Who needs therapy when you can just listen to sad country songs, amirite?
At least, that’s what I tell myself because so far, I haven’t found much that won’t fix right up while doing so with some kind of strong, neat liquor in hand.
And one of my favorites is a classic by the one and only Willie Nelson called “Last Thing I Needed First Thing This Morning.” A stone cold country heartbreaker, it’s a song that you absolutely NEED to add to your playlist if it’s not already on there.
Written by Gary Nunn and Donna Farar, it was released as the third single from Willie’s iconic 1982 album Always On My Mind, and eventually peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart.
There’s just somethin’ about the way Willie sings the heartbreaking lyrics that cuts deep down in your soul.
I mean, he touches on relatively mundane things that can get the best of any of us on the wrong day. But when spilling all the coffee and bumping your knee at 6AM is compounded by the fact that your lover walked out on you without warning, it’s a recipe for disaster.
Lord, I about got a little teary-eyed just typing these lyrics out and I’m not even drinkin’ yet:
“Postman delivered,
A past due bill notice,
The alarm clock rang two hours late,
The garbage man left all the trash,
On the sidewalk,
And the hinges fell off of the gate,
And this morning at breakfast,
I spilled all the coffee,
And I opened the door on my knee,
Oh, the last thing I needed,
The first thing this morning,
Was to have you walk out on me”
And maybe it’s the lines about the coffee or idea of being left by a girl seemingly out of nowhere, but it kind of reminds me of an underrated track from Eric Church’s 2006 Sinners Like Me album, “Can’t Take It With You,” another great heartbreaker you need to know while we’re on the subject.
I’m telling you, I’m convinced this song can cure just about anything:
Chris Stapleton also included a kickass cover of it on his 2017 From A Room: Volume 1 record, which was certified Gold by the RIAA in July of last year and is an all-time great cover of a perfect country song:
And Willie’s uber-talented son, Lukas, sang it with just an acoustic guitar during his Quarantunes series back in 2020, and it’ll knock your dang socks off…
