Personnel: Waylon Jennings (vocals, guitar, electric guitar); Waylon Jennings; Carter Robertson (vocals); Fred Carter, Fred Carter, Jr. (guitar); Don Brooks (harmonica); Clifford Robertson (keyboards); Sherman Hayes (bass instrument); Gordon Payne, Tony Joe White, Rance Wasson (vocals, guitar); Ralph Mooney (guitar, steel guitar); William Joor (guitar); Barny Robertson (keyboards); Ritchie Albright (drums).
Liner Note Author: Rich Kienzle.
Recording information: Jack Clement Studios, Nashville, TN (03/13/1973-05/??/1978); RCA Studios, Hollywood, CA (03/13/1973-05/??/1978).
Unknown Contributor Role: Stan Reece.
Though 1978's I'VE ALWAYS BEEN CRAZY was a major success for Waylon Jennings, the seams in his public image were beginning to show, with numerous songs casting aspersions on his own fame and outlaw reputation. Though Waylon had pioneered the Outlaw Country movement a few years earlier, and celebrated his rough-and-rowdy ways in song, the hard-living lot of a country superstar was taking a toll on him, and he was beginning to detail that process in a very personal way.
It would have been difficult to get more explicit about the issue than "Don't You Think This Outlaw Bit's Done Got Out of Hand," a sentiment reinforced by the title track's acknowledgement of Jennings's out-of-control lifestyle, and by "A Long Time Ago," which sums up his troubles with everything from love to drugs to the press. It's no coincidence that there's a higher percentage of self-penned tunes here than on many Waylon albums. If it weren't for the fact that he still sounded like a master of his mode, and was still hugely popular, I'VE ALWAYS BEEN CRAZY would have seemed like a eulogy for the Outlaw Country scene, but, in retrospect, that might be just what it is. minimize