Johnny Paycheck – The Soul & The Edge: The Best Of Johnny Paycheck

Johnny Paycheck long ago acquired a cult following for his commercially unsuccessful Hilltop and Little Darlin’ sides of the 1960s. But there’s always been more to Paycheck than warped ditties like “(Pardon Me) I’ve Got Someone To Kill” and “He’s In A Hurry (To Get Home To My Wife)”. Sony Legacy’s new, and long overdue, overview of Paycheck’s later tenure at Epic Records should have fleshed out this one-dimensional reputation. Instead, The Soul & The Edge too often perpetuates the myth of Johnny Paycheck, honky-tonk singing mental patient.

To a large extent, of course, he has no one to blame for this but himself. Paycheck is notorious for booze-and-cocaine-induced run-ins with the law, and he’s certainly cut his share of blotto, wacked-out material. Furthermore, like many of his contemporaries, he hopped aboard the rebel-posturing “Outlaw” bandwagon in the mid-1970s. After the crossover success of “Take This Job And Shove It” in 1978, Paycheck’s song selection weaved increasingly to the rough and rowdy. The Soul & The Edge follows this same path, and that’s fine, for a while. What country fan could resist the woozy charms of Johnny Paycheck when he’s snarling, “I drank fifteen beers — and that’s a whole lotta booze for one man”?

On the other hand, too many of Paycheck’s Outlaw sides simply recycled and exaggerated his crazed, working-stiff persona: “Take your 1044’s and shove ’em,” he sings in a version of “Me And The I.R.S.” from the 1980 live effort, New York Town. His reading of Billy Joe Shaver’s “Ragged Old Truck” is pure cartoon — is that Paycheck singing about putting a gun to his head, or Yosemite Sam?

“Colorado Cool-Aid”, a novelty recitation that was the B-side to “Shove It”, exemplifies the strengths and limitations of this bleary-eyed approach. Anticipating the ear-slicing scene in Reservoir Dogs and endorsing Coors beer, Paycheck slurs his way through a wry, engaging performance. But it’s hardly a song that rewards repeat listening.

Other Paycheck records deserve a second listen, but many of them aren’t here. Between 1971 and ’82 (when his self-destructive behavior and legal troubles got him kicked off the label), Paycheck placed 22 singles in country’s Top 25. A mere seven of those records show up on The Soul & The Edge, and predictably the omissions lean to the “soul” half of that equation. Indeed, Paycheck’s most soul-influenced singles — 1972’s “Love Is A Good Thing” and “Somebody Loves Me”, and 1974’s “Keep On Lovin’ Me” — don’t make the cut. Also M.I.A. are “Mr. Lovemaker”, “Song And Dance Man”, and “Friend, Lover, Wife”, a trio of Top Ten hits, as well as “Let’s All Go Down To The River”, a rollicking Southern gospel duet with Jody Miller.

Not all of these records work, but their omission is revealing. First, they tend to be unabashed love songs, a stance that doesn’t fit well with the cult image of Paycheck as an out-of-his-head shitkicker. Second, their arrangements hone in on country music’s pop possibilities via country-soul rhythms, strings and even horns. Such countrypolitan soundscapes, like the more straightforward settings of Paycheck’s later hits, are the work of producer Billy Sherrill, and they don’t jive with the rebel image either.

Fortunately, The Soul & The Edge makes room for at least some of Paycheck and Sherrill’s best work. “She’s All I Got”, the irresistible country-pop hit that saved Paycheck’s career in 1972, is here, of course, as are a few of the singer’s most emotionally complex ballads. The serene, romantic promise of “Someone To Give My Love To”, as well as the hushed-then-swelling arrangement of “I’ve Seen Better Days” (a Sherrill masterpiece that has Paycheck coming to in the front yard), are prime examples of Paycheck’s gulping, conversational ballad style. So is “Old Violin”, a 1986 single from Paycheck’s later stint at Mercury, on which the singer gazes blearily in the mirror and wonders where he’ll go from here — or if he’ll go on at all.

Along with “Take This Job And Shove It”, a blue-collar fantasy fueled by romantic loss (and a bass-and-hand-drums rhythm track), these sides represent Paycheck at his best. There’s a lot more where that came from, too, but you wouldn’t know it from The Soul & The Edge.