Facts of Life and other dirty jokes
by Nelson, Willie 1933-
pub by Random House, NY, 2002 -       - isbn 0-375-50731-0 - LCCN 2001 048480 -- last page of text p. 202     photos in order of appearance (unpaged but = p. 205 - 223) - The Band p. 224-225 - - The Crew p. 226-227 - - family shots p 228-230 - Photo credits p. 231-323 - - - Total 231 pages.

I heard Willy Nelson in concert twice in my life, many years ago, in the Villarreal center (between Mission, TX and McAllen, TX). I thoroughly enjoyed the performances.
This Christmas I discovered a couple youtubes with his beautiful renditions of a few classic Christmas Carols.
That got me wanting to know more about his life, so off to the public library and I found this book.
    It is a little unusual for an autobiography. Unlike what is part of the title, there are very few -dirty- jokes, and what jokes there are included are indeed funny.
Willy was mostly raised by his grandparents. Thoroughly reasonable people. He calls central Texas home (no surprise.)
It took him a while to understand that one could make a living writing songs, not just performing them.
    The book is unusual in that between the text which Willy wrote there are full text songs that he wrote. They appear to amplify the associated text and are well placed.
    He is loyal to his friends. He has many friends ande is grateful for their assistance in his life.
He once was in the US Air Force, and while not always fun for him, he did enjoy being stationed at Keesler AFB in Biloxi, Mississippi.
(I spent the last 2 years of high school in Biloxi when my Dad was stationed at Keesler... some 28 years after Willy was there. I can agree it was/is a fun place.)
    I learned a fair amount about the business of popular western music from reading this book.
All in all, it was a fun read, and I learned some things.
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~2022-01-23 ~

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