Noble Ray Price (January 12, 1926 – December 16, 2013) was an American coun… Read Full Bio ↴Noble Ray Price (January 12, 1926 – December 16, 2013) was an American country music singer, songwriter and guitarist. His wide-ranging baritone has often been praised as among the best male voices of country music. Some of his well-known recordings include "Release Me", "Crazy Arms", "Heartaches by the Number", "For the Good Times", "Night Life", and "You're the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me". He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996 and—even into his late 80s—continued to record and tour.

Price, born in Perryville, Texas, served with the U.S. Marines from 1944–1946, and began singing for KRBC in Abilene, Texas during 1948. He joined the Big D Jamboree in Dallas in 1949. He relocated to Nashville in the early 1950s, rooming for a brief time with Hank Williams. When Williams died, Price managed his band, the Drifting Cowboys, and had minor success. He was the first artist to have a success with the song "Release Me" (1954), a top five popular music hit for Engelbert Humperdinck in 1967.
In 1953, Price formed his band, the Cherokee Cowboys. Among its members during the late 1950s and early 1960s were; Roger Miller, Willie Nelson, Darrell McCall, Van Howard, Johnny Paycheck and Johnny Bush, Buddy Emmons, Pete Wade, Jan Kurtis, Shorty Lavender and Buddy Spicher. Miller wrote one of Ray Price's classics in 1958, "Invitation to the Blues", and sang harmony on the recording. Additionally, Nelson composed the Ray Price song "Night Life".
Price became one of the stalwarts of 1950s honky tonk music, with hit songs such as "Talk To Your Heart" (1952) and "Release Me". He later developed the famous "Ray Price Shuffle," a 4/4 arrangement of honky tonk music with a walking bassline, which can be heard on "Crazy Arms" (1956) and many of his other recordings from the late 1950s.

During the 1960s, Ray experimented increasingly with the so-called Nashville sound, singing slow ballads and utilizing lush arrangements of strings and backing singers. Examples include his 1967 rendition of "Danny Boy", and "For the Good Times" in 1970 which was Price's first country music chart No. 1 hit since "The Same Old Me" in 1959. Written by Kris Kristofferson, the song also scored No. 11 on the popular music chart and featured a mellower Price backed by sophisticated musical sounds, quite in contrast to the honky tonk sounds Price had pioneered two decades before. Price had three more No. 1 country music successes during the 1970s: "I Won't Mention It Again", "She's Got To Be A Saint", and "You're the Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me." His final top ten hit was "Diamonds In The Stars" in early 1982. Price continued to have songs on the country music chart through 1989. Later, he sang gospel music and recorded such songs as "Amazing Grace", "What A Friend We Have In Jesus", "Farther Along" and "Rock of Ages."
In 2006, Price was living near Mount Pleasant, Texas and still performing in concerts throughout the country. In 2009, Price made two performances for the Fox News show Huckabee. The first was with the Cherokee Cowboys and host Mike Huckabee, and he performed "Crazy Arms" and "Heartaches By The Number". Weeks later he performed with the Cherokee Cowboys and Willie Nelson (again with Huckabee playing bass guitar). This time they performed duets of "Faded Love" and "Crazy."
Price worked on his latest album, Last of the Breed, with fellow country music singers Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. This album was released on March 20, 2007 by the company Lost Highway Records. The two-disc set features 20 country classics as well as a pair of new compositions. The trio toured the U.S. from March 9 until March 25 starting in Arizona and finishing in Illinois. This was Price's third album with Nelson and first album with Haggard. After the tour, Haggard remarked, "I told Willie when it was over, 'That old man gave us a goddamn singing lesson.' He really did. He just sang so good. He sat there with the mic against his chest. And me and Willie are all over the microphone trying to find it, and he found it."

