"Jackson" by Billy Edd Wheeler

 

ARTIST: Billy Edd Wheeler, Johnny Cash and June Carter, and many others
SONG: "Jackson"
WRITERS: Billy Edd Wheeler, Jerry Leiber
ALBUM: A New Bag of Songs on Kapp Records
YEAR: 1963
SITE: Billy Edd Wheeler
BUY: Country Essentials - Billy Edd Wheeler and Carryin' On With Johnny Cash & June Carter - Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash

This song needs no introduction, but it sure as hell deserves our attention. It was a privilege to talk to the writer who has brought us so many great musical works, but this one in particular that transcends genre and time frame. Without further ado, here is my conversation with Billy Edd Wheeler about "Jackson."  

BA: Hello, Mr. Wheeler!  What a thrill it is to have you in the series. Thank you for giving me a bit of your time.

BEW: Glad to do it.

BA: You wrote one of the most iconic songs to hit the airwaves in the last fifty years. Did you ever imagine that "Jackson" would be so widely lauded?

BEW: No, of course not. Even with superstars, you never know what will be enduring.

BA: In my research, I read about the process you went through in shaping the song’s arc. Would you mind telling me a bit about your original draft, and how your friend Jerry Leiber contributed to it?

BEW: I was working on this in Jerry’s Broadway office, and his first response to the song was that the first verses sucked . . . though, that was not a term in vogue back then. He said, "Throw them away and start with your fourth verse, 'We got married in a fever hotter than a pepper sprout.' Then write some better verses, and end the song with that same opening verse." So I did. As I remember, he did not contribute any actual lyrics. His contribution was editorial, which was important, and it led to a better song. For this, he took 25% of the writer’s share. Jerry was a quick study. When I was writing “High Flyin’ Bird,” I had a line that went, “Lord look at me here, tired as can be here." Jerry said, “Rooted like a tree here,” instantaneously, as he passed by. It was a great line, and it improved the song, and he didn’t take any credit for it.

BA: Now, you tracked this song for your own album, A Big Bag of Songs, with Joan Sommer singing the female character's part in 1963. Did you do so with the intention of having anyone else pick it up - like Johnny Cash and June Carter - or were you merely putting a song on a record?

BEW: I was merely putting a song on a record. But the album was not A Big Bag of Songs, it was A New Bag of Songs, Kapp KL, 1351 1963. A Big Bag of Songs was issued by David Thrussel, head of The Omni Recording Corporation, down in Australia just a few years ago.  David is not an honorable man. He promised me a flat fee of $1,000.00, which was never paid. He was also supposed to pay Roger Deitz, a contributing columnist for Sing Out! Magazine, a fee for writing the liner notes. I was so impressed with Roger’s notes, I advanced him the fee, confident I would be reimbursed by David. It never happened. But it’s a nice package of twenty-eight songs, taken from various Kapp albums, plus tracks from albums first issued by RCA and United Artists. So, what the hell. Am I going Down Under to try and collect a couple thousand bucks? Not. And, by the way, A New Bag of Songs did not do well. But soon after its release, I had a minor hit single with “Ode to the Little Brown Shack Out Back,” (#2 Country and #50 Pop on Billboard’s Hot 100 in 1965). So, the album was re-packaged and released as: Memories of America/Ode to the Little Brown Shack Out Back.

BA: Ah. My apologies for the mix-up. The albums got a bit confusing to me, and now I understand why. 

Your recording of “Jackson” has the following words in the first verse that the woman sings alone:
“Well you go on my sweet daddy
Go ahead and wreck your health
Play your hand like a lover man
Make a big fool of yourself”

By the time the song was recorded by Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood, as well as Johnny and June (both in 1967), the words had changed some:
“Well, go on down to Jackson
Go ahead and wreck your health
Go play your hand you big-talkin' man
Make a big fool of yourself”

Did you have a hand in those changes?

BEW: No, but I like those changes. Songs often get changed as different artists do them, often for the better. I don’t mind minor changes. I like it when artists make the song their own. But in the case of my song, “High Flyin’ Bird,” Richie Havens changes the story line, and it doesn’t make sense. Instead of: 
“I used to have an old man, and he worked in the mine 
He never saw the sunlight but, oh Lord, he kept on trying” 

Richie sings: 
“Well I had me a woman, and she lived down by the mine 
She never saw the sunlight, but she kept on trying” 

Go figure.

