In setting up the mammoth “Cocaine & Rhinestones: A Historical past of George Jones and Tammy Wynette,” writer and Nashville gadabout Tyler Mahan Coe has successfully Voltroned collectively three separate books.
At it is core, the e book particulars the weird, romantic, heartbreaking and gawkable trainwreck that was the separate ascendencies and eventual catastrophic relationship between nation music superlatives George Jones and Tammy Wynette. Saddlebagging this near-murder ballad is an extremely in-depth and interesting recounting of the Nashville music recording trade in the midst of the previous century. If that weren’t sufficient, every chapter begins with a deep dive right into a collection of seemingly-unrelated however damned-if-it-doesn’t-all-tie-together essays on a variety of subjects which are so huge, they nearly appear as if they had been pulled out of a hat. Nearly.
Cocaine & Rhinestones crept onto the scene as a podcast in 2017, collated and narrated by Nashville insider Tyler Mahan Coe whose laconic drawl belied an insightful and biting view into the historical past of nation music. As Coe states in his podcast introduction, “I’ve heard these tales my entire life. So far as I can inform, this is the reality about this one” and because the son of true outlaw nation singer David Allan Coe Tyler is aware of his stuff. His social media presence hosts a photograph of him taking part in a pinball machine in a seedy bar in his birthday swimsuit earlier than he was sufficiently old to enter kindergarten. Did Waylon Jennings personal this pin machine? Possibly Johnny Paycheck? Both manner, Coe paid his dues being inside ‘the room the place it occurs’ deering the rise and fall of the Outlaw Nation growth.
Hilariously and infuriatingly, Coe co-hosts one other podcast referred to as “Your Favourite Band Sucks” whereby they shit-talk bands like The Beatles, Phish, Oasis, Wilco, Taylor Swift, AC/DC in addition to ideas like Ticketmaster, Christmas Music and a latest four-part section on Eminem. Whereas Cocaine & Rhinestones is meticulously researched, cross-referenced and footnoted, YFBS simply rolls and trolls with no actual malice or sense of actuality (however dammit if it is not enjoyable to tear down yr idols).
All of this prefaces the concept that Coe is aware of his historical past, embraces this historical past, honors the historical past of nation music, but additionally is not afraid to throw the primary dinner roll to begin the meals struggle.
Season one of many podcast Cocaine & Rhinestones spent every episode detailing the unbelievable life tales of artists like Ernest Tubb, Loretta Lynn,
the Louvin Brothers, and the borderline torture porn recounting of the lifetime of Spade Cooley. Every episode detailed the ins and outs of the music trade; how merciless it might be for performers and the way profitable it might be for the label heads and svengali-like managers. From this base, season two of the podcast languished over the legacies and confounding mis-steps of Jones and Wynette.
The ~500 web page e book based mostly off of this second season recounts the ingesting and drugging, adultery and skulduggery, the flailing makes an attempt of two damaged folks to attempt to manipulate and commiserate one another to fill the voids of their lives but additionally climb on prime of one another so as to keep alive within the Nashville machine. At instances it nearly appears as if every of them had been drowning and each swam out to rescue the opposite solely to search out that their accomplice was climbing on prime of them, waving to be rescued whereas concurrently swamping the one they beloved. Spoiler alert: It does not finish effectively, however that does not imply that the e book does not supply a blow-by-blow account of the hovering highs and crushing lows that these two good, damaged mega-stars endured and inflicted upon themselves.
The Jones/Wynette ‘Dynasty-via-Recreation Of Thrones’ saga makes up the skeletal system of the e book, however alongside that may be a very footnote-able and obsessive degree of element concerning the creation of “The Nashville Sound.” (Anybody with a ‘Chet Atkins Fan Membership’ membership card of their pockets might wish to shut the e book now), in addition to a loving tribute to the undersung musical architect Owen Bradley and the in-the-trenches people like Billy Sherrill,
Don Pierce, Pappy Day by day, and numerous different trade insiders who helped to create the sound of nation music within the Fifties, ’60s, and ’70s.
Extremely, there’s a third e book nestled in between the grooves like a psychedelic gimmick on an previous LP, whereby Coe places collectively a thesis-level dissertation on such disparate subjects as ice cream, jukeboxes, the manufacture of moonshine, and (for some purpose) bullfighting. Affected person readers are rewarded by being granted the knowledge that the pinball machine begat the jukebox, and when jukebox producers realized that they may tip the scales by placing their very own data within the regional machines (and retaining a minimize of the publishing), their revenues would enhance (therefore the delivery of regional document labels). Equally, a chapter about fashionable refrigeration appears misplaced in a historical past of nation music till it’s revealed that the arrival of residence fridges shifted the existence of ice cream from a real novelty to one thing that might be had within the residence, which mirrors the ascendancy of the document trade.
Maybe probably the most drawn-out however in the end rewarding Wikipedia-scented sections of each the e book and the podcast revolve across the historical past of bullfighting (and as somebody who was in on the bottom ground of Season Two of the Cocaine & Rhinestones podcast,
At instances it nearly appears as if every of them had been drowning and each swam out to rescue the opposite solely to search out that their accomplice was climbing on prime of them, waving for rescue whereas concurrently swamping the one they beloved.
I can inform you that individuals misplaced their shit when Coe would commit the primary 10 minutes of the published speaking about Spanish bullfighting from the Center Ages and Juan Belmonte: Killer of Bulls), however this deep dive finally ends up resolving in a fashion that—”DUH!”—head-slappingly illustrates the state of nation music trend from the ’40s by means of at the moment, the patronage of the ruling class and the way that pertains to the music trade, and a dozen different threads that every one tie collectively.
If this three-headed Hydra of a narrative construction sounds daunting, it’s also a enjoyable and entertaining learn. Beneath is a (partial) listing of the names and subjects listed within the index behind the e book:
• All My Youngsters
• All Issues Should Cross
• amphetamines (see velocity)
• Beverly Hills 90210
• Bowie, David
• burlesque exhibits
• Cato the Elder
• CBGB
• Cleopatra
• D-I-V-O-R-C-E (the album) and “D-I-V-O-R-C-E” (the tune)
• George Jones Chuck Wagon restaurant
• G-strings (clothes)
• Gully Jumpers
• Harpocrates AND the harpsichord
• Pleasure of Cooking, The
• Kilmister, Lemmy
• KKK AND The KLF
• Three separate Mèdicis
• Nashville (town AND the Robert Altman movie)
• Payola
• Pet Sounds
• Possum Hollar
• Riefenstahl, Leni
• Ru-Paul’s Drag Race
• Scotty Turner, Tina Turner, Titus Turner, and Zeb Turner
• Voguing
• Wagoner, Porter (Jones’ rest room encounter with)
• A number of Wilsons (together with Brian, Dennis, Norro, and Woodrow)
If no different metric is required, this e book a few historical past of a time in nation music footnotes “Drug Use” 31 instances and the “Grammy Awards” solely 7 instances. This actual world angle towards the way in which music was written, recorded, and distributed solely establishes the “bandaid-off” method of the e book. Pulling no punches, calling out unreliable narrators in reference supplies, and lovingly embracing the instances when every little thing got here collectively improbably completely, Cocaine & Rhinestones is an expertly instructed love story, a reference materials, a philosophical train, and a cautionary story.
“Cocaine & Rhinestones: A Historical past of George Jones and Tammy Wynette” might be discovered on the Cocaine & Rhinestones web site.
