HANK WILLIAMS, JR. - YOU'RE RUININ' MY LIFE

Once again, Wikipedia is good for a laugh. They seem to think that Hank Williams, Jr. spent the first ten years of his career imitating his dad. Really, Wikipedia? Have you LISTENED to those records? Yes, he RECORDED a lot of his father's songs, but he didn't really sound like Hank Sr. In fact, I actually prefer the early singles to the stuff Bocephus did later (when he became an "outlaw" country singer and a shill for Monday Night Football).

Hank Jr. seems to have been around forever, and there's a good reason - he got an incredibly early start, making his first records for MGM in late 1963 at age 14, and had his first hit in early 1964 with a remake of his dad's old hit "Long Gone Lonesome Blues". When listening to the record I'm blogging about today, remember that Hank Jr. was SIXTEEN YEARS OLD when he recorded it.

Sixteen. He already sounds 40 when he sings the opening line - "Down at work it's gettin' bad/It's gettin' kinda rough as a cob/My boss done told me/better get my mind back on my job". He probably WAS sixteen going on 40 at that point, with a domineering mother trying to push Hank Jr. into pale imitations of his father's music, without being able to assert himself legally and break away from the path his mother set him on (he finally got away from her in the early 1970s).

In any case, I just wanted to post this because it's a cool country number (written by John D. Loudermilk) with bluesy guitar licks and great drums. And no rowdy friends.

Hank Williams, Jr. - You're Ruinin' My Life (MGM 13392) - 1965