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.
Pretty Little Lady From Beaumont Texas
George Jones Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
That she could give to me
It's not that if she married me
That I would be set free.
It's not that shes just barrels of fun
That makes me fall so hard
That pretty little lady from Beaumont, Texas
It's not because she could be
In a playboy centerfold
That makes me want to take her back
With here and her black gold.
It's not because she's barrels of fun
That my heart pumps so hard
For that pretty little lady from Beaumont, Texas
With the oil wells in her yard.
All that stock in Texas gold
Don't mean a thing to me
I buy my oil at K-Mart
I buy one and get one free.
I'd love her if she didn't have
Those paid up credit cards
That pretty little lady from Beaumont, Texas
With the oil wells in her yard.
It's not because she could be
In a playboy centerfold
That makes me want to take her back
With here and her black gold.
It's not because she's barrels of fun
That my heart pumps so hard
For that pretty little lady from Beaumont, Texas
With the oil wells in her yard.
That pretty little lady from Beaumont, Texas
With the oil wells in her yard
In "Pretty Little Lady From Beaumont Texas," George Jones sings about his love for a woman who has great wealth due to the oil wells in her yard. However, he makes it clear that it is not her money or possessions that draw him to her. He mentions that the blue Mercedes Benz she could offer him is not what he desires, nor does he seek to be set free by marrying her. Instead, it is her personality that has captured his heart. He speaks of her being barrels of fun, and how her being in a Playboy centerfold would not matter to him. He loves her for who she is, regardless of her wealth.
The repeated line "That pretty little lady from Beaumont, Texas with the oil wells in her yard" emphasizes his love for her and how it is not influenced by her money. He even goes so far as to mention that he could buy his oil at K-Mart and get one for free, reinforcing the idea that it is not her wealth that he desires.
This song is a commentary on love and the fact that it is not influenced by external factors such as money or possessions. It also highlights the importance of falling in love with a person for who they are, rather than what they can offer materially.
Line by Line Meaning
It's not that blue Mercedes Benz
That she could give to me
It's not that if she married me
That I would be set free.
The singer isn't interested in the material things she could provide him with or the idea of being set free through marriage.
It's not that shes just barrels of fun
That makes me fall so hard
That pretty little lady from Beaumont, Texas
With the oil well in her yard.
Her fun personality isn't the only reason the singer is attracted to her. He's also drawn to the fact that she has an oil well in her yard.
It's not because she could be
In a playboy centerfold
That makes me want to take her back
With here and her black gold.
The singer isn't interested in her beauty or the possibility of her being in Playboy. He wants her for her oil well.
It's not because she's barrels of fun
That my heart pumps so hard
For that pretty little lady from Beaumont, Texas
With the oil wells in her yard.
Once again, her fun personality isn't the only thing the singer is interested in. He's attracted to her because of her oil wells as well.
All that stock in Texas gold
Don't mean a thing to me
I buy my oil at K-Mart
I buy one and get one free.
The singer doesn't care about the stock in Texas gold because he buys his oil at K-Mart, where he gets a good deal.
I'd love her if she didn't have
Those paid up credit cards
That pretty little lady from Beaumont, Texas
With the oil wells in her yard.
Even if she didn't have paid up credit cards, the singer would still love her for her oil wells.
It's not because she could be
In a playboy centerfold
That makes me want to take her back
With here and her black gold.
Once again, the singer is emphasizing the fact that he's interested in her because of her oil well, not her potential to be in Playboy.
It's not because she's barrels of fun
That my heart pumps so hard
For that pretty little lady from Beaumont, Texas
With the oil wells in her yard.
The singer is once again emphasizing that he's attracted to her because of her oil wells, not just her fun personality.
That pretty little lady from Beaumont, Texas
With the oil wells in her yard
The singer is focusing on the woman's oil wells as being the main reason he's attracted to her.
Lyrics © JONES COUNTRY MUSIC CORP
Written by: ARTHUR LEO DOODLE OWENS, DENNIS KNUTSON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind