Dreaming My Dreams (Waylon Jennings album)
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Dreaming My Dreams is the twenty-second studio album by American country music artist Waylon Jennings. The album was co-produced with Jack Clement and recorded at Glaser Sound Studio in Nashville, Tennessee, between February and July 1974.
Following the 1972 renewal of his contract with RCA Records, Jennings gained artistic freedom, started to produce his own records, and changed his image to one inspired by the ongoing outlaw movement. Jennings recorded the critically acclaimed Honky Tonk Heroes and the commercial success This Time.
Jennings left the recording studios of RCA and moved his operation to the Glaser Sound Studio. After producer Clement married Jennings' sister-in-law and they became acquainted, Jennings was inspired to record an album upon hearing Allen Reynolds singing "Dreaming My Dreams with You" during a demo session hosted by Clement. Upon its release, the album received highly positive reviews from publications such as Rolling Stone, with critics praising the choice of songs and Jennings' vocals.
Dreaming My Dreams was released in June 1975; it topped the country albums chart and peaked at number forty-nine on the Billboard's Top LPs & Tapes. It was certified gold by the RIAA and Jennings won the Male Vocalist of the Year Country Music Association award. The singles "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way" and "Dreaming My Dreams with You" peaked at numbers one and ten respectively on Billboard's Hot Country Songs.
Background
In 1972, Jennings' new manager Neil Reshen renegotiated the artist's contract with RCA Records. Under the new deal, Jennings received complete artistic control over his output.[1] To follow the start of the Outlaw movement, Jennings changed his image. He grew his beard and started to wear jeans, a hat, and leather vests during live performances.[2] Jennings produced his next album, 1973's Lonesome, On'ry and Mean, himself. The same year he released the critically acclaimed album Honky Tonk Heroes, composed mainly of songs by then unknown songwriter Billy Joe Shaver.[3]
Recording at RCA's Nashville studios with the label's personnel did not please Jennings. During the sessions for the album This Time, he moved his operation to Glaser Sound Studio. RCA initially refused to release the record, citing their agreement with the Engineers Union. The deal established that RCA artists could only record in the company's studio with label engineers.[4] In a September 1973 interview with The Tennessean, Neil Reshen said RCA Records had violated Jennings' contract and talked about the possibility of signing the singer to another label. RCA Nashville director Jerry Bradley and New York-based label executive Mel Ilberman decided to allow Jennings to record at Glaser Sound, and broke RCA's deal with the Engineers Union.[5] Citing Jennings as a precedent, RCA artists requested to be allowed to record in external facilities. Eventually, the label sold its Nashville studios. This Time topped Billboard's Top Country Albums chart.[6]
Recording and composition
Dreaming My Dreams is the only Jennings album produced by "Cowboy" Jack Clement, an eccentric ex-Marine and former bluegrass sideman who was Sam Phillips right-hand man at Sun Records, producing Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis. Jennings later declared, "He was a sheer-out genius, all soul. If you got around him at the right moment, he could put the world back on track."[7] As Rich Kienzle observes in the liner notes to the 2001 reissue of the album, Clement and the renegade Jennings were kindred spirits when it came to their outlook on recording:
- "In an era when most Nashville producers favored formulas over creativity, Clement viewed the studio as a painter viewed a blank canvas. To him, even the most whimsical or uncommon ideas were worth trying. Like Phillips, he favored an organic approach: recording singer and musicians together, live, in the studio and overdubbing only when necessary. Anything else, he felt, robbed a performance of soul and spontaneity."
After
Although Jennings was at the forefront of "progressive" country music during this time, many of the songs on Dreaming My Dreams is rooted in the past, with Jennings celebrating his musical heroes and the cowboy tradition. As music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine in his review of the LP on AllMusic:
- "This is an unabashedly romantic album, not just in its love songs, but in its tributes to Waylon's heroes. 'Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way' opens and 'Bob Wills Is Still the King' closes the album - making Jennings an heir apparent to their legacies. Between those two extremes, Waylon appropriates Jimmie Rodgers ('Waymore's Blues'), covers Roger Miller ('I've Been a Long Time Leaving'), ups the outlaw ante ('Let's All Help the Cowboys'), and writes and records as many sentimental tunes as possible without seeming like a sissy."
