When it comes to iconic friendships in the world of music, the one that transpired over many years between Willie Nelson and Paul English has to rank way up there on the list. Nelson was the country music superstar, and English his touring drummer who filled a myriad of unofficial roles for Nelson along the way, everything from confidant to enforcer.
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Upon English’s death in 2020, Nelson made sure to pay tribute to his buddy by writing a book about their adventures. He managed to immortalize him well before that in song, via the wryly humorous “Me and Paul,” first recorded and released by Nelson back in 1971. Let’s take a look back at the relationship behind this song, as well as the context of the album that contained it.
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Let Flow the Wine
Throughout the ‘60s, Willie Nelson staked a claim as one of the most successful country songwriters of the era, while also placing several songs in the country charts as an artist. But his personal life was in turmoil by the end of the decade, due to financial difficulties, a pair of failed marriages, and a 1970 fire that destroyed his Tennessee farm.
At a crossroads of sorts, Nelson entered into a period of personal reflection. “I looked up and simply began asking questions,” Nelson remembered in his 2015 autobiography It’s a Long Story: My Life, written with David Ritz. “Rather than keep those questions to myself, I put them into songs. The songs became my own particular prayers, my own personal reflections. I strung those prayers and reflections together in a loose-fitting suite of songs.”
The resulting record, Yesterday’s Wine (1971), was a quasi-concept album about the life of an “imperfect” man struggling through his weaknesses to do the bidding of a higher power. Country music just didn’t have too many concept albums at that point in history. That fact, coupled with the philosophical, searching lyrics, left audiences a bit baffled back in the day, although Yesterday’s Wine is now considered a classic.
Amidst the messages from higher powers and existential musings, Nelson did come back down to Earth for the track “Me and Paul.” But just who was this Paul character getting mixed up in Nelson’s shenanigans?
A Lifetime’s Worth of Adventures
In 2022, Nelson collaborated with music journalist David Ritz once again to write a book entitled Me and Paul: Untold Tales of a Fabled Friendship. It was an homage to English, who first began playing with Nelson all the way back in the ‘50s but became a steadier part of his organization a decade later.
In a statement that coincided with the book’s release, Nelson explained his motivations for writing it: “The mission of this book is to bring him back. Why were Paul and I so devoted to each other? Good question. That’s another reason I wrote this book—to show the mystical connection between me and Paul. It was like I knew him before we ever met. And now that he’s gone, he’s still here. He still knows me. He still lives in my heart and in the hearts of everyone whose lives he touched.”
The book is filled with anecdotes about Nelson and English, many of them humorous. But it also recounted how it was English who rallied Nelson after a half-hearted suicide attempt in the early ‘60s. The artist had been struggling with depression while futilely trying to get his songs heard in Nashville, and English’s unwavering confidence and support helped him get through it.
What Is “Me and Paul” About?
You can consider the song “Me and Paul” to be the Cliff’s Notes version of that book. Nelson narrows the essence of their relationship down to three incidents: a near-arrest in Laredo for leaving something unmentioned behind in the hotel room, an airport confrontation in Milwaukee caused solely by the pair’s bedraggled appearance, and then an incident in Buffalo where the two drank away an evening waiting to get on stage as part of a package tour. So I don’t know if we went on that night at all, Nelson surmises.
There are also three choruses, one which starts the song and then two which punctuate the verses. Nelson makes clear in these sections that he’s looking back at these mishaps in retrospect and that he’s no longer in perpetual motion: But I’m finally standing upright on the ground. He also cites Nashville as a particularly harsh stop, perhaps a sly reference to his former struggles in the city. But it’s ultimately been one long hardship of a road trip, albeit one where he’s had a faithful companion to share the load: We received our education/in the cities of the nation, me and Paul.
“Me and Paul” is crucial to Yesterday’s Wine in that it shows the rough-and-tumble humanity that keeps interrupting our hero’s quest for salvation. It’s also integral as a reminder that even the rockiest of circumstances can be endured with a faithful companion at your side. Willie Nelson and Paul English lived that truth to the hilt.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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