Waylon Jennings: A Spiteful Song with a Sly Smile

Having already professed my love of country music, I wanted to share the video that inspired that post. Here is Waylon Jennings playing "Sweet Mental Revenge" on television in 1967. It opens with a great guitar lick doubled by the fiddle and gets right to it with these lyrics:

Well I hope that the friend
You've thrown yourself with
He gets drunk and loses his job
Every road that you travel on
Is dusty, rocky and hard
I couldn't make you love me
You only made me blue
So all in all, if the curtain should fall
Lord, I hope that it falls on you

It's a spiteful song, performed in front of a sad spruce with a sly smile. It was written by Mel Tillis, who had a speech impediment when talking, but none when he sang.