reviving the tribute to tammy i put down in 'songs about kissing' (below). (that tammy wynette is fucking incredible: my candidate for the greatest pop singer of the twentieth century. her timing is so extreme and devastatingly expressive, playing so far behind and then on the band as though waiting for and then trying to seize the cure or just describing the shape of yearning. that timing is of the essence of country music, and it corresponds to the similarly extreme, the unmatched, dynamics. she's always threatening to unleash a new level of intensity. i don't think the recording equipment of the era could really capture or even survive what she's doing there. it's thermobaric. i will be your vietnam.)
you have to be very early on tammy's recordings. i hate to sound condescending especially to my favorite singer but few artists have more badly misunderstood the source of their own power; she made so many pseudo-sophisticated horseshit songs, starting early, so random downloads is a very bad approach. never, however, has suffering been so intensely expressed in popular music (i'll give you billie, though), but then also transcendence of suffering, or transcendence through immanence. really tammy is being crucified. i would call the cross 'heterosexuality,' or being female in a heterosexual couple circa 1967, and i have no idea why she doesn't play the cultural role played by judy garland; dude it's super-intense, super-tragic, in sequins, and the music is better. it's the campiest thing ever and yet within that tammy is completely emotionally exposed, absolutely vulnerable and devastated. she embodies a perfect submission, but she gropes for modes and moments of resistance or understanding. (if you want to hear systematic resistance, though, you'll have to listen to loretta.) anyway here's a twenty-cut list. i'm just going to say this: these are the best country recordings.
(1) The Ways to Love a Man
(2) Enough of a Woman
(3) Yearning (To Kiss You)
(4) I'm Not Mine to Give
(5) I Wound Easy (But I Heal Fast)
(6) Two Story House (George and Tammy)
(7) Too Far Gone
(8) D-I-V-O-R-C-E
(9) Apartment #9
(10) You Can Steal Me [Album Verson]
(11) Golden Ring (George and Tammy)
(12) I Don't Wanna Play House
(13) Stand by Your Man
(14) Don't Touch Me
(15) I'll Share My World With You
(16) Almost Persuaded
(17) He'll Never Take the Place of You
(18) I Know
(19) My Daddy Doll
(20) These Two
(21) Where Could You Go (But to Her)
(22) Lighter Shade of Blue
(23) The Ceremony (George and Tammy)
