Our song of the day features Merle Haggard covering an Iris DeMent song that appeared on one of his overlooked albums from the 1990s. In “No Time to Cry,” the singer begins by remembering his father’s funeral from a year before, moving into a meditation on live, it’s joys and it’s pains.
When I first heard Haggard’s version from his album 1996, I though he might have wrote it or that it had been written for him. The song perfectly fits his weathered voice at the time of an older person. Although Merle Haggard was only in his late 50’s when he recorded “No Time to Cry,” he always seemed much older than his age.
The singer looks back through the years, realizing life is full of pain. But in the end, you cannot stop the pain or cry for everyone.
Now I sit down on the sofa and I watch the evening news:
There’s a half a dozen tragedies from which to pick and choose;
The baby that was missing was found in a ditch today;
And there’s bombs a’flying and people dying not so far away;
And I’ll take a beer from the refrigerator,
And go sit out in the yard and with a cold one in my hand;
I’m going to bite down and swallow hard,
Because I’m older now: I’ve got no time to cry.
Iris DeMent’s Version
In Haggard’s version, he sounds weary. He sounds hardened by what he has seen. By contrast, in Iris DeMent‘s original version from her album My Life (1993), her haunting voice sounds like someone barely able to keep from crying. Her version reveals the raw emotions nearer to the surface than the old man in Haggard’s version. She takes longer
Listen to just the way Haggard adds “it’s true” near the end at around the 3:45 mark. It is as if the singer is reminding himself that he cannot cry. DeMent’s version does not add that declaration, perhaps because the singer does not quite believe it is true.
DeMent’s recording clocks in at nearly seven minutes, while Haggard’s song takes just four and a half minutes. He is making a declaration, telling you his story, while DeMent takes longer because she is trying to convince herself of her strength in the wake of everything. Both versions are wonderful. Here is DeMent’s take on her song “No Time to Cry.”
Haggard’s choice to cover the song reveals his great taste in music that fits him. But he also admired DeMent’s work, having earlier praised DeMent’s version of his song “Big City” on the Haggard tribute album, Tulare Dust.
Which version of “No Time to Cry” do you like best? Leave your two cents in the comments.
As a kid, one of my jobs was taking out the trash at our house. After I moved away, though, I lived in apartments for most of my life. So taking out the trash just meant putting my garbage in a common receptacle. It was convenient when I lived in a New York City apartment and could walk down the hall and put my garbage in a chute at my leisure. But there was something I missed about having “trash night” when you have to gather all the garbage to put out by the curb for the morning pickup.
album of Sesame Street covers by pop stars. The recording sounds like an Aerosmith hit, complete with Tyler’s great screaming.
(1969). The song is in the tradition of many great country duets, with the couple going back and forth about whether or not the man is cheating. The woman is throwing him out of the house, but the man asks the question of the song’s title about how the garbage will be taken out after he is gone. The song perfectly captures the part that a household chore plays in our lives, and sometimes in our relationships.
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hits the Internet on September 30, 2016.
The Cleveland Cavaliers won one for the ages when they came back from a 3-1 deficit to win the NBA Championship. In doing so, they became the first major professional team from the city of Cleveland to win a championship since the Browns won in 1964. There are so many great stories out of the basketball series, including the greatness of LeBron James and the epic story of his departure and return to Cleveland. But wrapped up in that story is the fact that Cleveland never would have won this championship were it not for some instances of 
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(1993).
