Waylon Jennings’ SINGER OF SAD SONGS

In December 1969, while still a member of Rick Nelson’s Stone Canyon Band, Randy Meisner embarked on a brief stint as a session musician. One of these sessions was Waylon Jennings’ first L.A. album, Singer Of Sad Songs.

_{Rick Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band, 1969
L-R: Randy, Pat Shanahan, Rick, and Allen Kemp}

Between December 8th and December 19th, 1969, Randy Meisner played on two albums that were turning points in the careers of the artist. The first was James Taylor’s Sweet Baby James. Although Randy played bass on only two songs (“Country Road” & “Blossom”), he would later say that playing on this album was one of the highlights of his career.¹ The second was the thirteenth album by one of country music’s original outlaws, Waylon Jennings.²

Cover of Singer Of Sad Songs, released February 1970 (notice Jennings’ wife, Jessi Colter, in the background). The session musicians were not credited in the liner notes on the album.

By all accounts, Jennings’ Singer Of Sad Songs, was recorded in true outlaw fashion. Unlike all other RCA country artists at the time, Jennings refused to record the album in Nashville (only the title track was recorded in Nashville). Instead, he recorded the album at the RCA studios on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles using local L.A. musicians, one of which was Randy Meisner. It’s worth pointing out here that Jennings, who was first and foremost a guitarist, did play bass a couple of times early in his career, most notably for Buddy Holly & The Crickets. In fact, it was Jennings, who gave up his airplane seat to the Big Bopper, J.P. Richardson, who died in the crash that also killed Holly and Ritchie Valens. So, he may have recognized a skilled bass player in Randy. Also on the session were Randy’s fellow bandmates from The Stone Canyon Band and The Poor: guitarist Allen Kemp and drummer Pat Shanahan.³ The other musicians were former Cricket, Sonny Curtis, on guitar and fiddle, Carl Walden on harmonica, and Don Randi on piano and harpsichord.

Below: RCA session info for Singer Of Sad Songs. Not sure what “hac” stands for next to Randy’s name. The instruments for Allen Kemp and Pat Shanahan are mixed up. Kemp played guitar, Shanahan played drums.

The producer of Singer Of Sad Songs was Lee Hazlewood, who had just written and produced “These Boots Are Made For Walkin'” for Nancy Sinatra in 1967, which he had originally offered to Waylon to record. Hazlewood had a reputation for being belligerent in the studio. One artist said of him: “He’s a son-of-a-bitch. He picks on musicians and yells at everybody.” According to former Cricket, Sonny Curtis, Waylon wasn’t happy with Hazlewood or his own performance. “We rushed it too much. We worked eighteen hours one session without stopping because we were behind.” Waylon was also suffering from a bad case of laryngitis.⁴

I asked drummer Patrick Shanahan about the session. Here’s how he remembered it.

“The Waylon session was basically just a normal session. Waylon was a pleasant guy but he was in the booth while we were recording and it was basically a ‘ thanks guys’ situation. Nothing unusual. Didn’t really spend any time with the guy.” ⁵

Randy plays bass on ten of the albums eleven tracks (except for the title track, which was not recorded in Los Angeles). Although uncredited with any background vocals on the album, his high voice is unmistakable on Waylon’s cover of the Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Woman,” especially on the line, “Honky Tonk girl.” ⁶ Listen for yourself:

The album, although critically acclaimed, was not a big seller. Only the title track became a minor hit. Nevertheless, Randy was really given a chance to show off his bass playing chops on the album. Here are four tracks that stand out, in my opinion. Grab your headphones or earbuds to really hear the bass.:

1.) “Sick & Tired” (This is the second track on the album and the first with Randy. His bass line on this song is nothing short of hot):

2.) “No Regrets” – Randy’s bass playing is noticeable, but understated. It really complements this Tom Rush folk standard.⁷

3.) “Ragged But Right”:

4.) “Donna On My Mind” (The song opens with just Waylon, Randy’s bass, and Shanahan’s drums):

Listen to the entire album here.

Waylon and Randy remained friends following the recording of Singer Of Sad Songs. Stephen Love, who had a shortlived band with Randy in 1970 called Goldrush, and who eventually replaced him in the Stone Canyon Band, tells the following story of Randy introducing him to Waylon at the Troubadour upon his arrival in Los Angeles in December 1970. This would have been Waylon’s first-ever appearance at the Troubadour.

“On my first evening in Hollywood Randy Meisner took me to the Troubadour to meet Waylon and his band.. We went upstairs after the show so I could meet my first ‘STAR’..I still remember him shaking my hand and looking at my penny loafers… He asked me my intentions in Hollywood and I said I wanted to be a star also of course.. He laughed… said, and I quote.’Well…you better go out tomorrow and get some cowboy boots if you want that to happen.’ Then he gave me something that I had never seen before..Some white powdery substance that made me feel like Hercules… He said ‘Welcome to Los Angeles.’ I would always see him at Willies BBQ’s year after year which I loved and he always looked to see if I had boots on which were Tony Lamas by then !! ….Not bad for the first night in wonderland.” ⁸

In 1983, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson released their third and final duet album entitled none other than Take It To The Limit, which included a cover of Randy’s classic hit with the Eagles. According to Nelson, he and Jennings wanted to record the song because it “bowled us over.” ⁹

Notes

1. “This Eagle Is Flying With Poco,” USA Today, February 2, 1990. Also see my blog post about Sweet Baby James here. ↩︎
2. Another session from 1969 was In California, the second album by the folk duo, Compton & Batteau (John Parker Compton & David Batteau). Randy played bass on “Homesick Kid.” The session also featured Pat Shanahan, plus Randy’s former Poco bandmates, Rusty Young and Jim Messina. In an interview with Pat Shanahan, he told me that David Batteau wrote a popular Chevrolet jingle back in the 1980s: “Robin and David Batteau are brothers and very creative musicians and just fantastic people…Robin is the guy who wrote the theme “The Heartbeat of America. That’s Today’s Chevrolet” which Chevy stuck with for a very long time back in the 80’s or thereabouts.” ↩︎
3. When Rick Nelson died on December 31st, 1985, both Randy and Waylon (and several others) were interviewed by Nelson’s manager Greg McDonald for a special televised tribute. Their interview segments appear next to each other in this clip, with Randy’s appearing first. Watch here. ↩︎
4. Waylon: A Biography by R. Serge Denisoff, 1983 ↩︎
5. Correspondence with Pat Shanahan ↩︎
6. Randy also played bass and sang background on Rick Nelson & The Stone Canyon Band’s cover of “Honky Tonk Woman” from the 1971 album, Rudy The Fifth. ↩︎
7. In 1974, Randy would appear as an uncredited guest on Tom Rush’s Ladies Love Outlaws album, which includes a more electric version of “No Regrets” as opposed to the more acoustic original from his 1968 album The Circle Game. Randy’s contribution to Ladies Love Outlaws is the beautiful background harmony on “Claim On Me.” ↩︎
8. Stephen A. Love, public Facebook comment, April 10, 2019 ↩︎
9. Willie: An Autobiography by Willie Nelson, 2000 ↩︎