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.
Sweet Dreams
George Jones Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Every night I go through
Why cant I forget you and start my life anew
Instead of having sweet dreams about you.
You dont love me its plain
I should know you'll never wear my ring
I should hate you the whole night through
--- Instrumental ---
Sweet dreams of you
Things I know can't come true
Why cant I forget you and start my life anew
Instead of having sweet dreams about you...
In the song "Sweet Dreams" by George Jones, the singer talks about how every night he has sweet dreams of his ex-lover, whom he cannot seem to forget. He is aware that she does not love him and even declares that he should hate her instead of dreaming fondly of her. The lyrics reveal that the pain of heartbreak is still fresh for the singer, and he struggles to move on from his past relationship. Despite knowing that his desires are unattainable, he continues to dream of his lost love.
The tone of the song is melancholic and reflective, with the singer acknowledging that he needs to move on and start a new life. However, his heart seems to have a different plan, as he continues to have sweet dreams about the one who broke his heart. The instrumental part of the song provides a momentary interlude, where the singer seems to be lost in his thoughts.
Overall, "Sweet Dreams" is a poignant song about the struggles of letting go and moving on from a lost love. It captures the essence of heartbreak, where the pain is vivid and difficult to shake off.
Line by Line Meaning
Sweet dreams of you
I dream of you every night
Every night I go through
Every night I experience this feeling
Why cant I forget you and start my life anew
I want to forget about you and move on with my life
Instead of having sweet dreams about you.
Instead of dreaming of you every night.
You dont love me its plain
It's clear that you don't love me
I should know you'll never wear my ring
I understand that you'll never be my partner and wear my engagement ring
I should hate you the whole night through
I should feel hatred towards you all night long
Instead of having sweet dreams about you.
Instead of dreaming sweet thoughts about you
Sweet dreams of you
I dream about you every night
Things I know can't come true
I know that certain things with you can't happen
Why cant I forget you and start my life anew
Why am I still fixated on you and not moving on?
Instead of having sweet dreams about you.
Instead of these constant dreams about you.
Contributed by Sebastian A. Suggest a correction in the comments below.
Mark Helsen
Goosebumps. Probably the second best version of this song.