An EP culled from this album would be brilliant, and fans of Jones might want to put up with the mediocre cuts here just to enjoy some of the finer moments of the man's '80s recording career. The title track was the kind of mystical, self-serving necrophilia that country music is all about, powerful despite the fact that 20 years later, the same country singers who were fussing about disappearing from the scene are still going strong. The concept that they would leave shoes behind that need to be filled, regardless of whether they can or not, is an approach to ongoing musical history that is not always positive, so country fans might find that the two duets with female singers here bear up better to repeated listening than the hit record under discussion. The marvelous Lynn Anderson is on hand for "If You Can Touch Her at All," and really few can. Here is a truly classy country singer, who never wasted her time recording songs about how none of the younger singers are up to her level. If she did, she would have had to ignore the raunchy Lacy J. Dalton, who teams up with el maestro possumo for the lightweight but enjoyable "That's Good — That's Bad." Jones' ability to bond with Dalton is a good thing, and a full album of them together would probably be more fun than the lion's share of the dreary later Epic Jones catalog. Otherwise, like many Jones releases from this period, the material seems fairly insignificant, prompting the question of why he couldn't find better songwriting than this to record.
GEORGE JONES
WHO'S GONNA FILL THEIR SHOES
Epic FE-39598August/1985
Produced by Billy Sherrill
Recorded:Apr/1985, Columbia Recording Studio, Nashville
1.
WHO'S GONNA FILL THEIR SHOES
(Troy Seals - Max D. Barnes) « © '85 Tree Publishing, BMI / Two Sons Music, ASCAP / WB Music, ASCAP »You know this ol' world is full of singers but just a few are chosen
To tear your heart out when they sing
Imagine life without 'em all your radio heroes
Like the outlaw that walks through Jessie's dreams
No there'll never be another Red Headed Stranger
A Man In Black and Folsom Prison Blues
The Okie From Muskogee or Hello Darlin'
Lord I wonder who's gonna fill their shoes
Who's gonna fill their shoes who's gonna stand that tall
Who's gonna play the Opry and the Wabash Cannonball
Who's gonna give their heart and soul to get to me and you
Lord I wonder who's gonna fill their shoes
God bless the boys from Memphis Blue Suede Shoes and Elvis
Much too soon he left this world in tears
They tore up the fifties ol' Jerry Lee and Charlie
And Go Cat Go still echoes through the years
You know the heart of country music still beats in Luke The Drifter
You can feel it when he sang I Saw The Light
Ol' Marty Hank and Lefty why I can't feel 'em right here with me
On this Silver Eagle rolling through the night
Who's gonna fill their shoes who's gonna stand that tall...
Yes I wonder who's gonna fill their shoes
**********
2.
JUST WHEN
(Alan Rhody - Bill Caswell) « © '85 Tree Publishing, BMI / Black Sheep Music, BMI / Screen Gems Music, BMI »Just when I learned how to dance they changed the music
Just when I learned how to sing they changed the song
Just when I learned how to love they changed your minf babe
Just when I thought I'd found everything my everything was gone
Just when love felt so right I found I was wrong there
Just when I learned to trust he came along
Suddenly nothing I said made any difference
Just when I thought I'd found everything my everything was gone
You know that ol' lonesome world could buy it can sure make you cry
Oh and a love I thought would last ah it's just now a thing of the past
Just when love felt so right...
Just when I thought I'd found everything my everything was gone
**********
3.
ONE I LOVED BACK THEN (THE CORVETTE SONG)
(Gary Gentry) « © '85 Algee Music, BMI »I stopped off at the Qwiksak for some beer and cigarettes
The old man took my money as he stared at my Corvette
He said I had one just like her son in 1963
Till a man down at the bank took her from me
Oh she was hotter than a two dollar pistol she was the fastest thing around
Long and lean every young man's dream she turned every head in town
She was built and fun to handle son I'm glad that you dropped in
She reminds me of the one I loved back then
[ guitar ] Then I handed him my keys and said here take her for a spin
The old man scratched his head and then he looked at me and grinned
He said son you just don't understand it ain't the car I want
It's the brunette in your 'vette that turns me on
I had the one hotter than a two dollar pistol...
Lord she was hotter than a two dollar pistol...
She reminds me of the one I loved back then
**********
4.
