Fastest Growing Heartache In The West

Album: Beaucoups Of Blues (1970)
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Songfacts®:

  • Starr's sophomore solo effort is a collection of country tunes, including this tale of heartache written by Nashville songwriters Larry Kingston and Frank Dycus. Dycus, who penned his first hit "Lilacs and Fire" for George Morgan two years earlier, was still working as a welder building trailers for U Haul when inspiration struck. He told Nu Country TV: "I was working in the factory then and looked up at the counter and it said Tennessee Steel - the fastest growing steel warehouse in the south. I looked at it again and thought I got the fastest growing heartache in the south. I got together with Larry Kingston and he said 'the fastest growing heartache in the west - we came here from Arkansas for a better way of life and she got into California booze and California men.' That's how the song originated. It was actually about me but we moved it to a different setting. A lot of times you take bits and pieces out of your life and you can't write the truth when you're living with a woman that's causing you heartache. We had to make it like we got this friend of mine."

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