Yesterday's Wine

By the fall of 1964, Nelson had moved from Monument Records to RCA Victor, under the leadership of Chet Atkins, signing a contract for US $10,000 per year.[1] During his first few years at RCA Victor, Nelson had no major hits, but from November, 1966 through March, 1969 his singles reached the top 25 consistently: "One In a Row" (number 19, 1966), "The Party's Over" (number 24 during a 16-week chart run in 1967), and his cover of Morecambe & Wise's "Bring Me Sunshine" (number 13, March 1969).[2] Up to 1970, Nelson had no major success. His record and song-writing royalties were invested in concert tours that did not produce significant profits. In addition to the problems in his career, Nelson divorced Shirley Collie in 1970. In December, his ranch in Ridgetop, Tennessee was destroyed by fire. He interpreted the incident as a signal for a change. He moved to a ranch near Bandera, Texas and married Connie Koepke.[3] In early 1971, his single "I'm a Memory" reached the top 30.[3] Felton Jarvis contacted Nelson for the recording of his next album.[4]

Nelson had not written any material for the sessions by the time he arrived in Nashville in April, 1971. While living in the new ranch, Nelson read the Bible, Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet, the works of Edgar Cayce and Episcopal priest A.A Taliaferro's work.[5] Inspired by his readings, Nelson decided to work in new material.[6] On May 1–2, he wrote nine songs, combining new ones with previous material from his repertoire, such as "Family Bible", to create the concept for the album. He recorded Yesterday's Wine in four sessions, backed by David Zettner and the studio session players, beginning with two sessions on May 3 and finishing with the last two on May 4.[7]

In his 2015 autobiography, Nelson reminisced about this turbulent time in his life: "I looked up and simply began asking questions. Rather than keep those questions to myself, I put them into songs. The songs became my own particular prayers, my own personal reflections. I strung those prayers and reflections together in a loose-fitting suite of songs. Music critics were throwing around the term "concept album"...I guess you could say that this new notion of mine came together as a concept album. Rather than try to write a bunch of hit singles, I simply followed the natural path taken by my mind". According to Nelson's biographer, Joe Nick Patoski, the new material portrayed "an idea that was so far-out that when it came time to record in early May, 1971 producer Felton Jarvis had no choice but to let the tapes roll".[8]

The album describes the life of a man, called "The Imperfect Man", from the beginning to the day of his death.[4][9] The story begins with a dialog between two characters. The first asks the other "You do know why you're here?", and the second replies: "Yes, there's great confusion on earth, and the power that is has concluded the following: Perfect man has visited earth already and His voice was heard; The voice of imperfect man must now be made manifest; and I have been selected as the most likely candidate." This statement is followed by "Where's the Show" and "Let Me Be a Man". In the medley, Nelson depicts the birth of the character, who implores God to become a man. The song is followed by "In God's Eyes", depicting the character learning to act as a good Samaritan. In "Family Bible", the character describes his memories of and nostalgia for his childhood, the times with his family and the reading of the family Bible. "It's Not for Me to Understand" depicts the character praying, after watching a blind child listening to other children playing and finding himself unable to understand why God allowed that to happen. God replies to the Imperfect Man, "It's not for you to reason why, you too are blind without my eyes, so question not what I command". In the last stanza, the character now expresses his fear of the Lord and his reluctance to question the unfairness of the world again. The medley "These Are Difficult Times / Remember the Good Times", describes the character's bad times and his recovery by remembering the good times.[10] "Summer of Roses" depicts the character falling in love and in the prime of his life. It is followed by the anticipation of the beginning of the end in "December Day", as the character announces "This looks like a December day. It looks like we've come to the end of the way". "Yesterday's Wine" finds the character drinking in a bar, talking to the regulars about his life, and reflecting on aging. In "Me and Paul", the Imperfect Man remembers the circumstances in which he lived with a friend in past times. The album ends with "Goin' Home", as the character watches his own funeral.[11]

Of the writing of "December Day" and "Summer of Roses," with Nelson remembered, "I couldn't write a suite of songs, no matter how spiritual, without reference to romance," he deemed "Summer of Roses" and "December Day" "love poems. In the first song, love was fleeting, tragically brief; in the second, love was remembered..."[12] "December Day" had been recorded previously for Nelson's 1969 LP Good Times. "Family Bible" was another old tune that Nelson, a struggling songwriter at the time, sold to Paul Buskirk for fifty dollars; Buskirk took it to Claude Gray, whose version charted at number 7 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs in 1960.[13] A song based on his own youth, Nelson later insisted, "There could be no Yesterday's Wine without 'Family Bible.'"[14] In his memoir Nelson wrote that "Me and Paul" was a song "that described the road that my drummer and best friend, Paul English, and I had been riding together".[15] The cover art was designed by Hartsel Gray and the liner notes written by Dee Moeller.[16]

RCA Records marketing department was at a loss on how to promote Yesterday's Wine.[17] In 2015, Nelson recalled the opinion of one of the label's executives, who told the singer "It's your fuckin' worst album to date".[18] Nelson added that another member of the label felt that the record was "some far-out shit that maybe the hippies high on dope can understand, but the average music lover is gonna think you've lost your cotton-pickin' mind."[18] RCA issued a single containing "Yesterday's Wine" and "Me and Paul" in October 1971.[19] The single peaked at number 62 in Billboard's Country Singles.[20] RCA initially pressed 10,000 copies of the album,[21] which was released in August, 1971.[22]

Yesterday's Wine failed to chart, and did not satisfy RCA's expectations.[4] Discouraged by all of his failures, Nelson decided to take a hiatus from music. He later wrote in his autobiography, "I think it's one of my best albums, but Yesterday's Wine was regarded by RCA as way too spooky and far out to waste promotion money on."[9] In 2015, he added: "I was tempted to say something, to show how the songs fit together in one cohesive story, but I stuck to my guns and stayed silent...Nashville and I had been trying damn hard but we hadn't really seen eye to eye for most of the sixties. I felt like I had shown goodwill and patience. I'd given the Music City establishment a fair chance. After Yesterday's Wine, I cut other albums for RCA, but the story was always the same. The sales were slow and the producers lukewarm about my output. My career had stalled."[23] The album was later considered one of the first concept albums in country music.[24][25][26] Meanwhile, author Michael Streissguth felt that Yesterday's Wine "tried to be a concept album, but it lacked a clear thread, despite Willie's claim to the contrary."[27]

Nelson moved to Austin, Texas and returned to music in the following year. He formed a new band and performed in local venues, as his act was rejuvenated by the burgeoning hippie scene of the city.[28][29]

Yesterday's Wine was reissued on CD in 1997 by Justice records, and then by RCA/BMG Heritage in 2003.[30][31] In 2017, RCA Victor reissued again the album on LP and digital download.[32]

Posterior reviews

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[38]
The Listener's Guide to Country Music	Favorable[39]

AllMusic gave Yesterday's Wine five stars out of five. Critic Nathan Bush compared it to Nelson's subsequent album Red Headed Stranger, suggesting that while the story on Yesterday's Wine "isn't as tightly constructed", it gave the album "a feeling of malleability that adds to its power". Bush concluded that "Yesterday's Wine provides further insight into the development of his art during this prolific period."[38]

In their book, The Listener's Guide to Country Music, Robert Oermann and Douglas B. Green compared the album with Nelson's later recordings for Columbia Records: "All of those are beautiful records. They're all on Columbia and are made just the way Willie wanted them. It was not always so at his previous record label, RCA. Nevertheless, he made a few landmark recordings while he was with that company ... Few of the songs on Yesterday's Wine are well-known Nelson compositions, but all are minor masterpieces".[39]

Upon original release, this was issued on LP only. But after Nelson began seeing major success in 1975, RCA reissued "Yesterday's Wine" as part of its "Pure Gold" reissue series. This time, RCA issued 8-track and cassette copies of the album. The album was reissued again in 1980, as part of RCA's "Best Buy" series. It was also around this time that the album was issued in Great Britain for the first time.

In 2016, German reissue label Speakers Corner reissued this album for the European market. The following year, US reissue label Friday Music reissued the album on burgundy-colored vinyl.

"Yesterday's Wine" has been reissued on CD numerous times; in 1997 by Justice Records, a Houston, TX based independent label, and in 2003 by BMG Heritage. In 2010, Sony reissued "Yesterday's Wine" as part of a triple disc boxed set, along with Red Headed Stranger and Stardust.

All tracks were composed by Willie Nelson; except where indicated[16]