When I saw the promos for the Showtime series “George and Tammy” – that’s country music stars Jones and Wynette for any of you that don’t immediately get the reference – I was wary. The visual entertainment business has a rather checkered record in how it approaches the life stories of pop musical legends. I realize that in making biopic movies and TV shows, there are certain tactics for creating successful dramatic properties that require adjusting the reality of biography – inherent boobytraps and landmines to those of us avid music-loving journos and critics who value the truth (and how it can be often, as they say, stranger than fiction, and even more engaging as part of a story).
Maybe that’s why in some ways I largely prefer those filmic music star bios that set aside reality for more conceptual approaches. After all, one of my favorite films is “Amadeus,” which is hardly a serious retelling of the life of Mozart, but a giddy delight as a movie that reflects the wondrous and ingenious melodicism of his compositions. By the same token, I am a fervent Bob Dylan fanatic who also loves Todd Haynes’ impressionistic “I’m Not There” (word is Bob liked it too), and got a real kick out of the odd yet charming Elton John fever dream of “Rocket Man.”
But when a small or tall screen musical legend bio manages to hew somewhat faithfully to the facts, and gets some of the small, yet telling, touches into the story, it’s an impressive feat worthy of praise. As I watched the opening of the first episode of “George and Tammy” to find Jones, due onstage at the Grand Ole Opry, supremely drunk in a backstage toilet stall flushing $100 bills down the crapper, I was immediately won over to watch the series all the way through. And was justly rewarded with a real winner of a show.
When minders finally got the locked stall door off and carry Jones to the stage, he straightens up and delivers a peppy take on his 1964 hit song, “The Race Is On.” The conundrum of Jones is immediately established: a singer many in the know consider one of country music’s finest vocalists if not the best, and a sodden alcoholic (and later cocaine addict on top of it) with a spectrum of dysfunctions. And also Tammy Wynette’s musical hero. Her romantic relationship with Jones was a star-crossed disaster due to his serious substance abuse. Yet the situation makes powerful fodder for drama.
One reason this series plays so well is the quality of the actors involved, first and foremost Oscar-winner Jessica Chastain, one of today’s most gifted and versatile thespians, as Wynette. She inhabits the ambitious, troubled yet charming hairdresser turned chart-topping country star magnificently. Similarly, Michael Shannon is superb as Jones, though his hunky good looks in the role may imbue audience appeal and make Tammy’s deep love for Jones more believable than the reality of Jones’s looks – he was nicknamed Possum because he looked like one, and when drunk (and even when sober at times) behaved in a feral and fearful manner much like the creature.
The series is rich with wacky real life touches like Jones’s bent for talking like Donald Duck when inebriated and caught between a rock and a hard place. And the time when Jones was stymied by Tammy confiscating all the car keys, so he hopped onto the ride-on mower to get to the bar.
Kudos are due to “George and Tammy” for having the principal actors actually singing the songs, and quite credibly – no small feat, especially when it comes to Jones’s uniquely gifted delivery. Such supporting players as Steve Zahn as Tammy’s slimy next husband George Richey and Walter Goggins – who must be on speed dial at Central Casting’s Southerner division – as George’s pal Peanutt Montgomery both bring potent resonance to their roles.
The series is based on a memoir by the couple’s daughter Georgette, who is listed as a consulting producer. The way the songs by both Jones and Wynette as well as their duo recordings intertwined and commented on the relationship in real life are similarly threaded to good effect through the TV tale.
Anyone wanting to do a deep dive into the fascinating full true story is well advised to listen to all 13 episodes about George and Tammy in season two of the masterful “Cocaine & Rhinestones” podcast by Tyler Mahan Coe (son of David Allan Coe). If more music biopics showed as much devotion to getting important facts and spiritual truths of their stories as “George and Tammy” does, it would be a far more satisfying genre.
Album: “Every Loser” by Iggy Pop – Iggy and his band The Stooges are among the prime creators of punk rock, and on his latest long-player, he remains at age 75 the prime exemplar of the style and its delinquent rebel consciousness, albeit all grown up. This superb set of varied and winning songs is infused with passion, piss and vinegar and his trademark raw power as well as musical and sonic professionalism. Way cool listening.
Book: “Life on the Mississippi” by Rinker Buck – Boldly taking the title from Mark Twain’s river classic, this tome about the flatboats that dominated American trade and migration in the early decades of the 1800s, and a contemporary sail down the Ohio and Mississippi the author had built, is a fun and informative read that weaves together a modern adventure with rich historicity. And ably earns its reuse of the title.
Rob Patterson is a music and entertainment writer in Austin, Texas. Email orca@prismnet.com.
From The Progressive Populist, February 15, 2023
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