The Meaning Behind “I Ain’t Living Long Like This” by Waylon Jennings and Why Rodney Crowell Went to Jail to Finish Writing It

A football team, a Texas highway patrolman, a dog named Banjo, and a Southern California jail cell all led to a smash hit for Waylon Jennings in 1979. The song came from the pen of Rodney Crowell, who wrote it three years earlier. Let’s look at the meaning behind “I Ain’t Livin’ Long Like This” by Waylon Jennings. 

The Seed

Crowell was living in Crosby, Texas, in the late ’60s, where he played on the high school football team. After practice, the squad would get some beers and drive around the East Texas backroads. One of their favorite pastimes was pulling up stop signs. One particular time, a Texas highway patrolman pulled up and got out of his car, causing everyone to scramble. 

The policeman said, “If you make one move, you’re a dead man, friend.” That line always stuck with Crowell.

I look for trouble, and I found it, son
Straight down the barrel of a lawman’s gun
I tried to run, but I don’t think I can
You make one move, and you’re a dead man, friend
Ain’t living long like this
Can’t live at all like this, can I, baby?

A Dog Named Banjo

In 1976, Crowell was living in Hermosa Beach, California. He was sitting in his front room working on an East Texas boogie song. It was starting to come together when there was a knock at the front door. It was the cops. Crowell’s dog Banjo had over 40 unpaid leash-law violations. Crowell had always said he felt the dog was more intelligent than he was, so he didn’t feel right putting a leash on the pet. He always considered Banjo to be his master rather than the other way around. The cops didn’t see it the same way and demanded payment. Crowell had the money but declined, as he wanted to finish the song in jail. He told his wife the money was in the top drawer but to wait an hour or two before getting him out so he could finish the song. 

He slipped the handcuffs on behind my back
And left me reeling on a steel rail rack
They got ’em all in the jailhouse, baby
Ain’t living long like this
Can’t live at all like this, can I, baby?

The songwriter lay on the steel rail rack in the jail cell as he configured the song in his head. His wife showed up to cover the fine, and Crowell returned home with a completed song, “I Ain’t Livin’ Long Like This.”

Grew up in Houston off the wayside drive
Son of a car hop and some all-night dive
Dad drove a stock car to an early death
All I remember was a drunk man’s breath
Ain’t living long like this
Can’t live at all like this, can I, baby?

First Appearance

The song made its first appearance on Gary Stewart’s 1977 album Your Place or Mine. Stewart also included two other Crowell songs, “I Had to Get Drunk Last Night” and “Rachel.” Crowell and a then-unknown singer named Nicolette Larson provided the background vocals on “I Ain’t Livin’ Long Like This.”

You know the story how the wheel goes ’round?
Don’t let them take you to the man downtown
Can’t sleep at all in a jailhouse baby
Ain’t living long like this
Can’t live at all like this, can I, baby?

Next Up: Emmylou Harris

In 1976, Emmylou Harris cut Crowell’s “Bluebird Wine” and requested a meeting with the songwriter. Crowell sat in Harris’s Hot Band and was asked to join. The gig lasted three years. In 1978, Harris recorded “I Ain’t Livin’ Long Like This” and included it on her album Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town. Coincidentally, Larson again provided background vocals. The album also included “Leaving Louisiana in The Broad Daylight,” co-written by Crowell and Donivan Cowart.

I live with Angel. She’s a roadhouse queen
Makes Texas Ruby look like Sandra Dee
I want to love her, but I don’t know how
I’m at the bottom of the jailhouse now
Ain’t living long like this
Can’t live at all like this, can I, baby?

Crowell signed a record deal with Warner Bros. Records and released his first solo album, I Ain’t Living Long Like This, in 1978. The title song featured background vocals by you guessed it—Nicolette Larson. 

You know the story about the jailhouse rock?
Don’t want to do it, but just don’t get caught
They got ’em all in the jailhouse, baby
Ain’t living long like this
Can’t live at all like this, can I, baby?

The Breakthrough

In 1979, the song was recorded by Albert Lee, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Waylon Jennings. It was Jennings who had the greatest success, taking it all the way to No. 1 on the Billboard country chart. The song was the second single on What Goes Around Comes Around, and perfectly suited Jennings’ outlaw image. By this time, Larson was having success of her own with “Lotta Love” and “Let Me Go, Love.” She did not sing the background vocals on the Jennings version. 

British band Foghat included the song on 1982’s In the Mood for Something Rude, and Webb Wilder sang it on his Town & Country in 1995.

In 2003, Brooks & Dunn contributed their version of the song to I’ve Always Been Crazy: A Tribute to Waylon Jennings.

Crowell’s Breakthrough as An Artist

After watching other artists take his songs to great heights, Crowell continued releasing singles that weren’t having much success. In 1988, his album Diamonds and Dirt contained five No. 1 singles, the first country album to accomplish that feat. Crowell has since won multiple ACM, Grammy, and Americana awards, including a Lifetime Achievement in Songwriting honor. In 2003, he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriter Hall of Fame.

Crowell never did put a leash on Banjo.

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Photo by David Redfern/Redferns