BA: I can't think of a song that's been recorded by such a diverse array of musicians. Everyone from Miss Piggy to INXS has taken a whack at it. Do you have a favorite cover?

BEW: Charlie Daniels and Gretchen Wilson do a great version of it, on his album, Deuces. And he sets the record straight during their banter during the fade at the end. He says: 
“I ain’t talking ‘bout Jackson, Mississippi,
I’m talking about Jackson, Tennessee.” 

Actually, I didn’t have a specific Jackson in mind. I just liked the sharp consonant sound, as opposed to soft-sounding words like Nashville.

BA: I'd love to hear about this song's conceptual origins . . . did you really write it after reading the script for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

BEW: Yes. The way that couple dig at each other becomes mean spirited and nasty, even tragic, in Albee’s play. But it’s natural for couples, married or not, to spar good-naturedly. Otherwise, life would be boring. In “Jackson,” the couple fusses back and forth, but there are subtle touches that let you know they are still in love. For instance, she says, “Go on to Jackson, but comb your hair.” Here they are trying to one-up each other, and in the midst of it she’s wanting him to look good when he runs off to town to kick up his heels. I thought immediately of making it a duet, though I’ve read comments by Jerry Leiber that he did not want it to be a duet. I don’t remember any such conversation. Just think about it. How could it be anything but a duet? In Bob Dylan’s “Boots of Spanish Leather,” he sings the man’s lyric and answers with the woman’s reply. And you know who’s speaking. A beautiful song. But I think that would not work so well with “Jackson.”

BA: Do you feel like your own playwright side shows through in this writing, given that you set such a believable stage for these two characters to exist within?

BEW: Probably. I’ve written a lot of story songs, like “Rev. Mr. Black,” and “Long Arm of the Law,” that have strong characters in them. They would lend themselves as good fodder for plays or novels.

BA: What musicians were you a fan of back when you wrote "Jackson"?

BEW: Chet Atkins is at the top of the list. And of course, Johnny & June. But I was a fan of a large variety of pickers and singers back then. Barbara Streisand, Righteous Brothers, Flatt & Scruggs, Duane Eddy, The Kingston Trio, Loretta Lynn, Charlie Pride, etc.

BA: There is no question that this song has a huge place in music history–but I’m curious–do you feel like if you released this song today for the first time, that it would have such an impact? I’d like to hear your thoughts on the industry now, as compared to then, and how you think this work fits into it.

BEW: If Keith Urban and Taylor Swift did it with a hot track, sure, it would be a hit in my opinion. It’s snappy and hip enough. How could it miss? But most of my other songs . . . no way. My story songs of old could not make it today. They take too long in developing. Today, songs deal in sound bytes. Set up a short verse and get to the pay-off, the hook, as quickly as possible. Looking back, if Johnny and June had not done it, or a duet by stars like Elvis and Petula Clark, I don’t think it would have become a standard. Country today is rock and roll. BTW: Florence & the Machine did a duet of “Jackson” recently, with Josh Homme, frontman for Queens of the Stone Age, and they did it differently from anyone else . . . starting it out slowly, a capella, and ending it almost mournfully, singing, “Ever since the fire went out . . . ever since the fire went out . . ." lower and lower in volume, adding a thoughtful dimension to it.

BA: What’s your favorite song right this minute?

BEW: I’ve been so busy painting pictures and finishing a Broadway-styled children’s musical, I haven’t listened to the radio much. Fairly recently, I liked the song where she says, “Are you gonna kiss me, or not? Are we gonna do this or what?” Couple years ago Zac Brown knocked me out with his “Toes.” Great opening lines. But the song is deeper than “Got my toes in the water, ass in the sand . . .” and it’s really well written . . . the need to get away from concrete cities and the grind, and it has a terrific refrain.

BA: Thanks again, Sir. It has been an absolute pleasure to speak with you about your music.

BEW: My pleasure. I tend to ramble, but I like to set the record straight.

"Tokyo Girl" by Val McCallum

ARTIST: Val McCallum
SONG: "Tokyo Girl"
WRITERS: Val McCallum, Dillon O'Brian
ALBUM: At the End of the Day
YEAR: 2012
SITE: Val McCallum
BUY: At the End of the Day - Val McCallum

I just heard Val McCallum for the first time about a month ago. I went out to the Ryman Auditorium here in Nashville to see Jackson Browne play, and initially witnessed Val as Jackson's electric guitar player. About halfway through the show, Jackson stepped aside and Val took center stage with a stunning song of his own, "Tokyo Girl," for which he was joined by Jackson and Sara Watkins on harmonies. It was a dreamy performance that made me curious about the rest of his work. I met him later that night and he graciously gave me copy of his brand new solo album, which features the song he played live. In addition to being a part of the very cool L.A. Country/rock outfit, Jackshit, and an artful contributor to others' work, Val McCallum is a soulful singer and songwriter. I'm so glad to have recently made his acquaintance.

