Twelve songs that reshaped country music in 1973

THE TRADITIONALISTS

I didn’t want to leave the impression that there was no first-class traditional country music in 1973, so let’s go out with two more songs that are country through and through, though even they show a hint of the restlessness we have seen in the previous ten tracks.

“Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man” by Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty

Lynn and Twitty were Nashville royalty by 1973. Twitty had been a star for the better part of the previous decade and Lynn had released 17 top-ten country albums since beginning her career in 1962. This was their third album singing together, and they would take multiple CMAs for “Duo of the Year.”

Still, though Twitty could be a classic country crooner, he drifted toward rockabilly on a lot of his numbers and Lynn … Lynn was about send a jolt through Nashville with “The Pill” in 1975. It was about birth control, and considered too controversial for country music stations to play. “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man” wasn’t controversial. It was just spectacular.

Sure, it was a pretty obvious paean to the joys of sex outside the bonds of matrimony, but even country music recognized that as something country music fans might indulge in. It had an infectious, undeniable groove that got everyone dancing to its Cajun rhythm.

“Jolene” by Dolly Parton

We’ll end with Dolly. Not sure I can tell you much about this one. It’s one of the greatest country songs of all time. It was the title track from an album released in 1974, but the single came at at the end of ’73, and promptly went to the top of the country charts. It tells a standard story of a woman humbling herself for the love of her man, but Dolly’s prodigious writing and vocal abilities imbue it it with an intensity and drama that stand out in a genre filled with similar stories.

The production is spot on with an insistent, swampy doubled guitar. Here, the backing voices and atmospheric strings are subdued and absolutely perfect, lending an eerie quality that echoes the song’s desperation. You could call “Jolene” countrypolitan. It had the hallmarks and it achieved that cherished crossover hit status. It was just countrypolitan done by exceptional artists.

You didn’t have to be a revolutionary to create memorable country music in 1973. There was just something in the air that year.

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