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.
The Window Up Above
George Jones Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Of life that I love so
But I can see the clouds are gathering
And the storm will wreck our home
For last night he held you tightly
And you didn't even shove
This is true for I've been watching (watching you)
You must have thought that I was sleeping
And I wish that I had been
But it's guess to get to know you
And the way your heart can sin
I thought we belonged together
And our hearts fit like a glove
But I was wrong for I've been watching (watching you)
From the window up above
From my eyes the teardrops started
As I listened on and on
I heard you whisper to him softly
That our marriage was all wrong
But I hope he makes you happy
And you will never lose his love
I lost mine while I was watching (watching you)
From the window up above
How I wish I could be dreaming
And wake up to an honest love that's true
But I'm wrong for I've been watching (watching you)
From the window up above
The lyrics of George Jones's song "The Window up Above" tell a story of a man who has been living a new and happy life with his wife, but begins to notice clouds gathering on the horizon, indicating a storm that will soon wreck their home. Fearing the worst, he watches his wife closely, and becomes increasingly distressed as he witnesses her betraying him with another man. He hears her whisper that their marriage was wrong, and realizes that she has fallen out of love with him. The sadness and disillusionment he feels are palpable as he looks down on his wife from the window above.
However, despite feeling heartbroken and wishing for a different outcome, the man ultimately accepts the end of his marriage and resigns himself to the fact that his wife has moved on. He acknowledges that he was wrong about their relationship, and that he is not longer part of her life. The pain of this realization comes through in the lyrics as he looks on from his perch above.
Line by Line Meaning
I've been living a new way
I have changed the way I live
Of life that I love so
I enjoy my new lifestyle
But I can see the clouds are gathering
However, I sense that problems are coming
And the storm will wreck our home
And those problems will destroy our relationship
For last night he held you tightly
You were held closely by someone else last night
And you didn't even shove
Yet you didn't push them away
This is true for I've been watching (watching you)
I can confirm this as I've been closely watching you from above
From the window up above
I have been observing the events from an elevated view point - the window above
You must have thought that I was sleeping
You may have assumed that I was asleep
And I wish that I had been
In fact, I wished I had been asleep too
But it's guess to get to know you
I learned a lot about you from what I heard
And the way your heart can sin
I discovered that you are capable of betrayal
I thought we belonged together
I believed we were meant to be together
And our hearts fit like a glove
Our hearts fitted perfectly together
But I was wrong for I've been watching (watching you)
However, I was mistaken as I watched you from above
From my eyes the teardrops started
I began to cry
As I listened on and on
As I continued to hear everything that was said
I heard you whisper to him softly
I caught you whispering sweetly to someone else
That our marriage was all wrong
You expressed that our marriage was not the right choice
But I hope he makes you happy
Despite everything, I hope this other person brings you happiness
And you will never lose his love
I hope they will always love you and never leave you
I lost mine while I was watching (watching you)
Unfortunately, I lost your love as I watched you from above
How I wish I could be dreaming
I wish this was just a bad dream
And wake up to an honest love that's true
And wake up to a true and honest love
But I'm wrong for I've been watching (watching you)
But that isn't the case since I was watching you from above
Lyrics © BMG Rights Management, Universal Music Publishing Group, GLAD MUSIC CO., Warner Chappell Music, Inc.
Written by: George Jones
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind
Meg Mc
I've been living a new way
Of life that I love so
But I can see the clouds are gathering
And the storm will wreck our home
For last night he held you tightly
And you didn't even shove
This is true for I've been watching (watching you)
From the window up above
You must have thought that I was sleeping
And I wish that I had been
But it's guess to get to know you
And the way your heart can sin
I thought we belonged together
And our hearts fit like a glove
But I was wrong for I've been watching (watching you)
From the window up above
From my eyes the teardrops started
As I listened on and on
I heard you whisper to him softly
That our marriage was all wrong
But I hope he makes you happy
And you will never lose his love
I lost mine while I was watching (watching you)
From the window up above
How I wish I could be dreaming
And wake up to an honest love that's true
But I'm wrong for I've been watching (watching you)
From the window up above
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: George Jones
The Window Up Above lyrics © Glad Music Co., Carlin America Inc
GO440
Like Emmy Lou said, "Once George sings a song its done, nobody else can ever equal him".
Avenger 1
There is one guy who come in a close second. His name is Uncle Kracker.
gustavo sierra
Is anyone else haunted by the intense emotion in the way the great George Jones sings a song? I am. My eyes well up each and every time when he sings a particularly sad one like this. He relates the anguish straight into your heart like no one else. It happens when he sings this one, The Grand Tour, ..Grass Grows Over Me, He Stopped Loving Her Today, I'm Not Ready Yet and a few other more obscure ones. Someone described that sound as "High Lonesome". The human condition can be painful but music is God's natural soother and artists like George Jones voice is healing. It is almost supernatural.
PabluchoViision
Yes, haunted. Agree with you.
Try this one: Where Grass Won’t Grow.
The emotion there is almost unbearable. It’s 10 times the song He Stopped Loving Her Today which, for my taste, is just an oversentimental super obvious tearjerker.
Joyce Roberts
@PabluchoViision b
Mark Presley
Your right, Ive never heard a man sing straight from his heart like George did. Man this guy was real.
Linden Brown
Try Conway Twitty his songs could charm a snake out of HER skin. Lol only those who listened to him will understand that comment.
Chris C
I love this song!!
Raven Shingoose
I love this mans music, I'm 22 years of age and I play his music everyday 💜💜 rip to this wonderful man
Remington Riders
I love this song and this version. Thanks for sharing.