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.
My Baby's Gone
George Jones Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Don't let the moonlight shine across the lonely hill
Dry all the raindrops then hold back the sun
My world has ended, my baby's gone
The milkman whistles softly as he comes up to my door
The mailman brings a letter just like he did before
They seem so busy all day long as though there's nothing wrong
Hold back the rushing minutes, make the wind lie still
Don't let the moonlight shine across the lonely hill
Dry all the raindrops then hold back the sun
My world has ended, my baby's gone
I wake up sometimes in the night and realize you're gone
And then I toss upon my bed and wait for day to come
I tried to tell my lonely heart it must go on alone
But it cries the world has ended, my baby's gone
Hold back the rushing minutes, make the wind lie still
Don't let the moonlight shine across the lonely hill
Dry all the raindrops then hold back the sun
My world has ended, my baby's gone
My world has ended, my baby's gone
The lyrics of George Jones's song "My Baby's Gone" are a poignant reflection of the pain of losing a loved one. The singer pleads with time and the elements to stop their unstoppable march forward and allow him to hold onto his lost love a little longer. The first verse sets the scene of a bleak and lonely landscape, with the wind and rain adding to the singer's sense of loss. The second verse observes the mundane tasks of everyday life going on uninterrupted, in contrast to the singer's shattered world. The final verse illustrates the agony of the singer's grief, as he struggles to accept that his heart must go on alone, despite feeling as though his world has ended.
Overall, the lyrics are a powerful and emotional portrayal of the human experience of heartbreak and loss. They tap into universal feelings of grief and longing, creating a bittersweet reminder of the fragility of love and the preciousness of the time we have with those we hold dear.
Line by Line Meaning
Hold back the rushing minutes, make the wind lie still
Slow down time and bring calmness to the surroundings
Don't let the moonlight shine across the lonely hill
Remove any symbol of hope and brightness
Dry all the raindrops then hold back the sun
Take away any sign of life or growth, and halt the passage of time
My world has ended, my baby's gone
I am devastated by the loss of my loved one, and my life will never be the same again
The milkman whistles softly as he comes up to my door
Despite my grief, the world around me goes on as if nothing has changed
The mailman brings a letter just like he did before
Life continues on, even though my world has come crashing down
They seem so busy all day long as though there's nothing wrong
Everyone else goes about their day as usual, unaware of my pain
I wake up sometimes in the night and realize you're gone
I am haunted by the reality of my loss
And then I toss upon my bed and wait for day to come
I can't escape my pain and must endure each moment as it passes
I tried to tell my lonely heart it must go on alone
I try to convince myself to move forward without my loved one, but it feels impossible
But it cries the world has ended, my baby's gone
My heart is broken, and my grief is all-consuming
My world has ended, my baby's gone
The loss of my loved one has brought my world crashing down, and I am unable to move forward
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, BMG Rights Management
Written by: HAZEL MARIE HOUSER
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind