Born in Texas, Jones first heard country music when he was seven, and was given a guitar at the age of nine. He married his first wife, Dorothy Bonvillion, in 1950, and was divorced in 1951. He served in the United States Marine Corps and was discharged in 1953. He married Shirley Ann Corley in 1954. In 1959, Jones recorded "White Lightning", written by J. P. Richardson, which launched his career as a singer. His second marriage ended in divorce in 1968; he married fellow country music singer Tammy Wynette a year later. Years of alcoholism compromised his health and led to his missing many performances, earning him the nickname "No Show Jones". After his divorce from Wynette in 1975, Jones married his fourth wife, Nancy Sepulvado, in 1983 and became sober for good in 1999. Jones died in 2013, aged 81, from hypoxic respiratory failure.
George Jones has been called "The Rolls Royce Of Country Music" and had more than 160 chart singles to his name from 1955 until his death in 2013. Johnny Cash once said, "When people ask me who my favorite country singer is, I say, 'You mean besides George Jones?'"
Jones tirelessly defended the integrity of country music, telling Billboard in 2006, "It's never been for love of money. I thank God for it because it makes me a living. But I sing because I love it, not because of the dollar signs." Jones also went out of his way to promote younger country singers that he felt were as passionate about the music as he was. "Everybody knows he's a great singer," Alan Jackson stated in 1995, "but what I like most about George is that when you meet him, he is like some old guy that works down at the gas station...even though he's a legend!"
Shortly after Jones' death, Andrew Mueller wrote about his influence in Uncut, "He was one of the finest interpretive singers who ever lifted a microphone...There cannot be a single country songwriter of the last 50-odd years who has not wondered what it might be like to hear their words sung by that voice." In an article for The Texas Monthly in 1994, Nick Tosches eloquently described the singer's vocal style: "While he and his idol, Hank Williams, have both affected generations with a plaintive veracity of voice that has set them apart, Jones has an additional gift—a voice of exceptional range, natural elegance, and lucent tone. Gliding toward high tenor, plunging toward deep bass, the magisterial portamento of his onward-coursing baritone emits white-hot sparks and torrents of blue, investing his poison love songs with a tragic gravity and inflaming his celebrations of the honky-tonk ethos with the hellfire of abandon." In the New Republic essay "Why George Jones ranks with Frank Sinatra and Billie Holiday," David Hajdu writes:
"Jones had a handsome and strange voice. His singing was always partly about the appeal of the tones he produced, regardless of the meaning of the words. In this sense, Jones had something in common with singers of formal music and opera, though his means of vocal production were radically different from theirs. He sang from the back of his throat, rather than from deep in his diaphragm. He tightened his larynx to squeeze sound out. He clenched his jaw, instead of wriggling it free. He forced wind through his teeth, and the notes sounded weirdly beautiful."
David Cantwell recalled in 2013, "His approach to singing, he told me once, was to call up those memories and feelings of his own that most closely corresponded to those being felt by the character in whatever song he was performing. He was a kind of singing method actor, creating an illusion of the real." In the liner notes to Essential George Jones: The Spirit of Country Rich Kienzle states, "Jones sings of people and stories that are achingly human. He can turn a ballad into a catharsis by wringing every possible emotion from it, making it a primal, strangled cry of anguish". In 1994, country music historian Colin Escott pronounced, "Contemporary country music is virtually founded on reverence for George Jones. Walk through a room of country singers and conduct a quick poll, George nearly always tops it." In the wake of Jones's death, Merle Haggard pronounced in Rolling Stone, "His voice was like a Stradivarius violin: one of the greatest instruments ever made." Emmylou Harris wrote, "when you hear George Jones sing, you are hearing a man who takes a song and makes it a work of art - always," a quote that appeared on the sleeve of Jones' 1976 album The Battle. In the documentary Same Ole Me, several country music stars offer similar thoughts. Randy Travis: "It sounds like he's lived every minute of every word that he sings and there's very few people who can do that"; Tom T. Hall: "It was always Jones who got the message across just right"; and Roy Acuff: "I'd give anything if I could sing like George Jones". In the same film, producer Billy Sherrill states, "All I did was change the instrumentation around him. I don't think he's changed at all."
On June 25, 2019, The New York Times Magazine listed George Jones among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the 2008 Universal fire.
Cold Cold Heart
George Jones Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
That you're my every dream
Yet you're afraid each thing I do
Is just some evil scheme
A memory from your lonesome past
Keeps us so far apart
Why can't I free your doubtful mind
Another love before my time
Made your heart sad and blue
And so my heart is paying now
For things I didn't do
In anger, unkind words are said
That make the teardrops start
Why can't I free your doubtful mind
And melt your cold, cold heart?
You'll never know how much it hurts
To see you sit and cry
You know, you need and want my love
Yet you're afraid to try
Why do you run and hide from life?
To try it just ain't smart
Why can't I free your doubtful mind
And melt your cold, cold heart?
There was a time when I believed
That you belonged to me
But now I know your heart is shackled
To a memory
The more I learn to care for you
The more we drift apart
Why can't I free your doubtful mind
And melt your cold, cold heart?
" Cold Cold Heart" by George Jones is a ballad that describes the pain of unrequited love. The singer in the song had previously tried to prove their love and affection without success. Every gesture of love made by the singer is perceived by the recipient as an ulterior motive or as an evil plan. The recipient has a past that has not been resolved, and therefore, cannot open up to love or believe in it. The recipient's heart is cold and mistrustful, and no matter how hard the singer tries, they cannot melt it. The recipient's fear of love and rejection is so great that they cannot allow themselves to dive into the relationship that the singer is offering.
