Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.
Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | March 12, 1986 October 17, 2006 (Deluxe) | (Original)|||
Studio |
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Genre | Country | |||
Length | 31:34 | |||
Label | Reprise | |||
Producer | Pete Anderson | |||
Dwight Yoakam chronology | ||||
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Singles from Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc | ||||
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Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. is the debut studio album by American country music artist Dwight Yoakam. This was Yoakam's first time working with long-time collaborator, record producer-guitarist Pete Anderson. The album became the first of three consecutive albums by Yoakam to reach number one on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart.
Background
When he began his career, Nashville was oriented toward pop "
Recording
Yoakam's debut was produced by guitarist Pete Anderson, whose abilities as an arranger complimented the singer's skills as a songwriter. As Anderson later recalled, "Dwight’s a brilliant lyricist, with a great voice as a gift from God. And a gift for composition. He didn’t struggle to write…And at the time, he didn’t want to do any of the things I wanted to do, and I didn’t want to do any of things he wanted to do, which made it non-competitive."[3] Comparing the recordings with Anderson on his debut with the demos the singer recorded in Los Angeles in 1981, writer Don McLeese observes:
By catching the attention of Pete Anderson, Yoakam found the sonic architect who could frame his voice, provide an instrumental foil with a stinging guitar, and streamline his arrangements to the best advantage. It’s mainly hindsight that makes those 1981 arrangements sound busy, as if the guitars and fiddles were chasing each other’s tails, but what Anderson added was clearly crucial, making the sound as important as the songs…Whatever polish Pete provided, his guitar gave Yoakam’s songs more raw intensity than anything on those 1981 sessions.[4]
Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. originally appeared as a six-track 12-inch EP version released in 1984 through a tiny independent label Oak Records. In the notes to the four-disc Reprise Please Baby box set, Yoakam explained his musical dynamic like this: "You combine drummers with mountain people, and you’ve got hillbilly music. That’s what we’re doing: Bill Monroe with drums."[5] Regarding the recordings, Anderson later commented that he was particularly concerned with "making it cohesive in terms of intros, outros, and solos, that was done on that record, every song."[6] The EP's success led to Yoakam being signed by Warner Bros. and releasing the same EP with four additional tracks and nearly identical packaging, making him one of the few artists whose major-label debut carried the note that it contained previously released material.[7]
Composition
Yoakam composed six of the album's ten songs, including the title track, which Rolling Stone magazine ranked number 94 in their list of the 100 greatest country songs.[8] The song, with Anderson's Don Rich-influenced guitar style, walks the Buck Owens line until the line extends to Yoakam, and Yoakam's street poetry is both poignant and profound, built into a barroom anthem.[9] According to Don McLeese's book Dwight Yoakam: A Thousand Miles from Nowhere, it was not until the expansion into the Reprise LP that the singer was inspired to write the song "Guitars, Cadillacs," with the "and hillbilly music" replacing the "etceteras" that appeared on the original EP cover, and the executives at Warner Bros. balked, fearing that the Kentucky-born artist's evocation of what the label considered trailer trash "was like waving a rebel flag at the possibility of mainstream success."[10] Steve Earle, who rose to fame around the same time as Yoakam and included a song he wrote called "Hillbilly Highway" on his 1986 breakout album Guitar Town, later observed, "What we had in common is that we use the term 'hillbilly,' which pissed George Jones off. He said one time, 'We spent all these years trying not to be called hillbillies, and Dwight Yoakam and Steve Earle fucked it up in one day.'"[7] McLeese writes:
