Texas Monthly.

Hey there, I'm John Spong with Texas Monthly magazine, and this is One by Willie,

a podcast in which I talk each week to one notable Willie Nelson fan about one Willie's song that they really love.

This week, we talked to singer-songwriter Robert Earl Keene about one of Willie's earliest Texas jukebox hits, Mr. Record Man.

The song first appeared on Willie's 1962 debut album, and then I wrote.

In a pre-teen, Robert Keen first heard it a few years later

when he raided his older brother's record collection. Listening to it now makes him think of a

dance floor mishap at the very first Willie show he attended as a high school kid. And it makes

him think about that time his car caught fire in the parking lot at one of Willie's Fourth of July picnics. And it also makes him think of that time his car caught fire in the parking lot at one of willies's fourth of july picnics and it also makes him think of that uncanny everyman quality of willies

that is so big a part of his appeal let's do it sir sir mr record man i'm looking for a song I heard today.

You've picked Mr. Record Man.

What's so cool about Mr. Record Man?

I think first of all, Mr. Record Man was one of the songs that I remember from my introduction to Willie

through my brother's love of country music in the late 60s, and I was a kid, and he had

some Patsy Klein, Buck Owens, and he had live at Panther Hall.

And I always took to, you know, Willie's voice and his sound from that.

And then I became, you know, a true fan with Shotgun Willie.

And but always, you know, remembered that one of the songs that I really liked, Mr. Recordman,

and what I really liked about the song itself was it's one of those songs that, Willie's not making an

observation like he does in quite a number of his songs, and he's not talking to a lover or ex-lover,

like, Funny How Time Slips Away.

He's really doing the best Willie Everyman there is, I think,

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