Old Five And Dimers Like Me

Old Five And Dimers Like Me
Monument (KZ 32293)
Produced by Kris Kristofferson
Released ?????? 1973
11 tracks, 28 minutes 33 seconds

So there we were, Billy Joe Shaver and I, throwing pennies in the Suwannee river, sipping a jug of Mogen David blackberry win and talking to two black men who were fishing. (In the Suwannee River?) Yes! Stephen Foster was a songwr iter who wrote a lot of songs about this part of the country and so they have a Stephen Foster memorial somewhere along in there where the river is. We went in to see it and damned if they didn't have his royalty statements and all. (He didn't make any money either.) I know you think I am going to compare Billy Joe to Stephen Foster, but I'm going to compare him to the river. His thoughts run deep and black, until he hits a riffle, and then he can smile all over the place. It's a funny smile he has, with one side of his lip curled a little down in case he's not suppose to be laughing and wants to break into a frown.

Billy Joe is not all there...meaning that he lost some fingers in a sawmill accident and took up bull riding and bronc busting as a safer job. Come to think of it, maybe he's not all there...as witnessed in this album, he traded bron cs in for songwriting.

Bobby Bare found Billy Joe Shaver somewhere. One day there he was in Nashville, standing alongside those ugly buildings on 16th Avenue South. The buildings looked unfamiliar, but Shaver seemed to have been there for years. He really had finally arrived when he was meant to be. I didn't know him then.

If the world is God's television set, with which he entertains himself, Billy Joe Shaver is on Monday Mornings at 3:00. Kris Kristofferson produced this album in order to get him a better time slot.

Billy Joe writes the kind of lines that make you think that you and he are the only ones who understand them. I was stupid enough to believe that for a while.

And then Kris, Willie, Waylon, and a bunch of other folks got on Billy Joe. It was sort of like Columbus discovering a new land and finding that there were already people there. Not that anyone admitted they were until Ira Hayes joi ned the Marines. (Strike that out.) (No, leave it in.) O.K.

And then we were in Atlanta, drinking...something, damn, I forget. It must have been good. Someone said, "I can't stand Atlanta." And I said, "Atlanta is not to stand. Atlanta is to love or hate." Billy Joe Shaver is to love or h ate. To know the deep dark secrets of his mind, and then hate him, would be wrong. So, you'll have to love him. And if you can't love him, put the damned album back on the rack and keep your (censored) money and PISS ON YOU!

--Tom T. Hall
Nashville, Tennessee

Track	Song	Writers	Time
1	Black Rose	Billy Joe Shaver	2:44
2	Old Five And Dimers Like Me	Billy Joe Shaver	2:41
3	L.A. Turnaround	Billy Joe Shaver	2:49
4	Jesus Christ, What A Man	Billy Joe Shaver & Bobby Bare	2:26
5	Played The Game Too Long	Billy Joe shaver	3:23
6	I Been To Georgia On A Fast Train	Billy Joe Shaver	2:18
7	Willy The Wandering Gypsy And Me	Billy Joe Shaver	2:29
8	Low Down Freedom	Billy Joe Shaver	2:53
9	Jesus Was Our Savior And Cotton Was Our King	Billy Joe Shaver	1:47
10	Serious Souls	Billy Joe Shaver	2:10
11	Bottom Dollar	Billy Joe Shaver & Danny Finley	3:57

Musicians:

Billy Joe Shaver
Tommy Cogbill
Bobby Wood
Mike Utley
Kenny Malone
Stephen Bruton
Jerry Shook
Danny Finley
Red Lane
Tommy Jackson

Technical Information:

Recorded at House of Cash
Engineered by Charlie Bragg

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Originally Created: January 14, 1997
Last Updated: December 27, 1998
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