47. Buck Owens - I've Got a Tiger by the Tail (1965)

1. I've Got a Tiger by the Tail
2. Trouble and Me
3. Let the Sad Times Roll On
4. Wham Bam
5. If You Fall Out of Love With Me
6. Fallin' for You
7. We're Gonna Let the Good Times Roll
8. Band Keeps Playin' On
9. Streets of Laredo
10. Cryin' Time
11. Maiden's Prayer
12. Memphis

Oh boy, it's 1965! I've been waiting for this year for ages! It's the year that rock music finally began to shake off the evil Spectre of Filler and produce truly classic albums that stand on their own as artistic works. From this point onward, the list starts really shaping up. Although each year has only had a smattering of albums so far, from now on we'll be getting a lot of albums for every one. It's going to be ever so fantastic!

So after all that hype, it's a bit of a disappointment to kick off this landmark year for the album with a mediocre country album. Although Ray Price had me frothing at the mouth and caused me to avoid country like the plague, this was actually listenable. The songs sounded different, for one. Not nearly as much polish, too. This album wouldn't make any friends on the overproduced Nashville scene.

I'm going to come right out and say that 'I've Got A Tiger By The Tail' is the best song on here. I know what you're thinking: "But Clay, how could a song that the album is named after, and which is carefully placed at the very beginning of the record so it would be the first thing we'd hear and thus color our opinion of the album as a whole with a favorable first impression be the best song?" I know it sounds a little crazy, but work with me here.

There's other neat material on the album, though! 'Streets of Laredo' is a song about dying cowboys that could've come right out of Marty Robbins' songbook, with vocals that appear to be sung by someone in Buck's band. I guess democracy is always nice on a record billed to one person!

Oh, and there's a Chuck Berry cover. On a country album, no less, though it sounds more rockabilly than anything. Also, I would like to note the rather high amount of Chuck Berry covers showing up on these albums. Why the fuck doesn't he get his own album?! You'd think it would've been a given! Bastards.

But anyway, the songs that Owns wrote are also pretty good. The lyrics are that style of humorous storytelling that country music does so well. Thankfully, it's not preachy. This is supposed to be a classic of country music, but since the grand total of true country albums I've heard totals to 'whatever's been on this list so far', it's harder for me to tell. Generally classic albums have more standout songs, don't they?

Well, it's not the greatest album ever, but it at least showed me that Buck Owens is more than that guy who wrote that song that Ringo sang once. And truly, that is its own reward. 6.5/10