Songwriter Billy Ray Reynolds, who had befriended Ernest Tubb's bassist, told Jennings of an expression used by Tubb's band the Texas Troubadours. During breaks from the Midnight Jamboree, moving from Tubb's Record Shop to the air-conditioned bus, the musicians would ask if "Hank done it this way".[12] While driving to the sessions for Dreaming My Dreams, inspired by the line and Hank Williams' influence, Jennings wrote on an envelope the lyrics to "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way." He recorded the song upon his arrival to the studio.[14] In the book Outlaw: Waylon, Willie, Kris, and the Renegades of Nashville, Clement told author Michael Streissguth, "That was one of the key tracks. We'd worked on it. I played something on it, guitar or something. Then he left, and I started mixing it. And I mixed it in a whole different way. I brought them guitars way up there, and he came in the next day or whenever we got back there and listened to it and loved it." Jennings later said of the song:
- With its relentless four-on-the-floor rhythm, phased guitars, and eerie drums, 'Hank' didn't sound like a standard country song. There was no clear-cut verse and chorus, no fiddle middle break, no bridge, nothing but an endless back-and-forth seesaw between two chords. Jack mixed the guitars together so they sounded like one huge instrument, matching their equalization settings so you couldn't tell where one blended into the other. It felt like a different music, and Outlaw was as good a description as any.[15]
Jennings also recorded the Hank Williams song "Let's Turn Back the Years." In his autobiography Jennings recalls, "I felt chills all over me the first time I heard Hank Williams sing '
"Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way" backed with "Bob Wills Is Still The King", was released in August 1974,[19] and topped the Hot Country Singles chart, while "Dreaming My Dreams with You," backed with "Waymore's Blues," peaked at number ten on that chart.[20] In his 1996 autobiography, Waylon, Jennings called Dreaming My Dreams his favorite among the albums he recorded. The liner notes, that stated that "the human voice is the only instrument that manages to give a glimpse of [Jennings'] soul", were written by Neil Diamond.[21] The 2001 reissue features the bonus tracks "All Around Cowboy" and Billy Joe Shaver's "Ride Me Down Easy" from the film Mackintosh and T.J. starring Roy Rogers.
Critical reception
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
Allmusic | link |
Dreaming My Dreams was released in June 1975; it topped the
Track listing
Original release
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way" | Waylon Jennings | 3:02 |
2. | "Waymore's Blues" | Curtis Buck, Jennings | 2:47 |
3. | "I Recall a Gypsy Woman" | Bob McDill, Allen Reynolds | 3:01 |
4. | "High Time (You Quit Your Lowdown Ways)" | Billy Ray Reynolds | 2:48 |
5. | "I've Been a Long Time Leaving (But I'll Be a Long Time Gone)" | Roger Miller | 2:45 |
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Let's All Help the Cowboys (Sing the Blues)" | Jack Clement | 3:19 |
2. | "The Door Is Always Open" | Dickey Lee, McDill | 2:44 |
3. | "Let's Turn Back the Years" | Hank Williams | 2:32 |
4. | "She's Looking Good" | Autry Inman | 2:32 |
5. | "Dreaming My Dreams with You" | A. Reynolds | 2:27 |
6. | "Bob Wills Is Still the King (Live)" | Jennings | 3:36 |
2001 reissue
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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12. | "All Around Cowboy" | Len Pollard, Jack Routh | 2:58 |
13. | "Ride Me Down Easy" | Billy Joe Shaver | 2:41 |
Personnel
- Waylon Jennings – vocals, lead guitar
- Richie Albright – drums
- Duke Goff – bass guitar
- Ralph Mooney – steel guitar
- Overdubbed and session musicians
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Charts
Weekly charts
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Year-end charts
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Singles
Song | Chart (1975) | Peak position[20] |
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"Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way" | Billboard Hot Country Singles | 1 |
"Dreaming My Dreams With You" | Billboard Hot Country Singles | 10 |
Certifications
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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United States (RIAA)[30] | Gold | 500,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
Footnotes
- ^ Petrusich 2008, p. 106.
