Learning a Song Before Hearing the Record

Song 205: This week's playlist song is Why Baby Why by Charley Pride, written by Darrell Edwards and George Jones. If there were any truth to the rumor that I played bass in a country bar pickup band in the San Francisco Bay area back in the mid-'80s, then this song would have been one of the numbers we covered. I could say I got to know this song from hearing Charley's version of it, which is a fine update on an old George Jones classic, but it's quite possible that I actually learned it one night on stage running through it live in front of an audience, after the band leader called the tune and told us what key he wanted for it. If I was there that night, then I learned it the way I learned a lot of country songs I didn't know, which was by just watching the guitar player's hands to figure out the chords he was playing. So if it happened that way, I would have then gone to a record store in the next day or so to get a copy of Charley's record, and very quickly -- in less than a minute's time -- would have learned to really like a recording that I hadn't even known existed until that gig shortly before. This song also squares the circle for the 4 country singers mentioned in the chorus of my song As Long as Merle is Still Haggard -- I posted a Merle track for Song 191 (Mama Tried), a Waylon Jennings tune for Song 190 (Are You Sure Hank Done it This Way?) and a Willie Nelson cut for Song 197 (Crazy), so that does it for "As long as Merle is still Haggard, as long as Charley still has his Pride, as long as Willie is still willin' and Waylon keeps on wailin'" but of course, now I'll have to start adding in the singers mentioned in the verses. If you know the song, then you'll know that further along on this list, you might very well see Pam Tillis, Johnny Cash and Randy Travis, among others. If you’d like to hear As Long as Merle is Still Haggard just click on the title and you’ll get to see the song video on YouTube.