Willie and Willie Again



Willie: An Autobiography, by Willie Nelson, with Bud Shrake
New York: Simon & Schuster, 1988

It’s a Long Story: My Life, by Willie Nelson, with David Ritz
New York: Little, Brown & Co., 2015

I read both of these books over the recent Christmas holidays.  My husband gave me the new release for Christmas, knowing how I feel about Willie, and the older book showed up in a stack donated to our Little Free Library, and I snagged it to read when I had time.   The most recent book has more space between each line of type and is one of those celebrity autobiographies that is a breezy, fast read.  The older book appears denser when you open it because of the spacing.  It contains more biographical details of his early life and young adulthood, but the second book also covers his early life and continues up to the present, Willie at age 82.   

The 1988 book is organized into eight parts, each of the parts is named after a song Willie wrote and loosely reflects the content of that section:  Let Me Be a Man, Family Bible, Night Live, Write Your Own Song, I Gotta Get Drunk and I Sure Do Dread It, It’s Not Supposed to Be That Way, On the Road Again, and The Healing Hands of Time.   Each section contains one or more “chapters,” which is Willie’s voice telling about that part of his life, followed by a “chorus,” stories told by someone else—his sister Bobbie, an ex-wife, an old friend or colleague.  There are two groupings of photographs, plus an index. 

The more recent autobiography is divided into five parts, has two sections of photographs and an index.  The whole book is in Willie’s voice.  Some of the stories are the same as in book one but recollected differently, e.g. the time that Willie was working for a tree trimming company and fell 40 feet from a tree.  His friend in the first book remembered it one way, and Willie said he recalled it differently in the second book.  There are several such examples of differing accounts of the same incident in the two books.

After reading both of these books, I can rattle off Willie’s wives’ names (Martha, Shirley, Connie and Annie), the number of children he had with each and other details of his personal life.  A few years ago, tragically his oldest son committed suicide.  I know about his and Bobbie’s early upbringing and his lack of animosity toward his parents for leaving him and Bobbie to be raised by his dad’s parents, his early career, the business and art of songwriting, his passion for golf, his support for family farmers, and his life on the road performing.  Of course, Willie’s use of and support for marijuana is covered in both books.

I especially enjoyed Willie’s talking about his songwriting and creativity.  In his recent book, Willie says:
Well, songs come easy to me.  I’ve written hundreds of them.  I see them as little stories that fall out of our lives and imaginations.  If I have to struggle to write a song, I stop before I start.  I figure if it don’t flow easy, it’s not meant to be….The truth should flow easy.  Same for songs and stories.  If you overanalyze or torture yourself to bring them to life, something’s wrong. 

Willie is also a spiritual man, not as traditionally religious as he was in his younger days, but he writes about his faith and beliefs in his first book:

You can bring divine energy into your lungs by breathing.  Feel the beat of your heart.  It is holy light.  When you become conscious of the Master in your heart, your whole life changes.  Your aura goes out and influences everything around you.  You have free will to recognize it or to blind yourself to it.  Be quiet and ask your heart.  I mean, really shut up and listen to your inner Voice.  It will tell you this is the truth.

I’ve heard Willie Nelson perform several times—in Tennessee when I was in graduate school; in Rapid City, South Dakota, at a concert to support the occupation of the Black Hills by the Oglala Sioux; in Austin, Texas at a taping of a show for public radio; and at a small rodeo arena in East Texas.  There may have been other concerts along the way that I’ve forgotten. 

Willie says “telling stories has kept me alive.”  Since he turned 80, Willie has written a couple dozen new songs, recorded five new albums, and performed over 300 live concerts.  I never tire of Willie Nelson.  He's one of a kind.