IF I PAINTED A PICTURE
(Charles Browder - Leona Williams) « © '85 Noted Music, ASCAP / Leona Williams Music, BMI »If I paint a picture of all that I've seen
From the eyes of the woman in you
There'd be sunshine and roses blue skies and rainbows
A picture of a heart that's been true
You made me the flowers that bloom in the springtime
And showed that you hung the moon
If I could paint you a picture I'd paint how I feel about you
You blended my love into blue skies
And made me the man of your dremas
With sunshine and roses blue skies and rainbows
And beauty is all that I've seen
You wake me and kissed me in all of the scenery
That I nestled out in my mind
And if I could paint you a picture oh my love would color each line
Oh for you are the color and blended together
In the picture of my love for you
**********
5.
IF YOU COULD TOUCH HER AT ALL
(Lee Clayton) « © '74 Resaca Music, BMI »[ with Lynn Anderson ]
Funny a woman can come on so wild and free
Yet insist I don't watch her undress or watch her watch me
And stand by the bed and shiver as if she were cold
And just to lie down beside me and touch me as if i were gold
One night of love don't make up for six nights alone
But I'd rather have one than none Lord I'm flesh and bone
Though sometimes it seems she ain't worth the trouble at all
She could be worth the world if somehow you can touch her at all
[ steel ] But right or wrong a woman can own any man
She can take him inside her and hold his soul in her hand
Then leave him as weary and weak as a wet newborn child
Fightin' to get his first breath and open his eyes
One night of love don't make up for six nights alone...
One night of love don't make up for six nights alone...
**********
6.
SOMEBODY WANTS ME OUT OF THE WAY
(Arthur Leo Owens - Dennis Knutson) « © '85 Songs Of PolyGram, BMI / Frizzell Music, BMI/ Dixie Stars Music, ASCAP »Somebody keeps payin' my bar tab but the bartender won't tell me who
He gives me six cold ones to go when he closes and slips me a dollar or two
My woman is keeping me busy and I'm afraid to go ask her why
But the more I keep drinking the more I keep thinking
There's somebody new in her life
Somebody wants me out of the way
And I bet that I'll find out when I go home today
Here comes the waitress with a loaded down tray
Somebody wants me out of the way
Now my woman is under suspicion and all I can see in my mind
Is two cheatin' lovers who love under cover
And the cover they're under is mine
Somebody wants me out of the way...
Somebody wants me out of the way
**********
7.
WHOLE LOT OF TROUBLE FOR YOU
(George Jones - Dale Schultz) « © '85 Jones Country Music, BMI »**********
8.
IF ONLY YOU'D LOVE ME AGAIN
(Dennis Knutson - Eddie Burton) « © '85 Sixteen Stars Music, BMI / Jones Country Music, BMI »I kicked down the door in the middle of the night
And still you're right out of his bed
I'd do anything that I had to do
If only you'd love me again
I asked him to meet at the street at high noon
And I'd leave him to die in the sand
I should to kill I'd rob and steal
If only you'd love me again
I'd never swallow another drop from the bottle
I'd pour it off down the drain
I'd be the man that I should have been
If only you'd love me again
[ steel ] In my shining armor I'd ride to your resque
And fight till the dragon was slain
Then I'd be you hero instead this zero
If only you'd love me again
I'd be the man that I should have been
If only you'd love me again
**********
9.
CALL THE WRECKER FOR MY HEART
(Randy Haspel) « © '85 Sixteen Stars Music, BMI / Jones Country Music, BMI »They called the wrecker for my heart this time I think I need a jump start
And if she tore it up again she might just have to tow me in
They call the man up on the phone tell him I'm stranded and alone
Now I don't know how to start so call the wrecker for my heart
I'm on a highway in the dark because my ticker lost its spark
A brand new car drove her away she left me for a Chevrolet
She wrecked my box and stripped the gears it got to rough for me to cheer
And how my head began to ache when she told me to put on the brake
They called the wrecker for my heart...
[ guitar ] So get my heart a pullin' the wreck like some old worn out Pontiac
Adjust the valves and seal the leaks and get me back on the street
They called the wrecker for my heart...
**********
10.
THAT'S GOOD THAT'S BAD
(Michael Garvin - Ron Hellard) « © '85 Tree Publishing, BMI »[ with Lacy J. Dalton ]
Yes I'd still love you (that's good)
But I've got doubts about us (that's bad)
Still I don't know if it's in me to leave you (ah honey that's good)
It would be the worst break my heart ever had
We still have something (and it's good)
Though I feel we'd slipping (ah that's bad)
But I'll try like to devil to save it (ah that's good)
I'd sure miss that ol' feeling we had
We thought of this love to last
We're falling apart and that's sad
We've got to get it back together we're losing our love
That's good that's bad
We could go to the bedroom (that's good)
It's been too long since we've been there (honey that's bad)
We might break down this wall that's between us
And bring back the good love we had
We thought of this love to last...
**********
