“Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)”
Alan Jackson
Written by Alan Jackson
Radio & Records
#1 (5 weeks)
December 21, 2001 – January 18, 2002
Billboard
#1 (5 weeks)
December 29, 2001 – January 26, 2002
This is as much an historical record as it is a musical one.
“Where Were You” became its own “where were you” moment when Alan Jackson performed it on the 2001 CMA Awards. Somehow he channeled the fog and uncertainty of that day into its own form of clarity, helping all of us remember what it was like to feel the world stop turning on that September day.
I was prepared to write about how important it was to seek out the live CMA version over the studio recording, but revisiting the latter made me appreciate the song all over again with Jackson’s steadied studio delivery. Both recordings are essential.
Do I have to write more about this one, or can I just state the obvious?
“Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)” gets an A.
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What I love about this one is how calm and grounded it is. It’s not about patriotic sloganeering or fighting any enemy or concept. It’s just about ordinary people and letting love and unity take over.
I was walking between classes senior year. I was told a plane hit the World Trade Center and I thought someone was pulling my leg. Then we spent the rest of the school day watching CNN. I don’t think I’ll ever forget just how scared and confused I felt. And this song makes me think every time of just how sobering a moment it was.
Yes. This song so keenly captures how so many of us felt on that day. For me, it even captured that evening when my college roommate asked if we could change the channel from the news to Nick At Night reruns, which I was relieved to do.
I remember crying my eyes out when he sang it live that night.
For some reason – and this may be my opinion – but it didn’t get the attention it deserved outside of the country universe. I think a lot of news organizations felt it was too religious. But I think he covered all beliefs very well with the lyrics.
This song touched and still touches a lot of people. No, we have not forgotten that September day. Not by a longshot.
Yes, a great song worthy of an “A+”. Not much else to say.
Jackson humbly refers to himself as “just a singer of simple songs.”
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Excellent idea to find the original live performance from the 2001 CMA Awards that packed such a stunning punch. I had always respected Alan Jackson as a songwriter but was floored listening to this performance that night and registering that he was able to put together a composition like this and record it on such a compressed timeline after the attack. The gamut of emotions he processes in those few minutes has enough reach to hit just all of us where we lived in mid-September 2001, and usually more than once in each verse. It was pure poetry and as Caj states, it deserved much more acclaim outside of the country universe, particularly in a pop landscape dominated at the time by the likes of Enrique Iglesias.
Listening to this again, I couldn’t help but think of the contrast to the previous #1 reviewed, not for depth of subject matter, but for volume of material. My modest complaint with “I Wanna Talk About Me” is that it went on autopilot at the halfway point of the track, missing an opportunity to pack a more memorable punch with a third verse or a clever extended bridge. “Where Were You When The World Stopped Turning” kept finding new things to say as it went along, each of them as poignant as the one before it. The only downside is that the song is so “of its time”. Nobody under 25 will listen to it and connect with it the way us “over the hill” types will. Either way, this needed to be said in late 2001 for the nation’s mental health and I’m honored that Alan Jackson said it.
Grade: A