Rockin' Chair", which put paid to the notion that George may have been old, but he was not feeble by any means. Clearly, this is a man not ready for the La-Z-Boy & slippers at all, and although ballads have always been George's forte, this honky-tonk rave-up still fits him like a glove. The all-star cast of guests may seem like an easy way of saying "make me a hit", but if that was the case it succeeded in becoming the album's biggest single. However, it also means that a lot of people can attest to the fact that George could give many other younger artists a run for their money.

The only other time George kicks up his heels is on the closing "Finally Friday", which granted, may be a little odd coming from someone who ought to be collecting pension by now. But this celebration of the oncoming weekend & the readiness to spend your paycheck on a good time has enough youthful energy to not sound too much like a desperate attempt at sounding hip.

Besides those two songs, WALLS CAN FALL falls more within the ballad vein that George has always made his specialty. Not all of them are of the hardcore variety that George always prided himself upon, but they come pretty close. Given his longtime history with alcoholism, songs like "Drive Me To Drink" & Merle Haggard's classic "The Bottle Let Me Down" may be hitting too close to home. But deciding not to sugarcoat his past rebelliousness actually makes them brave songs with which to do it. Alcohol & cheating have long been the mainstays of country music, so it makes sense to return to those cardinal rules in getting back to the country as George wanted to do.

That second category of cheating is given sufficient time on WALLS CAN FALL with songs like "What Am I Doing There", which just barely gives a hint at some regret at breaking the vows of marriage. "Wrong's What I Do Best", on the other hand, seems to make no apologies for slipping around, and whether one likes the song just may depend on one's threshold of morality.

However, even George can express some sorrow at doing wrong when you get his side of the story on being hurt. "You Must Have Walked Across My Mind Again" & my own personal favorite "There's The Door" show that sometimes even the cheater can feel cheated. The latter in particular was the album's true hardcore treasure in creating a song that is definitely heartbreaking with not only the end leaving no resolution or hope for mending, but the fact that the woman in the song has been burned so many times she no longer feels it. "There's The Door" is a prime example of a country song that gently tugs on the listener's heartstrings without yanking them.

The remaining songs on WALLS CAN FALL show that even a rugged sod like George can be a softie at heart...sometimes. The title track & "Don't Send Me No Angels" demonstrate that just maybe the hard exterior he portrays is a front one can easily break down if they really work at it. That is what the former song says, while the latter actually has George sounding content with his lot for once, saying that he may not have to wait until he gets to heaven to feel happy because he found an angel where he is now (could that be his beloved 4th wife Nancy?).

When most artists reach George Jones' age, it is usually time for them to scale back their recording & touring schedules or clear them altogether. Even in country music where legends are often treated with more respect & gratitude than in other genre, it would appear artists who get older know when their time is up. Occasionally, some like Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard or the late Johnny Cash would take it as a sign to just simply make music they themselves want to hear & not feel the pressure to create hit after hit.

With his MCA albums, George was entering that stage of his career, recording music that if it managed to hit, that was fine. But you could best be sure he was not worried about it flopping either. WALLS CAN FALL proved that George Jones the man may still have a throbbing pulse even if he was more than willing to let his commercial heyday flatline.