BLOODY MARY MORNING

One of my favorite Willie Nelson songs is Bloody Mary Morning from his 1974 release Phases and Stages. I originally got turned on to this tune by Johnny T.L. Jones III, who is quite a country music aficionado.

 As many of you know, Phase and Stages is Nelson's concept album about the end of a (his?) marriage. Recorded at Muscle Shoals Studio under the direction of the great Jerry Wexler (who I met once at The Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett, NY... but that's a story for a different post), Phases and Stages is unusual in that one side of the record is written from the man's point of view and the other side from the woman's. Bloody Mary Morning kicks off side two with a Deliverance on steroids sound from the band and Willie's great lyrics:

Well it's a bloody mary morning

Baby left me without warning sometime in the night

And I'm flying down to Houston forgetting her the nature of my flight

As we taxi toward the runway the smog and haze reminding me of how I feel

Just a country boy who's learning that the pitfalls of the city are extremely real

All the night life and the parties temptation the order of the day

Well It's a bloody mary morning cause I'm leaving baby somewhere in LA

Well it's a bloody mary morning...

Well our golden jet is airborne flight fifty cuts a path across the morning sky

And a voice comes on the speaker reassuring us flight fifty is the way to fly

Now a hostess takes our order coffee tea or something stronger to start off the day

And it's a bloody mary morning cause I'm leaving baby somewhere in LA

Well it's a bloody mary morning....

Well I'm flying down to Houston with forgetting her the nature of my flight

I love the inverse wording of the line: "Well I'm flying down to Houston with forgetting her the nature of my flight". A great song from a great album. If you don't have Phases and Stages, you should pick it up. Available at Amazon and on iTunes.