"The Wild Side Of Life"

"The Wild Side Of Life"
written by Arlie Carter and William Warren

You wouldn't read my letter if I wrote you
You asked me not to call you on the phone
But there's something I'm wanting to tell you
So I wrote it in the words of this song

CHORUS:
I didn't know God made honky tonk angels
I might have known you'd never make a wife
You gave up the only one that ever loved you
And went back to the wild side of life

The glamor of the gay night life has lured you
To the places where the wine and liquor flows
Where you wait to be anybody's baby
And forget the truest love you'll ever know

(Repeat chorus)



When WSM-AM, the radio station I usually listen to during the day, played Hank Thompson's recording of "The Wild Side Of Life" yesterday, I decided to make this song the subject of my next blog.

At first glance, the subject matter appears to be what many would consider to be "typical country song fare": drinking, a broken relationship, etc. However, considering when this song was released, it bears a second look.

The best-known recording of "The Wild Side Of Life" was Hank Thompson's, which was released in 1952. Anyone currently living who was old enough to notice how things were in the 1950's (I'm not!) will remember that era as a time when broken marriages were rare, and wives stayed home to cook and keep house and raise children. Finding this subject matter in a song was one thing; actually seeing it played out in real life was something else entirely. That's not to say there weren't plenty of women who walked out on a seemingly good relationship in favor of a partying lifestyle; it just wasn't anything that was common at the time.

Now, 55 years after this song became a hit for Hank Thompson, if it were a new song written for this day and time, my guess is that it would be considered too "politically incorrect" to receive serious consideration for airplay. In general, I believe most country songwriters over the past 30 years or so have tried to move beyond the "typical country song fare" of drinking, cheating, and grieving lost love. It also wouldn't fly in this era for women to be held solely responsible for a relationship gone wrong.

Which brings me to the "answer" to "The Wild Side Of Life," the more-famous response song that made Kitty Wells a star.

"It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels"
written by J. D. Miller

As I sit here tonight the jukebox playin'
The tune about the wild side of life
As I listen to the words you are sayin'
It brings memories when I was a trusting wife

It wasn't God who made Honky Tonk angels
As you said in the words of your song
Too many times married men think they're still single
That has caused many a good girl to go wrong

It's a shame that all the blame is on us women
It's not true that only you men feel the same
From the start most every heart that's ever broken
Was because there always was a man to blame

It wasn't God who made Honky Tonk angels
As you said in the words of your song
Too many times married men think they're still single
That has caused many a good girl to go wrong


Released about two months after Hank Thompson's "The Wild Side Of Life," Kitty Wells' recording of "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels" became the first Number One song on Billboard's charts for a solo female artist. Kitty recently celebrated her 90th birthday here in Nashville at a party broadcast on WSM-AM radio. Dozens of fellow country music artists came by to wish Kitty a happy birthday and to comment on how she had paved the way for them in the industry with this blockbuster of a song. Though written by a man, this song forced men to take a look at their own responsibility in broken relationships, something rare in the 1950's!

Interestingly, these two songs have the same melody, which is also shared by Roy Acuff's "Great Speckled Bird" and the Carter Family's "I'm Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes."

Though Hank Thompson and Kitty Wells had the best-known recordings of these songs, many other artists have covered both of them. Ray Price, Freddy Fender, and even the British rock group Status Quo, as well as rocker Rod Stewart all recorded "The Wild Side Of Life," among others. And Patsy Cline, Lynn Anderson, and the trio of Dolly Parton, Loretta Lynn, and Tammy Wynette with a special guest appearance by Kitty Wells all recorded "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels," in addition to newcomer Sunny Sweeney.

The two songs have also been recorded together as a male-female duet. Waylon Jennings and wife Jessi Colter were the first to do this in the 1970's; David Frizzell and Shelly West put their own style on the two songs together later on.

Though "politically incorrect" for this day and time, these two songs are undeniably country classics!

Enough rambling for now!