About the Song
A quiet confession wrapped in melody—where memory meets music, and the heart remembers what it’s lost.
In “Them Old Love Songs,” Waylon Jennings sets aside his outlaw image and bares something far more tender: the ache of memory. This isn’t a rowdy honky-tonk anthem or a rebellious guitar-driven roar—it’s a slow-burning reflection on what old songs can stir up when the room is quiet and the past feels a little too close.
Released in the mid-1980s, during a period when Waylon was revisiting his emotional core with more subtle arrangements and introspective lyrics, this song stands out as a soft-spoken gem. With each note, Waylon invites us into a familiar, solitary space—that moment when a song you haven’t heard in years suddenly hits home again.
“Them old love songs bring back memories / Of someone I once knew…”
It’s not just about heartbreak. It’s about how music holds onto pieces of our lives, sometimes long after we’ve let go. And in that, Waylon’s voice does what only the greats can: it doesn’t perform the song—it lives it.
The arrangement is beautifully simple. A gentle rhythm section, steel guitar weeping in the background, and Waylon’s unmistakable baritone right up front—full of quiet grit and bruised grace. He doesn’t cry the lyrics, but you can hear the tears in the spaces between the lines. There’s a tiredness, a knowing… a man flipping through memories he can’t quite close the book on.
“Them Old Love Songs” is for anyone who’s ever sat alone with the radio on and been surprised by what a melody can unlock. It’s for the ones we remember, the moments we miss, and the music that stays with us long after the people are gone.
For Waylon Jennings, the rebel spirit never left—but here, in this song, we’re reminded that even outlaws have tender hearts. And sometimes, the toughest voices tell the softest truths.