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“Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain” was Willie Nelson’s first number one hit as a singer. Patsy Cline’s version of Nelson’s “Crazy” can be found in the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. And “On the Road Again” is considered a quintessential travel classic, played everywhere from bars to baseball stadiums. Even casual fans know these songs by the Red Headed Stranger. But if you dig deeper, there’s a whole other Willie to discover. Here are 20 unknown but no less great titles that shed light on Nelson’s entire oeuvre.
“Darkness on the Face of the Earth” (1962)
Originally released on Nelson’s very first LP, …And Then I Wrote from 1962, this story of a love that goes is pure drama. It separates, the sun explodes and darkness envelopes the land. With its apocalyptic vision of a world without love, the song is almost biblical. Nelson included the song on his album three years later Country Willie: His Own Songs with a slightly different feeling.
In 1998 he returned for the album produced by Daniel Lanois Theater returned to “Darkness” again and reinforced the haunting effect of the lyrics with a percussion-heavy, hypnotic arrangement. But it’s his original version from 1962 and a performance from that time in the The Porter Wagoner Showwhich best convey the devastating hopelessness that can follow a breakup.
“December Day” (1971)
Nelson’s 1971 album Yesterday’s Wine is full of bittersweet nostalgia, from the title track, where he reminisces over a bottle of wine, to the heartbreaking “Summer of Roses.” But it’s “December Day” that paints the most powerful picture of a man taking stock of his year – and a relationship.
The artist, who was still developing into the long-haired troubadour he would later become, sings like a Sinatra of country music about “a time to remember day” and “a spring, such a sweet tender thing”. “December Day” is Nelson’s “It Was a Very Good Year,” full of wistfulness and a hint of regret. It also defines the Christmas month as the saddest of all, something Haggard recognized two years later with “If We Make It Through December.”
“Words Don’t Fit the Picture” (1972)
The title track from Nelson’s 1972 album, whose cover features an out-of-place Nelson lugging his own guitar while a chauffeur holds open the door of a waiting Rolls-Royce, is an honest admission that romance no longer works.
It’s one of Nelson’s more direct breakup songs – no veiled metaphors here – whose lyrics clearly state that there’s “no reason to force love scenes.” Rather, “it’s time to say goodbye.” Here Nelson shows his most sober side. He refuses to fake a smile, turns off the lights and, like the title of his 1967 single, admits that “the party’s over.”
“Devil in a Sleepin’ Bag” (1973)
“Devil in a Sleepin’ Bag” from the album Shotgun Willie from 1973 is arguably the funkiest song Willie ever wrote, snaking along like a snake covered in motor oil. The song tells of a tour gone wrong – the band gets pneumonia, the bus loses a wheel – and mentions Nelson’s then-wife Connie Koepke as well as Kris Kristofferson and his wife Rita Coolidge, giving the lyrics a clearly autobiographical feel.
But the titular devil is not old Willie. It’s Nelson’s nickname for his longtime advisor and drummer, the intimidating Paul English, who looked like the devil with his Van Dyke beard and long sideburns. Check this out Cover of “Willie Nelson & Family” from 1971. In which English wears a chic but devilish red cape.
“Hands on the Wheel” (1975)
With his behind-the-beat phrasing, Nelson was never considered a traditional singer. But his take on this cinematic theme from “Red Headed Stranger,” written by Bill Callery, is second to none. Nelson achieves and sustains sounds that grab you by the collar of your jeans and don’t let go. One could argue that the line “there’s deceivers, and believers and old in-betweeners” is one of Nelson’s best vocal runs of all time.
The song also appeared on the soundtrack to 1979’s “The Electric Horseman” – in which Nelson played his first film role – and was played during the closing credits as Robert Redford’s troubled cowboy Sonny Steele walks off with no particular destination in mind.