In establishing the mammoth “Cocaine & Rhinestones: A Historical past of George Jones and Tammy Wynette,” writer and Nashville gadabout Tyler Mahan Coe has successfully Voltroned collectively three separate books.
At it is core, the guide particulars the weird, romantic, heartbreaking and gawkable trainwreck that was the separate ascendencies and eventual catastrophic relationship between nation music superlatives George Jones and Tammy Wynette. Saddlebagging this near-murder ballad is an extremely in-depth and engaging recounting of the Nashville music recording business in the midst of the previous century. If that weren’t sufficient, every chapter begins with a deep dive right into a collection of seemingly-unrelated however damned-if-it-doesn’t-all-tie-together essays on a variety of subjects which might be so extensive, they virtually appear as if they have been pulled out of a hat. Nearly.
Cocaine & Rhinestones crept onto the scene as a podcast in 2017, collated and narrated by Nashville insider Tyler Mahan Coe whose laconic drawl belied an insightful and biting view into the historical past of nation music. As Coe states in his podcast introduction, “I’ve heard these tales my entire life. So far as I can inform, this is the reality about this one” and because the son of true outlaw nation singer David Allan Coe Tyler is aware of his stuff. His social media presence hosts a photograph of him taking part in a pinball machine in a seedy bar in his birthday go well with earlier than he was sufficiently old to enter kindergarten. Did Waylon Jennings personal this pin machine? Perhaps Johnny Paycheck? Both means, Coe paid his dues being inside ‘the room the place it occurs’ deering the rise and fall of the Outlaw Nation increase.
Hilariously and infuriatingly, Coe co-hosts one other podcast referred to as “Your Favourite Band Sucks” whereby they shit-talk bands like The Beatles, Phish, Oasis, Wilco, Taylor Swift, AC/DC in addition to ideas like Ticketmaster, Christmas Music and a current four-part phase on Eminem. Whereas Cocaine & Rhinestones is meticulously researched, cross-referenced and footnoted, YFBS simply rolls and trolls with no actual malice or sense of actuality (however dammit if it is not enjoyable to tear down yr idols).
All of this prefaces the concept that Coe is aware of his historical past, embraces this historical past, honors the historical past of nation music, but in addition is not afraid to throw the primary dinner roll to start out the meals struggle.
Season one of many podcast Cocaine & Rhinestones spent every episode detailing the unbelievable life tales of artists like Ernest Tubb, Loretta Lynn,
the Louvin Brothers, and the borderline torture porn recounting of the lifetime of Spade Cooley. Every episode detailed the ins and outs of the music business; how merciless it might be for performers and the way profitable it might be for the label heads and svengali-like managers. From this base, season two of the podcast languished over the legacies and confounding mis-steps of Jones and Wynette.
The ~500 web page guide based mostly off of this second season recounts the ingesting and drugging, adultery and skulduggery, the flailing makes an attempt of two damaged folks to attempt to manipulate and commiserate one another to fill the voids of their lives but in addition climb on prime of one another with the intention to keep alive within the Nashville machine. At instances it virtually appears as if every of them have been drowning and each swam out to rescue the opposite solely to search out that their companion was climbing on prime of them, waving to be rescued whereas concurrently swamping the one they liked. Spoiler alert: It would not finish effectively, however that does not imply that the guide would not supply a blow-by-blow account of the hovering highs and crushing lows that these two sensible, damaged mega-stars endured and inflicted upon themselves.
The Jones/Wynette ‘Dynasty-via-Recreation Of Thrones’ saga makes up the skeletal system of the guide, however alongside that could be a very footnote-able and obsessive degree of element concerning the creation of “The Nashville Sound.” (Anybody with a ‘Chet Atkins Fan Membership’ membership card of their pockets might wish to shut the guide now), in addition to a loving tribute to the undersung musical architect Owen Bradley and the in-the-trenches of us like Billy Sherrill,
Don Pierce, Pappy Every day, and numerous different business insiders who helped to create the sound of nation music within the Fifties, ’60s, and ’70s.
Extremely, there’s a third guide nestled in between the grooves like a psychedelic gimmick on an previous LP, whereby Coe places collectively a thesis-level dissertation on such disparate subjects as ice cream, jukeboxes, the manufacture of moonshine, and (for some motive) bullfighting. Affected person readers are rewarded by being granted the knowledge that the pinball machine begat the jukebox, and when jukebox producers realized that they may tip the scales by placing their very own information within the regional machines (and maintaining a lower of the publishing), their revenues would enhance (therefore the start of regional file labels). Equally, a chapter about trendy refrigeration appears misplaced in a historical past of nation music till it’s revealed that the arrival of residence fridges shifted the existence of ice cream from a real novelty to one thing that might be had within the residence, which mirrors the ascendancy of the file business.
Maybe essentially the most drawn-out however finally rewarding Wikipedia-scented sections of each the guide and the podcast revolve across the historical past of bullfighting (and as somebody who was in on the bottom flooring of Season Two of the Cocaine & Rhinestones podcast,
At instances it virtually appears as if every of them have been drowning and each swam out to rescue the opposite solely to search out that their companion was climbing on prime of them, waving for rescue whereas concurrently swamping the one they liked.
I can inform you that individuals misplaced their shit when Coe would commit the primary 10 minutes of the printed speaking about Spanish bullfighting from the Center Ages and Juan Belmonte: Killer of Bulls), however this deep dive finally ends up resolving in a way that—”DUH!”—head-slappingly illustrates the state of nation music vogue from the ’40s by at this time, the patronage of the ruling class and the way that pertains to the music business, and a dozen different threads that each one tie collectively.
If this three-headed Hydra of a narrative construction sounds daunting, it is usually a enjoyable and entertaining learn. Beneath is a (partial) listing of the names and subjects listed within the index in the back of the guide:
• All My Kids
• All Issues Should Go
• amphetamines (see velocity)
• Beverly Hills 90210
• Bowie, David
• burlesque reveals
• Cato the Elder
• CBGB
• Cleopatra
• D-I-V-O-R-C-E (the album) and “D-I-V-O-R-C-E” (the track)
• George Jones Chuck Wagon restaurant
• G-strings (clothes)
• Gully Jumpers
• Harpocrates AND the harpsichord
• Pleasure of Cooking, The
• Kilmister, Lemmy
• KKK AND The KLF
• Three separate Mèdicis
• Nashville (town AND the Robert Altman movie)
• Payola
• Pet Sounds
• Possum Hollar
• Riefenstahl, Leni
• Ru-Paul’s Drag Race
• Scotty Turner, Tina Turner, Titus Turner, and Zeb Turner
• Voguing
• Wagoner, Porter (Jones’ rest room encounter with)
• A number of Wilsons (together with Brian, Dennis, Norro, and Woodrow)
If no different metric is required, this guide a few historical past of a time in nation music footnotes “Drug Use” 31 instances and the “Grammy Awards” solely 7 instances. This actual world perspective towards the best way music was written, recorded, and distributed solely establishes the “bandaid-off” strategy of the guide. Pulling no punches, calling out unreliable narrators in reference supplies, and lovingly embracing the instances when all the pieces got here collectively improbably completely, Cocaine & Rhinestones is an expertly advised love story, a reference materials, a philosophical train, and a cautionary story.
“Cocaine & Rhinestones: A Historical past of George Jones and Tammy Wynette” will be discovered on the Cocaine & Rhinestones web site.
