George Jones – Still Doin' Time - 1981
We have reached my Top 10! Truth be told, this song inspired me to do the 50 Favorites list about a year ago. I was sitting on my sunny patio having a cigar and a whiskey when this song came up on my play list. I hadn't heard it in years and forgotten how much I loved it. I thought right then that it may be one of my all-time favorite COUNTRY songs. Then the light went off. This song is so "George Jones." I was not a huge Jones fan, but at this time, Jones had a new, reinvented stride that was serving him very well. Of course, He Stopped Loving Her Today (#1) was an immense hit, Tennessee Whiskey, (#2) and another great song, Same Ole' Me with the Oak Ridge Boys (#5) were huge around this era. I was new in country, and was learning the music as a 20 year old. This song, along with Earl Thomas Conley's, After The Love Slips Away introduced me to the hard hitting country "love gone wrong song." We don't really record them anymore as they can sound dated to some. But as hard as they can hit, they are a part of who we are and there are times I love hearing them. This song is powerful and honest as a guy comes to grips with the fact he screwed up his happy marriage twice by cheating. Gutty stuff, and Jones was really good at this kind of thing. This was a big number one! Classic Jones!