- ^ Jennings & Kaye 1996, p. 266.
- ^ a b Wolff 2000, p. 340.
- ^ Jennings & Kaye 1996, p. 192-194.
- ^ Streissguth 2013, p. 146.
- ^ Country Music Foundation 1994, p. 318.
- ^ Jennings & Kaye 1996, p. 202.
- ^ Streissguth 2013, p. 187.
- ^ a b Jennings & Kaye 1996, p. 219.
- ^ Jennings & Kaye 1996, p. 203.
- ^ a b Jennings & Kaye 1996, p. 217.
- ^ a b Streissguth 2013, pp. 188–189.
- ^ Jennings & Kaye 1996, p. 220.
- ^ Jennings & Kaye 1996, p. 239.
- ^ Jennings & Kaye 1996, p. 227.
- ^ Jennings & Kaye 1996, p. 33.
- ^ a b Albertson 1975, p. 74.
- ^ Diamond 1975.
- ^ Ching 2003, p. 123.
- ^ a b Whitburn 2005, p. 447.
- ^ Jennings & Kaye 1996, p. 221.
- ^ a b Erlewine, Bogdanov & Woodstra 2003, p. 375.
- ^ Glover 1975, p. 17.
- ^ Billboard staff 1975, p. 51.
- ^ American Home Staff 1975, p. 63.
- ^ Erlewine 2008.
- ^ "Waylon Jennings Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved June 5, 2021.
- ^ "Waylon Jennings Chart History (Top Country Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved June 5, 2021.
- ^ "Top Country Albums – Year-End 1975". Billboard. Retrieved June 5, 2021.
- ^ "American album certifications – Waylon Jennings – Dreaming My Dreams". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved May 3, 2023.
References
- Albertson, Chris (1975). "Waylon Jennings: One Cowboy Who Needs No Help With His Hits". Stereo Review (35). CBS Magazines.
- American Home Staff (1975). "New Music Releases". The American Home (78). Doubleday & Doran, inc.
- Billboard staff (1975). "Top Album Picks". Billboard. Vol. 87, no. 25. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. ISSN 0006-2510.
- Ching, Barbara (2003). Wrong's What I Do Best: Hard Country Music and Contemporary Culture. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-195-16942-3.
- Country Music Foundation (1994). Country. The music and the musicians: from the beginnings to the '90s. Country Music Foundation. ISBN 978-1-558-59879-9.
- Diamond, Neil (1975). Dreaming My Dreams (LP). Waylon Jennings. RCA Records. APL1-1062.
- Erlewine, Stephen Thomas; Bogdanov, Vladimir; Woodstra, Chris (2003). All Music Guide to Country: The Definitive Guide to Country Music. ISBN 9780879307608.
- Erlewine, Stephen Thomas (2008). "Waylon Jennings - Dreaming My Dreams". Allmusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved September 9, 2014.
- Glover, Tony (1975). "Dreaming my Dreams". Rolling Stone. Wenner Media LLC.
- Jennings, Waylon; Kaye, Lenny (1996). Waylon: An Autobiography. Warner Books. ISBN 978-0-446-51865-9.
- Neely, Tim (2005). Goldmine Price Guide to 45 RPM Records. Krause Publications. ISBN 978-0-873-49840-1.
- Petrusich, Amanda (2008). It Still Moves: Lost Songs, Lost Highways, and the Search for the Next American Music. Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-86547-950-0.
- Streissguth, Michael (2013). Outlaw: Waylon, Willie, Kris, and the Renegades of Nashville. Harper Collins. ISBN 978-0-062-03820-3.
- Whitburn, Joel (2005). Joel Whitburn's Top Country Songs: 1944-2005, Billboard. Record Research. ISBN 978-0-898-20165-9.
- Wolff, Kurt (2000). Country Music: The Rough Guide. Rough Guides. ISBN 978-1-85828-534-4.