1. Swingin' (3:00) - The tempo is fitting for the title and theme: moderate and swingin'! Instruments include horns and an organ; the latter I especially hear during the instrumental interlude. The narrator has fallen in love with his neighbor, Charlotte Johnson. He sits with her on her front porch swing while her brother eats dessert, her mom cooks dinner, and her dad maintains the back yard. The sultry female background vocals are my favorite part of this song; they indicate that Charlotte enjoys being on the porch swing as much the narrator does.
2. I Just Came Home To Count The Memories (3:30) - This song is slow and soft during the verses, the volume rising for the chorus. The setting apparently is the school the narrator used to attend as a child. Or maybe it was his childhood home. Anyway, the building is deserted, the windows are broken, and the garden has deteriorated. Realizing how depressing the sight is, he decides, "I guess it's time to say goodbye."
3. She Just Started Likin' Cheatin' Songs (2:16) - This moderate-paced song features violins. Now that his girlfriend has started listening to songs about people being unfaithful, the narrator starts to wonder whether she has also started to cheat on him. It's also possible that she likes "just the melody." He prays that the latter is the case.
4. 1959 (2:55) - The tempo is moderate. During the verses the drums are subdued. Here's another nostalgic song: the narrator looks back on the year indicated in the title, when he had a girlfriend named Betty, to whom he sings. He recalls bobby sox, blue jeans, quarter-a-pack cigarettes, Elvis songs, and the narrator's truck, inside which the couple had their first sexual encounter. Then he got drafted and she ended up marrying another guy.
5. Chicken Truck (2:40) - This fast song apparently describes a midsummer drive on one Highway 65 running through Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia. The narrator has trouble passing the truck named in the title, but somehow manages. The pianist bangs the keys in eighth beats.
6. I'm Just An Old Chunk Of Coal (But I'm Gonna Be A Diamond Someday) (3:40) - The tempo is fast, matching the narrator's optimism and resolve. He grew up in poverty, but he desires and schemes to improve his attire, speech and manners so he can be "the world's best friend." I suppose if he wants to make a diamond of himself, he can do it; where there's a will there's a way.
7. Would You Catch A Falling Star (2:54) - The tempo is moderately slow. The "would you" in the title makes clear that this is a different song from Perry Como's "Catch A Falling Star." In fact, the phrase takes on a new meaning: a formerly popular country singer asks a woman he encounters if she will "pick him up" by keeping him company; in return he'll sing and play his guitar just for her.
8. Wild And Blue (2:44) - This fast waltz tune features fiddles, a banjo and a piano. In the first verse, the girl is desperate and crazy over a man who is never home for her to call. In the second verse, a guy tries to satisfy her but has no idea that she might be anxious for someone else. In the third verse, the narrator, apparently a previous boyfriend of hers, asks her, "Why don't you come home?"
9. Your Lyin' Blue Eyes (2:58) - The tempo is moderate. During the first verse the only instruments are drums and an acoustic guitar; fiddles and a steel guitar enter later. The narrator used to listen with disbelief to stories that his girlfriend has run around on him. But now he can tell by her eyes alone that the stories are true; "your lyin' blue eyes just told on you."
10. Black Sheep (2:56) - This fast song is my favorite of John's, the reason I bought this disc. Instruments include a saxophone and a piano. The narrator was the second of four children born to a railroad brake man and a housewife. While his brothers and sister have risen to the wealthy life, he himself is married to a waitress, drives a shabby semi-truck and lives in a small shack. Hence he is "the black sheep of the family."