As country music swung back toward traditional styles in the 1980s, an inheritor of the soulful honky tonk style of Lefty Frizzell and Merle Haggard rose to the top of the business and notched hit after barroom hit. Sometimes he was known simply as "the Voice." Born in Woodland, AL, Vern Gosdin idolized the Louvin Brothers and the Blue Sky Boys as a young man and sang in a gospel quartet called the Gosdin Brothers.
When he was in his late teens, his family moved to Birmingham and began hosting The Gosdin Family Gospel Show on a local radio station. Gosdin and his brother, Rex, moved to Long Beach, CA, in 1961.
They began performing bluegrass music in the milieu that gave birth to country-rock, joining a group called the Golden State Boys which evolved into The Blue Diamond Boys in 1962 when future Byrds member Chris Hillman joined them on the mandoline. Shorty after they would rename again to The Hillmen which disbanded in the summer of 1964, when Chris Hillman left to join the BYRDS. During this time the group recorded an album, which was released by Together Records in 1970 as "Don Parmley And The Five String Banjo". Vern and Rex teamed up to sing country music as the Gosdin Brothers once again, had a Top 40 country hit in 1967 with "Hangin' On," and opened for the Byrds on occasion.
Gosdin moved to Atlanta in 1972, raising a family and running a retail shop. But he never gave up on music completely. He performed at local clubs and began to gravitate toward Nashville, where Emmylou Harris, a friend of Gosdin's from his California days, was laying the foundation for a neo-traditionalist style of country music. Around 1976 Gosdin and Harris cut a demo single consisting of "Hangin' On" backed with a newly written song, "Yesterday's Gone." The demo got Gosdin signed to the Elektra label, and both songs cracked the country Top 20. In the late '70s he notched several major hits, including "Till the End" (with Janie Fricke), "Mother Country Music," and a remake of the Association's "Never My Love."
In 1980, after the demise of Elektra's country division, Gosdin quickly moved through several contracts and landed with the independent Nashville label Compleat. He made the Top Ten consistently in the early '80s, really hitting his stride when he teamed with Max D. Barnes as a songwriting collaborator. The pair specialized in songs of cheating and barroom romance, often delivering an over-the-top emotionalism that got Gosdin compared to the ultimate legend of honky tonk vocals, George Jones. In 1983, Gosdin had two Top Five hits — "If You're Gonna Do Me Wrong (Do It Right)" and "Way Down Deep." The following year he had his first number one single with "I Can Tell by the Way You Dance (You're Gonna Love Me Tonight)" and had two additional Top Ten hits. His career hit a lull in the mid-'80s, but in 1987, with the new traditionalist movement in full swing and Warner Bros. artist Randy Travis roosting at the top of the charts, he was tapped by the Columbia label. He bounced back into the Top Ten that year with the tortured "Do You Believe Me Now," and in 1988 he hit number one once again with the perennially popular Ernest Tubb tribute "Set 'Em Up Joe." Gosdin's "Chiseled in Stone," co-written with Barnes, won the Country Music Association's Song of the Year award in 1989. His 1989 album Alone was a rarity: a concept album in a traditional country style. It chronicled the dissolution of Gosdin's marriage. Vern's popularity is again on the rise as 2008 sees the release of his life's works on a 101 song Box Set titled 40 Years of The Voice. This living legend continues to represent pure traditional country.
There Ain't Nothing Wrong
Vern Gosdin Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
We still lay there side by side
Love's either playin' dead
Or is no longer alive
'Cause girl, it's been so long
Since we made love alive
But there ain't nothin' wrong
Oh, there ain't nothin' wrong
There ain't nothin' right
We're still holdin' on
We just ain't holdin' on that tight
And I can't put my finger on
What's wrong let alone you at night
Oh, there ain't nothin' wrong
There just ain't nothin' right
We swear that we still do
But I know as well as you we don't
We're lyin' in the truth
Lyin' next to what we want
And if there is no wall
Then why are there two sides
Whoa, there ain't nothin' wrong
There just ain't nothin' right
Oh, there ain't nothin' wrong
There just ain't nothin' right
We're still holdin' on
We just ain't holdin' on that tight
And I can't put my finger on
What's wrong let alone you at night
Oh, there ain't nothin' wrong
There just ain't nothin' right
Oh, there ain't nothin' wrong
There just ain't nothin' right
Vern Gosdin's "There Ain't Nothing Wrong" tells the story of a couple who are still together but have lost the spark in their relationship. The opening verse describes how they still share the same bed and lay side by side, but love seems to have either died or be playing dead. They haven't made love come alive for a long time, and while there's nothing specifically wrong, there's also nothing right.
The chorus repeats the phrase "there ain't nothing wrong, there just ain't nothing right" while Gosdin sings about how they're still holding on to each other, but not as tightly as they used to. He can't put his finger on what's wrong, and they both swear that they still love each other, but deep down neither of them believes it anymore. They're lying to themselves and each other, and the truth is that they're not truly connected anymore.
The second verse continues with the same theme, describing how they both know that they're not doing what they need to do to keep the love alive. They're not being honest with each other, and there are two sides to every story. The song concludes with the final chorus, reiterating that there's nothing specifically wrong, but there's also nothing right.
Overall, "There Ain't Nothing Wrong" is a powerful and emotional exploration of a relationship that has lost its spark. Gosdin's lyrics perfectly capture the sense of melancholy and resignation that comes with a relationship that's slowly fading away.
Line by Line Meaning
We still share the same old bed
We still sleep in the same bed together
We still lay there side by side
We still sleep close to each other
Love's either playin' dead
Our love for each other may have died
Or is no longer alive
Our love for each other may have died
Cause girl, it's been so long
It has been a long time
Since we made love alive
Since we felt passionate love for each other
But there ain't nothin' wrong
There is no major issue
There just ain't nothin' right
Things are not perfect between us
Oh, there ain't nothin' wrong
There is no major issue
There ain't nothin' right
Things are not perfect between us
We're still holdin' on
We're still in this relationship
We just ain't holdin' on that tight
We're not as committed as we used to be
And I can't put my finger on
I can't identify precisely
What's wrong let alone you at night
What is causing our relationship to fail, let alone how to fix it
We swear that we still do
We promise that we still love each other
But I know as well as you we don't
But deep down we realize that our love may be gone
We're lyin' in the truth
We're lying to ourselves
Lyin' next to what we want
We're sleeping next to what we hope the relationship still has
And if there is no wall
If there are no barriers between us
Then why are there two sides
Why do we feel distant from each other?
Whoa, there ain't nothin' wrong
There is no major issue
There just ain't nothin' right
Things are not perfect between us
Oh, there ain't nothin' wrong
There is no major issue
There just ain't nothin' right
Things are not perfect between us
Lyrics © GEORGIA FALL MUSIC, Universal Music Publishing Group, Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Written by: DEAN DILLON, HANK COCHRAN, VERN GOSDIN
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind