Out of Control (George Jones song)

"Out of Control" is a song by George Jones. It was released as a single on Mercury Records in 1960.

Background

"Out of Control" is one of Jones' most gripping songs about alcoholism. Written by the singer along with Darrell Edwards and Herbie Treece, its evocative lyrics paint a dismal portrait of a man drinking himself into oblivion, with the narrator identifying himself as "just like that fellow." Like his earlier hit "Just One More", the song is an early example of the sad, cry-in-your-beer honky-tonk lament that Jones would become famous for, but "Out of Control" explores the theme with far more nuance:

Supported by a subtle steel guitar and barroom piano, the character's condition in the song continues to deteriorate, with Jones singing with an almost detached kind of sincerity:

As the decade progressed, Jones would move further away from the high lonesome, Hank Williams-influences singing style that characterized many of his Starday and early Mercury recordings and begin exploring the lower registers of his voice. He would also adopt a more idiosyncratic singing style reminiscent of fellow Texas honky-tonk legend Lefty Frizzell. "Out of Control" laid the foundation for this new vocal approach. As Rich Kienzle notes in the 1994 Sony retrospective The Essential George Jones: The Spirit of Country, "He changed the volume of his voice or swooped from a deep bass to a high treble to accentuate a phrase or lyric. At times he'd stiffen his jaw or sing through clenched teeth to emphasize a point."

Murder of David Lynn Harris

David Lynn Harris was an orthodontist who owned a chain of orthodontist offices along with his wife, Clara Suarez Harris. The chain was particularly successful, and the couple were able to afford an upscale home in Friendswood and luxury cars, including Clara's shiny silver Mercedes-Benz. The couple married on February 14, 1992, and were raising three children, twin sons born in 1996 and David's daughter Lindsey from a previous marriage. On July 24, 2002 Mrs. Harris confronted her husband in a hotel parking lot because of an affair he was having, struck him and ran over him multiple times with her car, killing him. She was convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

Affair

During his marriage to Clara, David began having an affair with his former receptionist, Gail Bridges, who later admitted to the affair. Clara, who was suspicious, hired a private detective agency to spy on her husband, and on July 24, 2002, the agency notified Clara that her husband was at a hotel with his mistress.

Boy (album)

Boy is the debut album by Irish rock band U2. It was produced by Steve Lillywhite, and was released on 20 October 1980 on Island Records. Thematically, the album captures the thoughts and frustrations of adolescence. It contains many songs from the band's 40-song catalogue at the time, including two tracks that were re-recorded from their original versions on the band's debut release, the EP Three. Boy was recorded from March–September 1980 at Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin; it was their first time at the studio, which became their chosen recording location during the 1980s. It was also their first time working with Lillywhite, who subsequently became a frequent producer for the band's recorded work.

Boy included U2's first hit single, "I Will Follow". The album's release was followed by the group's first tour of continental Europe and the United States, the Boy Tour. The album received generally positive reviews from critics. It peaked at number 52 in the UK and number 63 in the US. In 2008, a remastered edition of Boy was released.

Langues d'oïl

The langues d'oïl (/ˈwiːl/ French: [lɑ̃ɡᵊdɔjl]), or oïl languages (also in French: langues d'oui [lɑ̃ɡᵊdwi]), are a dialect continuum that includes standard French and its closest autochthonous relatives spoken today in the northern half of France, southern Belgium, and the Channel Islands. They belong to the larger Gallo-Romance languages, which also cover most of east-central (Arpitania) and southern France (Occitania), northern Italy and eastern Spain (Catalan Countries), although some linguists place Catalan into the Ibero-Romance grouping instead.

Linguists divide the Romance languages of France, and especially of Medieval France, into three geographical subgroups: Langues d'oïl and occitan, named after their words for 'yes' (oïl, òc), and Franco-Provençal (Arpitan), which is considered transitional.

Meanings and disambiguation

Langue d'oïl (in the singular), Oïl dialects and Oïl languages (in the plural) designate the ancient northern Gallo-Romance languages as well as their modern-day descendants. They share many linguistic features, a prominent one being the word oïl for yes. (Oc was and still is the southern word for yes, hence the langue d'oc or Occitan languages). The most widely spoken modern Oïl language is French (oïl was pronounced [o.il] or [o.i], which has become [wi], in modern French oui).