S4 E7: Ray Benson on "Going Away Party"

One by Willie

John Spong

Music, Music Commentary

4.8 • 833 Ratings

🗓️ 30 June 2023

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This week, 8-time Grammy-winner Ray Benson—one of Willie’s best friends since moving his Western Swing band, Asleep at the Wheel, to Austin back in 1973...at Willie’s urging, no less!—talks about a song Willie and the Wheel cut back in 1999, the Bob Wills classic, “Going Away Party.” Wills was, of course, a hero to both Willie and Ray, as was the song’s composer, the great Cindy Walker, who Ray calls one of the single greatest influences on Willie’s own songwriting. From there he’ll describe fifty years of friendship and collaboration with Willie, with cameos by George Gershwin, Floyd Tillman, and Robert Duvall.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Texas Monthly.
0:11.0	Hey there, I'm John Spong with Texas Monthly Magazine, and this is One by a Willy,
0:16.3	a podcast in which I talk each week to one notable Willie Nelson fan about one Willie song that they
0:22.6	really love. This week, eight-time Grammy winner Ray Benson, who's been best friends with
0:28.2	Willie since right about the time Willie talked him into moving to Austin with his Western
0:32.4	swing band, asleep at the wheel, back in 1973, talks about a song that Willie cut with the wheel back in
0:39.6	1998. It's the Bob Will's classic Going Away Party. Wills was, of course, a huge influence
0:46.5	and a hero to both Willie and Ray, as was the song's composer, the great Cindy Walker. According to
0:53.1	Ray, Cindy Walker was one of the single
0:56.0	greatest influences on Willie's
0:57.9	own songwriting, and he's going to explain
1:00.0	where he hears that in Willie's writing,
1:02.1	who Cindy Walker was, and what
1:04.0	it's been like for him to get to play with Willie
1:05.8	on the regular for more than 50 years.
1:08.7	Oh, and there's a cameo appearance
1:09.9	by Robert DeVval, of course.
1:12.3	So let's do it.
1:14.4	It's art.
1:32.3	Um... Press record.
1:34.3	Yeah, right.
1:35.3	Hit record, red lights on.
	...

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