BA: Hi Val! Thanks for giving me some of your time.

VM: My pleasure.

BA: Congratulations on the new album, At the End of the Day. Let's talk about the second track, "Tokyo Girl." When I met you a few weeks ago, you told me that this song was a true story about meeting your wife. Will you elaborate on that?

VM: Yes, The song is based on how I met Shelli, my wife, in a bar in Tokyo back in 1990. I was on tour with Wilson Phillips and she was working as a model. I was in a bad way having just lost my mother to cancer and my brother to drug abuse in a six month period and she was dealing with some very heavy family issues herself. We were just so comfortable together right from the get-go. It felt like we had found each other.

BA: I personally favor songs that are about specific people and instances, and this work gives so much detail to that end. I had to look up the reference you make in the first verse, about the Lexington Queen. What was that place like back then?

VM: The Lexington Queen had the feel of an 80's era Beverly Hills night club. It was dark with mirrors and couches surrounding a dance floor. Myself and a few friends were the first to arrive that night, but it wasn't long before the place started filling up with lovely young models from all around the world, dancing and drinking. It was quite the scene. I think I even danced, which is never a great idea, but it didn't seem to scare off Shelli . . . and here we are twenty two years later.

BA: I see that this is a co-write with Dillon O'Brian. High-five for getting such an intimate song out of a collaboration; that's not always an easy thing. How did it come together?

VM : I've known Dillon for a long time now. He's a great songwriter and a hell of a musician . . . writing a song with Dillon is always fun because he's such a strong lyricist. He likes to work early in the morning, so we usually meet at a golf course coffee shop and just shoot the shit over breakfast, and before you know it we've got an interesting concept to work with. Then we hit the first tee and by the eighteenth green, Dillon's usually got the better part of a lyric worked out.

With "Tokyo Girl," I had the tune and subject matter pretty well figured out. My wife and I had this nasty fight one evening and in a fit of passive aggressive behavior, I went out to my studio and wrote the tune. Dillon came over later and we reworked the lyric into what it is now.

BA: There is a lovely voice next to yours throughout the entire song. Tell me about who you're singing with. And, who is the third voice on the choruses - Jackson Browne?

VM: The female voice you hear on the record is Z Berg, the daughter of my friend and producer, Tony Berg. Z is a very talented singer/songwriter. She has great background part ideas and works really well with her dad. I love the airy quality in her voice. I like to call her "The Wind Machine." She's in a great band called JJAMZ.

Yes, that is Jackson singing the third part. He came in and sang beautifully on three songs. He really put his heart into the session. He's a great friend.

BA: Did you track your vocals together? I ask because there is a rather magical moment in the second chorus where the voices quiver with sentiment at exactly the same time, on the line:
"In her eyes of green, my blue world changed . . ."

VM: No, I recorded all of the songs by myself live on acoustic guitar then overdubbed everything else.

BA: As Jackson lovingly pointed out when he introduced this song on stage, you keep the guitar playing to a very simple minimum. I'd love to know more about that decision, given your obvious talents on the instrument.

VM : Initially I wasn't worried about how to approach the guitar. The problem was how to get good vocal performances and be believable as a singer. It was Tony who suggested after hearing me play the songs in his living room with just an acoustic, that we track the songs in that stripped-down style. Live guitar and vocal with no click track. So that's just what we did.

I used a 59 Martin D-28 with flat wound strings on all but one song. The combination of that really humble guitar sound and the sparse arrangements make for an inviting sounding record, I think.

BA: Along that same thought, what instrument is playing the lead melody? It has such a sparkly tone, like the harpsichord of guitars.

VM: It's a Greek bouzouki that I found in Hamburg.

BA: How old is this song, and who were you listening to when you wrote it?

VM: The song is about four years old. I remember being into David Crosby's "If I Could Only Remember My Name" around that time.

BA: What’s your favorite song right this minute?

VM : Bill Withers' "Lean On Me" is perfection.

BA: Thanks again, Val. And I wish you all the best with the record.

VM: My pleasure.