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.
Out Of Control
George Jones Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Who sits and keep drinking with his thoughts strayed so far
It's the same old sad story that has often been told
One drink then another till he's out of control
As he sits at a table with his hands on the glass
For him there's no future there's only the past
He reaches for the bottle but his hands don't take hold
Does he search for contentment that he might hope to find
From a honky tonk woman or the bottles of wine
He shakes and he trembles even though he's not old
Like a leaf in a whirlwind he's out of control
Yes I'm just like that fellow who sits there all alone
With no one to love me no family at home
I'm a picture of others with a future so cold
A life ain't worth livin' when it's out of control
The lyrics of George Jones's "Out of Control" explore the theme of addiction, as told from the perspective of a man who finds himself spiraling out of control as he drinks alone in a bar. The singer observes another man sitting alone at a table, drinking and consumed by his own thoughts. The lyrics suggest that this man has lost all control over his life, drowning in his own sadness and loneliness. Every sip of alcohol only causes him to sink deeper into despair. He oscillates between a search for contentment in love and alcohol and self-loathing and regret.
The singer then takes a turn and talks about how he sees himself in this man's shoes. He too has no one to love him or go back to, and is consumed by the same sadness, thoughts, and addiction that he has witnessed in the other man. The song closes with the singer's assertion that such a life is not worth living, when one feels out of control and has lost direction.
This song is a somber reflection on addiction and its emotional toll. It highlights the devastating effects of addiction on mental health, social relationships, and overall quality of life. Addiction is an affliction that can impact anyone, regardless of their social status, educational background or ethnicity.
Line by Line Meaning
What goes wrong with the mind of a man in a bar
What happens to a man's mind when he's sitting in a bar
Who sits and keep drinking with his thoughts strayed so far
He keeps drinking as his thoughts wander aimlessly
It's the same old sad story that has often been told
This is a common story that has been told many times before
One drink then another till he's out of control
He drinks one after another until he loses control
As he sits at a table with his hands on the glass
He sits at a table with his hands on the glass
For him there's no future there's only the past
He doesn't see a future, only the past
He reaches for the bottle but his hands don't take hold
He tries to grab the bottle but his hands are shaking too much
His eyes just can't focus he's out of control
He can't focus his eyes because he's lost control
Does he search for contentment that he might hope to find
Is he looking for happiness that he hopes to find
From a honky tonk woman or the bottles of wine
From a woman at the bar or from drinking wine
He shakes and he trembles even though he's not old
He's shaking and trembling even though he's not old
Like a leaf in a whirlwind he's out of control
He's like a leaf in a whirlwind - completely out of control
Yes I'm just like that fellow who sits there all alone
The singer relates to the man sitting alone
With no one to love me no family at home
He has no one to love him and no family to go home to
I'm a picture of others with a future so cold
He represents others who have a bleak future
A life ain't worth livin' when it's out of control
A life is not worth living when it's completely out of control
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, GLAD MUSIC CO., Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: DARRELL EDWARDS, GEORGE JONES, HERBY TREECE
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
IIFIREX
Just when you think “ I know every George Jones song “ there is another better than the last.
Bud Bundy
Oh my god this song is pure country gold. True country at its very best. Beautiful
Oliver P. Hviid
George Jones is the greatest country singer of all time - his music always conveys real genuine emotion; I wish they'd play real country on the radio today... anyway, what's your favorite George Jones song? Just curious. Have a good night everyone.
dangervich
Too many to choose from. I will tell you what song I was listening to that got me hooked on GJ. It was "She's Lonesome Again." I listened to it over and over. I couldn't believe a guy could bend his voice like that. That's when I started listening. "I Can Still See Him In Your Eyes" is a song going through my head a lot for some reason these days though it's not a favorite. There are way too many great performances to choose from. It still took a long time to really hear the emotion and sometimes I'm listening and break through to a whole new level of hearing.
Oliver P. Hviid
@dangervich Thanks for your reply. "She's Lonesome Again" is one of my favourites too; it's a great song, and as you mentioned, George truly has so many amazing songs - I don't think I've ever heard a song from him that I didn't like. Also, he has such a broad range of songs: from slow, sad songs that really bring out your emotions like "A Place in the Country", "Wild Irish Rose" and so on, but on the other hand, he also has a large amount of faster songs such as "Revenooer Man", "Who Shot Sam" and many more; he could really sing any song and make it sound beautiful. Anyway, thanks for uploading these videos. It would be a disaster to let his songs be forgotten, and having them easily available on Youtube is a good way to preserve them online I'd say.
Fyodoy Kowalski
Excellent song that conveys in raw, simple terms the ugliness of alcoholism
Laura Bradshaw
The greatest that ever was and ever will be love you george!
JMacque
GJ is my all time country music singer.
stan hurlbert
I love this song,
Cattlerest country
Great song Thanks for the memories!