Live/Living Top Ten: I Ain’t Living Long Like This (#7)

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Two weeks until the eclipse! It’s a big deal around here because we’re near the “path of totality.” Hotel and gas prices are going to shoot up around here. (We’re used to it, happens every year around Derby time.) Before that happens you need another song with “live” in the title. And here it is! #7: I Ain’t Living Long Like This - Rodney Crowell Linda? This may be safe. You don’t expect a horn section in a country song. And yes, this has a horn section (not those mariachi horns that Rodney Crowell’s one-time father-in-law Johnny Cash had on “Ring of Fire,” either!), Jerry Lee-inspired piano banging, and some rocking guitar. It wasn’t called “Americana” in those days, but what Rodney was doing as a songwriter and a member of Emmylou Harris’ Hot Band was a blend of country and rock (or, as someone once said of Harris herself, “country music with a rock and roll attitude”). Waylon Jennings later recorded this, as did Emmylou herself (that was the first version of this song I heard). I keep going back to Rodney’s, because it’s got the right blend of everything, whether it was country or rock. I just call it good. I Ain’t Living Long Like This Written by Rodney Crowell Recorded by Rodney Crowell From Ain’t Living Long Like This, 1978 Go on and do it but just don’t get caught: