As a Canadian singer-songwriter who got his big break with a West Coast folk-rock outfit, Neil Young wasn’t a part of the outlaw country music movement—but Waylon Jennings certainly got him close to it. Interestingly, the song that tied Young and Jennings together took on two different meanings, both for and against the country music scene, depending on who was behind the microphone at the time.
Young released “Are You Ready for the Country” on his 1972 album, Harvest, but the A-side closer is often overshadowed by better-known cuts from the record like “Heart of Gold”, “Old Man”, and “Out on the Weekend”. Still, Young fans (this writer included) have a special place in their hearts for “Are You Ready for the Country”, even if all of us weren’t entirely sure what Young meant by the question.
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The songwriter later clarified that he meant country music, not a geographical location. “I think I’m going to be making country records for as long as I can see into the future,” Young said in a 1984 interview. “I really believe in country music. And I believe in the country music community, the way that people support the music, the more friendly kind of approach of the deejays and the public relations side of it.”
Suffice to say, Jennings did not share those same feelings.
Waylon Jennings Put a New Spin on This Neil Young Track
Whereas Neil Young was pining for the country music scene in his 1972 track, “Are You Ready for the Country?”, Waylon Jennings was blatantly defying it, changing Young’s lyrics from, “Are you ready for the country? Because it’s time to go,” to, “Are you ready for the country? Are you ready for me?” Unlike Young, Jennings didn’t have to imagine what it was like to be a part of the Nashville music scene. The country music icon had already been there, done that, and gotten looked down on for not abiding by Music City’s typical practices, hence the reason why “outlaw country” became a thing in the first place.
After all, outlaw country wasn’t a reference to Jennings (or its other defining musicians, like Willie Nelson and Kris Kristofferson) actually breaking the law. Although there certainly was some of that. Outlaw country described a kind of country musician who defied the pop-tinged expectations of Nashville at the time. Jennings’ music was rough around the edges and unequivocally his own, played by the players he wanted to play with, not the city’s go-to session crew. When he sang Young’s track, “Are You Ready for the Country?”, it was like Jennings was calling out Nashville for not being country enough.
That “Are You Ready for the Country?” could take on such distinct, separate meanings is both a testament to Young’s talent as a songwriter and Jennings’ talent as a song interpreter. It also goes to show that the grass is always greener on the other side.
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