The "hillbilly" tag was something that country had made a concerted effort to ditch, from the countrypolitan sophistication of Chet Atkins and Billy Sherrill productions through the slick suburbanization of Urban Cowboy. And here was this punk upstart, tracking manure all over the split-level home that country music had built for itself, reminding listeners of the music’s outhouse era. "They asked Pete if he could get me to change it, take the hillbilly out," says Yoakam. "And Pete knew better. He said, "No way."[11]
Other songs, such as the "stone country" barroom lament "It Won’t Hurt" and the heartfelt ballad "South of Cincinnati," display Yoakam's remarkable depth and understanding of country songwriting and storytelling, with the latter putting "an interesting twist on the songwriter’s dual heritage in urban Ohio and rural Kentucky…one that evokes the palpable change that occurs below the Mason-Dixon line, ‘south of Cincinnati, down where the dogwood trees grow.’"[12] Larry Flick of Billboard magazine called "It Won't Hurt" a "classic hurtin' and drinkin' song convincingly sung."[13] The bluegrass-influenced "Miner’s Prayer" also looks to Kentucky, an acoustic number powered by dobro (courtesy of David Mansfield), flat-picked guitar, and Yoakam's singing of his grandfather and generations like him who lived and died in the mines of Kentucky, which AllMusic critic Thom Jurek describes as "Bill Monroe meets Ralph Stanley meets Bob Dylan."[9] (Yoakam would later record the song with Stanley.) The prideful "Bury Me," another Yoakam original, had been demoed in 1981 and was rerecorded as a duet with Lone Justice vocalist Maria McKee. Yoakam later told Rolling Stone the song was "basically a bluegrass in hiding."[14] "Twenty Years" tells the vindictive tale of Henry, a man whose life is ruined after the woman he crossed lies in a district court, framing him for a crime he did not commit. ("Tried to warn you, Henry, not to cross her/Tried to tell you about her vengeful ways...")
After signing with
The album was re-issued on October 17, 2006, complete with demos from 1981 and tracks recorded live at the Roxy Theatre on Los Angeles' Sunset Strip in 1986.
Reception
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [16] |
Three of the album's tracks reached the top 40 of the Hot Country Singles chart in 1986. Yoakam's first single, "Honky Tonk Man", peaked at number three. The follow-up was the title track, peaking at number four. His third single, "It Won't Hurt", made it to number 31. Yoakam was nominated for two Grammy awards in association with Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. and he won Top New Male Vocalist at the 1986 Academy of Country Music Awards.
Spin wrote, "These bouncy tunes are filled with images of men drinking whiskey and falling off barstools, of Jezebels ruining good-hearted lunks. It's unadulterated hayseed stuff, but with a sense of playfulness."[17] AllMusic called it, "An astonishing debut, Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. changed the face of country music single-handedly and remains one hell of a party record.[9]
Track listing
Original Oak EP (1984) track listing
All songs by Dwight Yoakam except as indicated. All arrangements by Pete Anderson & Dwight Yoakam.
Side one
- "It Won't Hurt" – 3:03
- "South of Cincinnati" – 4:54
- "I'll Be Gone" – 2:44
Side two
- "Twenty Years" – 2:40
- "June Carter, Merle Kilgore) – 3:13
- "Miner's Prayer" – 2:17
Original Reprise LP (1986) track listing
All songs by Dwight Yoakam except as indicated. All arrangements by Pete Anderson & Dwight Yoakam.
