That's The Way Love Goes by jmjiloveyou

jmjiloveyou - That's The Way Love Goes

jmjiloveyou

Jul 25, 2025 11:12am

That's the Way Love Goes is the 38th <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studio_album" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">studio album</a> by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">American</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Country_music" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">country</a> singer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merle_Haggard" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Merle Haggard</a> backed by <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Strangers_(American_band)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Strangers</a>, released in 1983. "That's the Way Love Goes" (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lefty_Frizzell" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lefty Frizzell</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanger_D._Shafer" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Sanger D. Shafer</a>) – 3:04<h2> </h2><h2>Background</h2>Haggard had loved <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lefty_Frizzell" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Lefty Frizzell</a>'s "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That%27s_the_Way_Love_Goes_(Johnny_Rodriguez_song)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">That's the Way Love Goes</a>" since he first heard the song took a stab at recording it towards the end of his tenure with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitol_Records" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Capitol Records</a> in the mid-seventies with unsatisfactory results. That version, which can be found on the box set Hag: The Studio Recordings 1969-1976, is more lighthearted and whimsical than the one Haggard would record in 1983. The song topped the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_(magazine)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Billboard</a> country singles chart, as did "<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Someday_When_Things_Are_Good" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Someday When Things Are Good</a>," a song co-authored by Haggard and his wife <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leona_Williams" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Leona Williams</a>. It also proved to be prophetic, as the couple would divorce that year. Williams had also written Haggard's recent hit "You Take Me For Granted," but Williams, who replaced Haggard's previous wife <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bonnie_Owens" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Bonnie Owens</a> in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Strangers_(American_band)" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">the Strangers</a>, had creative aspirations of her own that were not always appreciated by her husband. As Haggard wrote in his 1981 autobiography Sing Me Back Home, "I'd reached the point in my career where I felt in charge of my music...When Leona tried to make a suggestion, I resented it. She resented my resentment. So it went. She kept saying she felt like an outsider...I couldn't understand why she got so upset by the press leaning toward good ol' Bonnie and the snide remarks about Leona coming in and breaking up my 'happy home.'"<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/That%27s_the_Way_Love_Goes_(Merle_Haggard_album)#cite_note-1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">[1]</a> The divorce would instigate a personal landslide for Haggard, who would spend the rest of the decade losing himself in a fog of alcohol and drugs, although initially it did not prevent him from scoring #1 hits. As the singer recalled in his 1999 autobiography House of Memories, "I roared right through the 1980s, running and drugging the nights away, making bad decisions while under the influence of various substances."[<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Citation_needed" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">citation needed</a>] That's The Way Love Goes was his third hit LP for <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epic_Records" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Epic</a> in two years, not counting two separate duet albums with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Jones" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">George Jones</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Nelson" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Willie Nelson</a>. While discussing his own song "Bad Boy" in the liner notes to Great Days: The John Prine Anthology, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Prine" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">John Prine</a> admitted, "Around that time, I fell under the spell of Merle Haggard's songwriting. There was a period there when he just seemed to be churning out some really great stuff. He was bringing out great albums every six or eight months, and I considered 'Bad Boy' sort of in the vein of what he was doing."Overall, That's The Way Love Goes offers a more laid back feel than Haggard's recent <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LPs" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">LPs</a>, demonstrating the singer's emotive vocal range on several ballads like "What Am I Gonna Do (With the Rest of My Life)", which peaked at number 3 and appears to reflect the turmoil with Williams, as does the lilting yet bitter "If You Hated Me." Other tracks feature the bright pop sound that was becoming more predominate on country albums in the eighties, such as "I'm Carrying Fire" and the jazzy "The Last Boat of the Day." The album's closing track, "I Think I'll Stay," sounds like an afterhours blues jam as Haggard croons, "Think I'll stay around till I'm sick of home sweet home..." The album would peak at number 8 on the Billboard country albums chart.