On November 6, 2012, Ray Price confirmed that he was fighting pancreatic cancer. Price told the San Antonio Express-News that he had been receiving chemotherapy for the past six months. An alternative to the chemo would have been surgery that involved removing the pancreas along with portions of the stomach and liver, which would have meant a long recovery and stay in a nursing home. Said Price, "That's not very much an option for me. God knows I want to live as long as I can but I don't want to live like that." The 87-year-old Country Music Hall of Famer also told the newspaper, "The doctor said that every man will get cancer if he lives to be old enough. I don't know why I got it – I ain't old!" Price retained a positive outlook and hoped to play as many as a hundred concert dates in 2013.
As of early February 2013, the cancer appeared to be in remission. Sometime in May 2013, Price was hospitalized with severe dehydration. On December 2, 2013, Price entered a Tyler, Texas, hospital in the final stages of pancreatic cancer, according to his son, then left on December 12 for home hospice care. Price died at his home in Mt. Pleasant, Texas, on December 16, 2013.

Bright Lights And Blonde Haired Women
Ray Price Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

I'm gettin' tired of roamin' around I'm gettin' tired of paintin' the town
Bright lights and blonde haired women don't thrill me
I'm gettin' tired of being lived up like a Christmas tree
I guess I done everything there is to do you said it would be this way
Believe me baby I'm all through please let me come home to you
I'm gettin' tired of roamin' around I'm gettin' tired of paintin' the town
I'm tired of blonde haired women oh don't thrill me
I'm gettin' sick and tired being lived up like a Christmas tree

I guess I done everything there is to do you said it would be this way

Believe me baby I'm all through please let me please let me come home to you

Overall Meaning

In Ray Price's song "Bright Lights And Blonde Haired Women," the singer expresses his exhaustion with his current lifestyle of partying and womanizing. He's "getting tired of roaming around" and "painting the town" with "bright lights and blonde haired women" because they no longer thrill him. He's become tired of being "lit up like a Christmas tree" and has seemingly been there and done that. The singer reveals that someone, perhaps his lover, told him that it would be this way, as if predicting that he would eventually tire of his wild lifestyle. He's now looking for a way out and longing to return home to his partner.

The song came out in 1965, during the height of the Nashville Sound subgenre, which Ray Price was a major figure of. The song was written by Wayne Kemp, who was also behind hit songs like "Honky Tonk Wine" and "Love Bug." Interestingly, the song was recorded and released by several other artists before Ray Price, including Hank Thompson and Cal Smith.

Line by Line Meaning

I'm gettin' tired of roamin' around
I am becoming exhausted from wandering aimlessly

I'm gettin' tired of paintin' the town
I am growing weary of engaging in wild and indulgent behavior

Bright lights and blonde haired women don't thrill me
The excitement of partying and being with attractive women of a certain look no longer excites me

I'm gettin' tired of being lived up like a Christmas tree
I am becoming exhausted from being the center of attention and being decorated like a Christmas tree

I guess I done everything there is to do you said it would be this way
I have exhausted all the options for excitement and as you predicted, I would grow tired of it

Believe me baby I'm all through please let me come home to you
I am done with this lifestyle and I am ready to come home to you, my true source of comfort and happiness

Lyrics © O/B/O APRA AMCOS

Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind

To comment on or correct specific content, highlight it

TRACKS

Genre not found

Artist not found

Album not found

Search results not found

Song not found

Comments from YouTube:

doctorhugo

3y↑4

Boy howdy! This is Ray at his best w/ Buddy blending in his subtle genius on steel. When I get myself into that days-gone-by mood and hear Ray, I tear-up and don't mind admittin' it. Thank God I had one time in my life to meet both of these guys. It was at a Pedal Steel Guitar Convention long ago and we sat and yakked on and meshed like a band of brothers. Hell, I even got Raymundo to laugh out loud with some of my humorous sarcasm.

As we finished-up yakkin', like we was three aging washerwomen hangin' the wet-wash in the backyard, I stood up and acting as if it was an afterthought said to them.. "Oh! By the way, would you guys like my autograph before I rush off?". Ray instantly sat back and bellowed-out a sincere laugh, but then topped me with a simple "Hell yeah!" as Buddy simply smiled broadly through the whole little episode and I said to him..."I thank you for sittin' quiet-like and just bein' the perfect, bored-to-death gentleman and sayin' nuthin'. You remind me of my banker, so could I borrow that pen of yours for scratchin'-out a couple of 'no-charge-whatsoever' autographs?". That got another belly-laugh from Ray and I was in Heaven and sportin' the biggest grin you could imagine.

Bless all good memories for they renew the soul.
RIP my friend...You set the bar way too high for so many who are following you..