Side one
- "Honky Tonk Man" (Johnny Horton, Tillman Franks, Howard Hausey) – 2:48
- "It Won't Hurt" – 3:03
- "I'll Be Gone" – 2:44
- "South of Cincinnati" – 4:54
- "Bury Me" (duet with Maria McKee) – 3:19
Side two
- "Guitars, Cadillacs" – 3:02
- "Twenty Years" – 2:40
- "June Carter, Merle Kilgore) – 3:13
- "Miner's Prayer" – 2:17
- "Heartaches by the Number" (Harlan Howard) – 3:13
Reprise/Rhino 'Deluxe Edition' Reissue (2006) track listing
Disc 1
Original 1981 demos (tracks 1 – 10)
- "This Drinkin' Will Kill Me" (Demo)
- "It Won't Hurt" (Demo)
- "I'll Be Gone" (Demo)
- "Floyd County" (Demo)
- "You're The One" (Demo)
- "Twenty Years" (Demo)
- "Please Daddy" (Demo)
- "Miner's Prayer" (Demo)
- "I Sang Dixie" (Demo)
- "Bury Me" (Demo)
Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. (tracks 11 – 20)
- "Honky Tonk Man"
- "It Won't Hurt"
- "I'll Be Gone"
- "South Of Cincinnati"
- "Bury Me" (duet with Maria McKee)
- "Guitars, Cadillacs"
- "Twenty Years"
- "Ring of Fire"
- "Miner's Prayer"
- "Heartaches by the Number"
Disc 2
Live at the Roxy, Hollywood, California, March 1986
- "Can't You Hear Me Calling" (Live)
- "Honky Tonk Man" (Live)
- "Guitars, Cadillacs" (Live)
- "Rocky Road Blues" (Live)
- "Heartaches by the Number" (Live)
- "I'll Be Gone" (Live)
- "It Won't Hurt" (Live)
- "My Bucket's Got a Hole in It" (Live)
- "South of Cincinnati" (Live)
- "Mystery Train" (Live)
- "Ring of Fire" (Live)
- "Since I Started Drinking Again" (Live)
Personnel
- Dwight Yoakam – lead vocals, background vocals, acoustic guitar
- six-string bass guitar, background vocals
- Jay Dee Maness – pedal steel guitar
- Ed Black – lap steel guitar
- David Mansfield – dobro, mandolin
- JD Foster – bass guitar, background vocals
- Jeff Donavan – drums
- Brantley Kearns – fiddle, background vocals
- Gene Taylor – piano
- Glen Hardin – piano
- Herb Pedersen – background vocals
- Maria McKee – background vocals on "Bury Me"
- Antoinette Laumer Sales – Cover Art Designer
Charts
Weekly charts
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Year-end charts
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Certifications
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
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Australia (ARIA)[22] | Gold | 35,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
References
- ^ Millard, Drew (January 2013). "Interview – Dwight Yoakam Gave Me the History of Country Rock in Los Angeles". vice.com. Retrieved April 21, 2020.
- ^ Stephen Thomas Erlewine. "Dwight Yoakam". AllMusic.
- ^ McLeese 2012, p. 68-69.
- ^ McLeese 2012, p. 68-70.
- ^ McLeese 2012, p. 71.
- ^ McLeese 2012, p. 72.
- ^ a b McLeese 2012, p. 75.
- ^ "100 Greatest Country Songs of All Time". Rolling Stone. June 2014.
- ^ a b c d Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Los Lobos – Biography". AllMusic. Rovi Corporation. Retrieved April 1, 2012.
- ^ McLeese 2012, p. 13.
- ^ McLeese 2012, p. 75-76.
- ^ McLeese 2012, p. 73.
- Billboard, November 1, 1986
- ^ Murray, Nick (September 2016). "Dwight Yoakam on New Bluegrass Album, Prince and Musical Rebellion". rollingstone.com. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
- ^ Hodge, Will (August 2016). "Flashback: Dwight Yoakam Bridges Genres, Generations With Wild 'Guitars'". rollingstone.com. Retrieved April 22, 2020.
- AllMusic
- ^ Craig Tomashoff (July 1985). "Singles". Spin. No. 3. p. 34.
- ISBN 0-646-11917-6.
- ^ "Dwight Yoakam Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
- ^ "Dwight Yoakam Chart History (Top Country Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
- ^ "Top Country Albums – Year-End 1986". Billboard. 2 January 2013. Retrieved June 1, 2021.
- ^ "ARIA Charts – Accreditations – 1998 Albums" (PDF). Australian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved December 27, 2021.
- Bibliography
- McLeese, Don (2012). Dwight Yoakam: A Thousand Miles from Nowhere. University of Texas Press. ISBN 978-0292723818.