A salute to "The Possum"

Two phrases have been running through my mind after hearing the news of today’s passing of Country music legend, George Jones.

“He stopped loving her today” and “Who’s gonna fill their shoes”

Those phrases, of course, are titles of two of the biggest hits from the man known as “The Possum.”

-- He said I'll love you 'til I die. She told him you'll forget in time. As the years went slowly by, she still preyed upon his mind.

He kept her picture on his wall. Went half crazy now and then. He still loved her through it all, hoping she'd come back again.

Kept some letters by his bed dated 1962. He had underlined in red every single ‘I love you’
I went to see him just today, oh but I didn't see no tears. All dressed up to go away. First time I'd seen him smile in years.

He stopped loving her today. They placed a wreath upon his door, And soon they'll carry him away. He stopped loving her today.

You know she came to see him one last time. Oh and we all wondered if she would. And it kept running through my mind - this time he's over her for good. –

George could tug at the heart strings with those soulful tear-jerker songs,like "If drinkin' don't kill me," "a good year for the roses," "If my heart had windows," and "a picture of me without you."

He also was adept at effortlessly switching directions and kicking it up with songs such as "the race is on," and "white lightning."

And of course, when I think of George Jones, I usually think of him and his ex-wife and duet partner, Tammy Wynette.

George & Tammy were shining brightly at a time when the male/female country duet was prevalent in Country music, along with Johnny & June, Conway & Loretta, Porter & Dolly, and even George with Melba Montgomery, and Kenny Rogers & Dottie West. It’s something that I’ve missed in the last couple decades; something we’ve only heard a few times since the start of the 1990s, like singles from Brad Paisley & Alison Krauss with “Whiskey Lullaby” and Kid Rock & Sheryl Crow with “Picture”.

And then there’s the duet that George did with his daughter, Georgette – “You and me and time.”

I guess it would only be fitting that I end this by asking the question – who’s gonna fill HIS shoes?

--

You know this old world is full of singers, but just a few are chosen to tear your heart out when they sing.
Imagine life without them - All your, radio heroes, like the outlaw that walks through Jesse's dream. 

No, there will never be another Red-headed stranger, a Man in Black and Folsom Prison Blues. The Okie from Muskogee, or ‘Hello Darlin’. Lord I wonder, who's gonna fill their shoes.

Who's gonna fill their shoes? Who's gonna stand that tall? Who's gonna play the Opry and the Wabash Cannonball?

Who's gonna give their heart and soul to get to me and you? Lord I wonder, who's gonna fill their shoes?

God bless the boys from Memphis, Blue Suede Shoes and Elvis. Much too soon he left this world in tears. 
They tore up the Fifties - Old Jerry Lee and Charlie, and ‘Go Cat Go’ still echoes through the years.

You know the heart of country music still beats in Luke the Drifter. You can tell when hew sang ‘I Saw the Light’. 
Old Marty, Hank and Lefty - Why I can feel them right here with me on this Silver Eagle rolling through the night.

Who's gonna fill their shoes? Who's gonna stand that tall? Who's gonna play the Opry and the Wabash Cannonball?

Who's gonna give their heart and soul to get to me and you? Lord I wonder, who's gonna fill their shoes? --

Rest in peace, George.

Thursday This N That

Where, oh where does the time go? In my part of the universe, time seems to be forgotten as it’s nearing the end of April and Mother Nature still has not brought us spring. As I’ve learned from Sam Carter and Stargate SG-1, time is relative. Funny how I never really learned that in my high school science classes back in the day, but when it’s said by Sam, I seem to remember things easier. Go figure.

I’ve been pretty much spending my time lately with Twitter, which is usually much easier to ramble in 140 characters or less than typing up sensible blog posts (are any of them really ‘sensible’ to begin with anyway?). 

Anyway…back to the topic at hand – which would be tv shows.

Many of the fall/winter shows will be wrapping up their seasons shortly.

That includes NCIS, and from what I’ve seen, it sounds like probably a cliffhanger (which I absolutely hate!), but at least we’re going to get a bit of Tiva goodness in the eps leading up to the finale. I know they won’t give us much, but I’m grateful for the bits & pieces that we’ve gotten over the years.

I watched the NCIS:Red pilots that were part of the NCIS:LA episodes, and they were pretty good. I actually liked them until they brought in John Corbett as an antagonist/ex-lover for Kim Raver’s character. Why do the main characters usually have to be spurned lovers with a history? Oy! I liked the premise of an NCIS ‘mobile’ team that wasn’t stuck in one place for too long.

Chicago Fire has only a few more episodes to go. Unfortunately, it seems that bad-cop Voight is out of jail again and will be in the thick of the plot to end the season. That is SO annoying. I’m also not too thrilled with the Mills/Dawson/Casey love triangle thing. Hopefully with the return of Hallie, things might cool off with that. (doubtful) I also don’t like how they’re using every lesbian cliché they can think of when it comes to Shay. So annoying. All they need to do is bring me episodes with a bunch of call-outs and emergency rescues and I’ll be happy.

Revolution is into its second half of the season now. I’m not too pleased with some of the storylines, and I really could use more Nora. Since they’ve got Daniella Alonso on the show, which means she can’t get back on Rizzoli and Isles any time soon, they’d better give the woman some more damn screen time to make it worth my while. After all, she’s the only reason I’m watching this show.

Speaking of R&I, I saw the new promo pic for season 4 with Jane and Maura handcuffed together, and both in bright red outfits.

Nope. There’s nothing remotely lesbian about that pic, right? Didn’t think so. Haha. I have to wonder, though, why they have June 16^th as the premiere date, when 1) that’s a Sunday, not a Tuesday 2) the premiere date is actually June 25^th. Somebody in the PR department needs to be arrested by Jane and charged with ‘false advertisement’.  I do love that season 4 will bring us through Paddy Doyle’s trial, and of course, Hope will be there too. Now, if we could only get Constance to come back, and it would be nice to see the elusive Mr Isles. Whatever they do, there had better be no Jane/Maura angst this season like the beginning of last season. I don’t think my heart can handle that again.

A few new shows are getting underway now.

I watched the first couple episodes of Bates Motel (based on the movie, Psycho), but it was a bit too dull for my tastes. I’ll probably catch an episode here or there down the road when I remember that it’s on. I struggled through the premiere of Hannibal a couple weeks ago. I liked the visualization of Will Graham being ‘in the moment’ at the scenes and the way they shot them. However, the presence of Laurence Fishburne killed any enthusiasm I had of making this a regularly watched show. He’s just way too dull. All I could think about is that it’s Ray Langston incarnate, and that made me remember the bad-old-days of CSI. The show about Hannibal Lecter also made me yearn for a Jodie Foster appearance – or at least someone named Clarice Starling. This Lecter seemed much slimier than the highly-intelligent Doctor that Anthony Hopkins played.

One series premiere that I greatly enjoyed was Defiance, shown earlier this week.

 
I instantly fell in love with Doc Yewll. It may have been because of her witty sarcasm & one-liners – “good human,” and “if you rush me, we all go boom. If you yell at me, we all go boom. Now you know how I’m doing up here.” And how can you not love a new show that basically starts out with two main characters singing along with Johnny & June on “Jackson”?! That made me smile from ear to ear. One thing that kind of annoys me is that they occasionally talk in a different language. However, there’s one Castithan word that will easily stick with me: Shtako (translation = the 4-letter “S” word, crap, poo, doo doo, etc). Why are the curse words always the easiest to remember? LOL

There will be a few more shows starting soon, including Warehouse 13 Season 4.5 returning April 29^th on Syfy.