“The Year That Clayton Delaney Died”
Tom T. Hall
Written by Tom T. Hall
Billboard
#1 (2 weeks)
September 18 – September 25, 1971
This is a masterclass in making the personal universal.
Tom T. Hall weaves a very specific story about a man with a great talent but stronger demons, and because he connects it to his own journey as a singer and a songwriter, he gives an otherwise forgotten life a sense of meaning and purpose.
It’s also got a singalong hook and some clever production flourishes like the brass instrumentation as he shouts out a five piece band. It keeps the mood light and celebratory, counterbalancing this man’s lonely and painful death with a joyous celebration of his life.
We’re in a golden era, folks, in case you haven’t noticed yet.
“The Year That Clayton Delaney Died” gets an A.
Every No. 1 Single of the Seventies
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Another easy “A+”. One of many examples of why early 70’s country was easily the best country ever offered. Tom T. at his best. A perfect story song sung in a perfect way. The only sad thing about this era is to know that it never existed again.
I love that this feature is getting so much participation from you, Paul Dennis, and other readers who love this time period the most. Really cool having this running at the same time as the 2000s, which are so special to a different set of readers.
I’m 90s ride or die and will be until the end. It’s so cool to have the country universe being expanded through different eras and not just different styles.
I am actually starting to appreciate the 2000’s a bit more through your reviews. I started to lose interest in the late 90’s but this is helping me to remember that there was still some great country out there.
…wasn’t there? i keep experiencing this time after time when diving into certain periods in order to reach a better understanding within the wider context of a particular time frame.
what bugs me at the moment (while working on a feature) is the falling off of the radio dial of the female country artists during the period this feature is covering. it’s almost kinda like what happened to the dinosaurs. given the great artists (stars) and talents that obviously were around and had hits at the turn of the century and well into the first decade of the next (as this feature also indicates so far) makes it even more mysterious on the surface.
Some facts – award nominees – around that time strangely point in a completley different direction than what actually was starting to take place.
Here’s a breakdown of the CMA Female Vocalist of the Year nominees from 2000 to 2005:
• 2000: Faith Hill, Martina McBride, Jo Dee Messina, Lee Ann Womack, Trisha Yearwood
• 2001: Sara Evans, Faith Hill, Martina McBride, Jo Dee Messina, Lee Ann Womack
• 2002: Sara Evans, Faith Hill, Martina McBride, Jo Dee Messina, Lee Ann Womack
• 2003: Alison Krauss, Martina McBride, Patty Loveless, Dolly Parton, Lee Ann Womack
• 2004: Alison Krauss, Martina McBride, Terri Clark, Sara Evans, Gretchen Wilson
• 2005: Gretchen Wilson, Sara Evans, Alison Krauss, Martina McBride, Lee Ann Womack
This is the breakdown of the CMA Female Vocalist of the Year winners from 2000 to 2005:
• 2000 – Faith Hill
• 2001 – Lee Ann Womack
• 2002 – Martina McBride
• 2003 – Martina McBride
• 2004 – Martina McBride
• 2005 – Gretchen Wilson
As for the cma horizon award winners from 2000 to 2005, they were:
• 2000 – Brad Paisley
• 2001 – Keith Urban
• 2002 – Rascal Flatts
• 2003 – Joe Nichols
• 2004 – Gretchen Wilson
• 2005 – Dierks Bentley
As far as the female artists go, the breakdown of the CMA Horizon Award (now known as the New Artist of the Year Award) nominees from 2000 to 2005 does not show an obvious misrepresentation of female stars overall:
• 2000: Brad Paisley, Chad Brock, Montgomery Gentry, Keith Urban, Shannon Brown
• 2001: Keith Urban, Billy Gilman, Jamie O’Neal, Shedaisy, Trick Pony
• 2002: Rascal Flatts, Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Nickel Creek, Phil Vassar, Darryl Worley
• 2003: Joe Nichols, Gary Allan, Buddy Jewell, Blake Shelton, Darryl Worley
• 2004: Gretchen Wilson, Dierks Bentley, Big & Rich, Julie Roberts, Josh Turner
• 2005: Dierks Bentley, Big & Rich, Miranda Lambert, Julie Roberts, Sugarland
since i haven’t received any tangible/public evidence (business figures of the labels) for that development, i’d appreciate any first hand opinion/experience from commenters here, who still have a decent recollection of that period. mine is a bit like: all of a sudden it was martina mcbride only (almost). then again my access to country radio at the time was pretty much limited to afn.
You are correct Kevin, the early 1970s were a golden era for country music. Unfortunately, there are a lot of great Tom T Hall recordings that did not quite reach the top of the charts, so you likely won’t be commenting on them in this series
Below is an article I wrote on one such song
https://mykindofcountry.wordpress.com/2018/06/22/the-history-behind-fox-on-the-run/
Country music has a lot of similar songs that touch on the impact of familial loss of older figures, like He Walked On Water, If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away, etc. But I can’t recall many that celebrated the life of a man who was not a relative. And while most look back with total fondness of the song, Tom T. paints an honest picture of Clayton Delaney that only Tom T. could do. This is probably his best single, if I had to judge.
I really have nothing more to say than further praise of Tom T. Hall. He was amazing.
Haunting song that sticks with you. I envisioned Clayton Delaney as an older man, but I seem to recall an interview with Tom T. where he said that the subject of the song was actually not much more than a kid, maybe in his early 20s, when he died. Makes the song all the more haunting.
Interesting that the lyric and the title state “I Remember the YEAR that Clayton Delaney Died”–as opposed to the “DAY” which might be expected (as in the DAY that Billy Joe jumped off the Tallahatchie Bridge). The choice of that word further conveys what an impactful event it was for the narrator, who basically associates an entire year of his childhood with the death of this itinerant musician (and mentor).
An absolutely brilliant song.
The historical figure behind the character of Clayton Delaney was Lonnie Easterling. He died of either lung cancer or tuberculosis when he was nineteen. Hall always remembered him as “the man who taught me to play the guitar and inspired me to be a musician and a songwriter.” In “The Storyteller’s Nashville,” Hall said this about Clayton/Lonnie, “He could play guitar better than anyone within walking distance of where I lived. And I don’t remember if he sang or not, but I suppose he did, though we didn’t then – and still don’t now do we? -require that our country heroes have any great ability to sing.He was just a great picker. A split-rail skinny man with eyes set back in his head, and thin lips, holding a hand-rolled cigarette most of the time.Even when he wasn’t leaning back in a cane-bottomed chair picking on the guitar, his black cotton pants were always too short for him, exposing his white socks. But it was the rolled-up short sleeve shirt that distinguished Clayton’s tastes. Even when he wore a short-sleeved shirt, he rolled them up, as if nothing in the way of sleeve length suited him. In fact, it was the lack of satisfaction with life, that special measure by which he gauged life, that drove Clayton Delaney’s manliness right into my emotional core..so much so that just after mother’s death I was left ragged by dad’s announcement one night.
“Clayton Delaney is dead.”
Hall maintained he always owed Lonnie Easterling a debt of gratitude for making it as a Nashville star while Easterling died young in Olive Hill, Kentucky.
Somewhere along the way I read that this was a song about survival guilt as much as anything.
Bonus Beats:
Here’s the audio of a live duet between Tom T. Hall and Johnny Cash of “The Year That Clayton Delaney Died.” I unfortunately can’t find video of it though:
https://youtu.be/SX8YQ5dXHpE
And here’s the duet of the song that Waylon and Willie recorded for their 1982 collaborative album WWII:
https://youtu.be/XeQCDatRrDA