The second verse is especially poignant as the singer acknowledges that his lover's heart is still tormented by a past love that has left her blue and sad. In the process, the recipient's cold heart is paying for things that the singer never did. The third verse describes how unkind words spoken in anger can cause tears to start falling, leaving the singer wondering why he cannot break the past's bond and free the recipient's doubtful mind. In the final stanza, the singer expresses the pain of watching the tears fall while trying to understand why the recipient is afraid to try love. The song concludes with the singer's hope that he can free the recipient's doubtful mind and melt her cold heart.
Line by Line Meaning
I tried so hard, my dear, to show
That you're my every dream
Yet you're afraid each thing I do
Is just some evil scheme
I put in my maximum efforts to demonstrate that you're the only one I desire the most, however, you doubt each of my actions thinking that it might be a mischievous plan.
A memory from your lonesome past
Keeps us so far apart
Why can't I free your doubtful mind
And melt your cold, cold heart?
A recollection from your lonely history divides us, and you cannot get over it. Can't I convince you enough to ignore your doubts and warm up your emotions again?
Another love before my time
Made your heart sad and blue
And so my heart is paying now
For things I didn't do
You were earlier involved in a relationship that caused you misery and despair before I even existed in your life, but still, I am bearing the brunt of the past incidents that I didn't even commit.
In anger, unkind words are said
That make the teardrops start
Why can't I free your doubtful mind
And melt your cold, cold heart?
Our disagreement sometimes leads us to say bitter things to each other, which affects you emotionally. Can't I change your mind about me and fill it with my love instead of doubt?
You'll never know how much it hurts
To see you sit and cry
You know, you need and want my love
Yet you're afraid to try
Nothing hurts me more than seeing you cry, and I know that you crave my affection but hesitate to make an effort at trying again.
Why do you run and hide from life?
To try it just ain't smart
Why can't I free your doubtful mind
And melt your cold, cold heart?
Why do you avoid experiencing life to its fullest? It's not intelligent to be scared of it. Can't I help you alleviate your apprehensions and create an environment where you can trust me again?
There was a time when I believed
That you belonged to me
But now I know your heart is shackled
To a memory
Once upon a time, I felt like you were mine, but now I realize that your heart is chained to the memories of the past.
The more I learn to care for you
The more we drift apart
Why can't I free your doubtful mind
And melt your cold, cold heart?
Despite my growing affection for you, we're drifting apart. Why can't I break down the doubts you have about me and replace them with warmth and love again?
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, Royalty Network, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: Hank Williams, Sr.
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
GuriMalla2010
LYRICS:
You don't know who I am,
But I know all about you;
I've come to talk to you tonight,
About the things I've seen you do.
I've come to set the record straight,
I've come to shine the light on you;
Let me duce myself,
I am the cold hard truth.
There is a woman we both know,
I think you know the one I mean;
She gave her heart and soul to you,
You gave her only broken dreams.
You say you're not the one to blame,
For all the heartaches she's been through;
I say you're nothin' but a liar,
And I'm the cold hard truth.
All your life that's how it's been,
Looking out for number one;
Taking more than you leave,
Moving on when your done.
With her you could have had it all,
A family and lots of laughs;
If you had any sense at all,
You'd go and beg her to come back.
--- Instrumental ---
You think that you're a real man,
But you're nothing but a fool;
The way you run away from love,
The way you try to play it cool.
I gonna say this just one time,
Time is running out on you;
You best remember me my friend,
I am the cold hard truth.
You best remeber me my friend,
I am the cold hard truth...
GuriMalla2010
LYRICS:
You don't know who I am,
But I know all about you;
I've come to talk to you tonight,
About the things I've seen you do.
I've come to set the record straight,
I've come to shine the light on you;
Let me duce myself,
I am the cold hard truth.
There is a woman we both know,
I think you know the one I mean;
She gave her heart and soul to you,
You gave her only broken dreams.
You say you're not the one to blame,
For all the heartaches she's been through;
I say you're nothin' but a liar,
And I'm the cold hard truth.
All your life that's how it's been,
Looking out for number one;
Taking more than you leave,
Moving on when your done.
With her you could have had it all,
A family and lots of laughs;
If you had any sense at all,
You'd go and beg her to come back.
--- Instrumental ---
You think that you're a real man,
But you're nothing but a fool;
The way you run away from love,
The way you try to play it cool.
I gonna say this just one time,
Time is running out on you;
You best remember me my friend,
I am the cold hard truth.
You best remeber me my friend,
I am the cold hard truth...
Angel Fire
Another great song by The Possum
At four O thirty three
I think if Hank Williams Sr could hear this it'd knock him right off his feet. He would sure did make him proud.
Lois Dargan
Totally agree,Hank would be proud of George doing a great job singing his song.
At four O thirty three
George Jones is one of the very few singers (less than a handful) with a tear in his voice that could give you goosebumps.
Terrence Daugherty
George Jones' singing transcended country music, in the same way Ray Charles put his stamp on every genre he touched. His completely original phrasing, the rich tone that was his birthright, and that little something he would add right at the end of each note that registers like a bonus point. He was a laid-back, humble genius who, speaking for myself, can only be listened to with awe.
Sandi Clark
Wow, gives me chills, he sings this song so well. Nobody like Posseum!!!!
Michael Stanhope
I’ve been a fan of the Possum for over 20 years and he still knocks my socks off!
lilli stern
Gives me chills..............George we love and miss you so much. No one can ever sing country like you, they broke the mold. RIP dearest Mr. Jones. People who love REAL country never knew how much they would miss you until you left us.
Michael Stanhope
Late 70s and 80s and early 90s George’s voice was golden. Deep and rich!