#152) "Please Remember Me" by Tim McGraw - A woman I worked with in radio years ago was not impressed by this song when it came out. "Tim McGraw should not be accompanied by an orchestra!" she cried, insinuating (f I understood her correctly) that with its lush string section and long, dramatic notes, Please Remember Me was a corruption of the country music business model. I'm sure she wasn't the only one. I'm sure a lot of traditionalists agreed.
Fair enough. But McGraw's version of the song, written by Rodney Crowell and Will Jennings (who interestingly, yet I guess not surprisingly, had a hand in writing Celene Dion's My Heart Will Go On), was released in 1999, at the tail end of an experimental time in country music - when loftier, cinematic themes naturally led to loftier orchestrations, weightier arrangements, and more expected of vocals than just the snap of a Southern drawl. It was a trend that would continue until 2001. The best way to describe the difference between glittery 90s country and the gritty, post-9/11 movement might be to compare Gretchen Wilson 4-wheeling through the mud and doing Kid Rock's laundry in her underwear (er, you know...the video for 2004's Redneck Woman...) and Faith Hill writhing around in silk sheets in the video for Breathe (1999)...looking good to be sure, but not all that 'country'.
In fact, Wilson's refreshingly raw vibe seemed to incite Faith Hill to quickly strip down her own image, which had begun to wallow a bit in so much glitter and foof, and constructing herself anew with the 'down home' Mississippi Girl in 2005. I don't know if it landed in quite the same way. It didn't with me.
But I digress.
Another co-worker at the station, a dude, tried to insinuate (jokingly) that I was a drama queen when I announced I liked Please Remember Me. I'm not. But I do appreciate any song I feel captures the greater drama coursing through all of us. The human story going on day and night, which we all can relate to, even though the details may be different for each of us.
In other words, there's a difference between the self-indulgent personal drama getting deposited on Facebook and the universally shared epic story we're all a part of, that powerful play Whitman wrote of. Please Remember Me captures a little piece of that. We all want to be remembered; we all want to rest assured there will be some acknowledgement that we were once by this way, and that we had an impact on someone or something. And we all watch days come 'without fail'.
"When I can't hurt you anymore..."
#153) "Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground" by Willie Nelson - This just might have been what the lady at the radio station was talking about, what she expected of her country music, and felt Please Remember Me ran so afoul of.
And I can't say I disagree. For my money, Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground is among the greatest country songs of all time, a brilliant exercise in the old adage less is more. A splendidly sparse arrangement and instrumentation coupled with Nelson's equally sparse but always reliable vocals helps this simplified hurtin' song pack a potent emotional punch, every bit as deep and moving as Please Remember Me.
Without all the bellow and bluster...and begging.
"And I patched up your broken wing, and hung around a while / Trying to keep your spirit up, and your fever down..."
