Johnny Paycheck is gone, although he's never off the jukebox and never will be, if only for one recording. There's nothing at all wrong with "Slide Off of Your Satin Sheets" or "Friend, Don't Take Her, She's All I Got"--nothing at all. "Friend" is the first time we ever paid attention, but for a long time, we thought he was saying, "Fred, Don't Take her." And "Take This Job," all apart from the hook and the fact that it was a big hit, is one of the best-produced records of all time. Some people even remember "Colorado Cool-Aid" fondly, of all songs. But the greatest album is the old Epic vinyl from 1978 entitled "Take This Job and Shove It." The track list is:
1. Take This Job and Shove It
2. From Cotton to Satin (From Birmingham to Manhattan)
3. Spirits of St. Louis
4. 4-F Blues
5. Barstool Mountain
6. Georgia in a Jug
7. Fool Strikes Again
8. Man from Bowling Green
9. When I Had a Home to Go To
10. Colorado Cool-Aid
We've joked for years about this line: "And we'll never share that brick suburban home." Georgia in a Jug is the great one with the chorus beginning, "I'm going down to MexiCO in a glass of tequila; I'm going down to Puerto Rico in a bottle of rum." This guy had the same lonesome sound in his voice that Waylon did, though in a different register, q.e.p.d. He was a sideman (steel) for George Jones way back when, and they were saying on KVET that George is going to send him home in style since he died broke. The old grey New York Times wrote the best obit seen so far.