Tony Joe White’s “Goodbye L.A.” gets the seal of approval from his son. “It’s so damn good,” says Jody White. “We’ve been unable to find out exactly when and where it was recorded, but the entire thing is amazing.”
“Goodbye L.A.” is the leadoff track to a new expanded reissue of White’s obscure 1980 LP, The Real Thang (Swamp). Available October 24, the album showcases his nimble baritone and underrated talents as a songwriter, along with the signature “swamp funk” jams that were a signature of his live shows.
Best known to mainstream audiences for 1967’s oft-covered “Rainy Night In Georgia” and his 1969 hit “Polk Salad Annie,” White recorded much of his music at a home studio in Hendersonville, Tenn., just outside Nashville. In the seven years after his death at age 75, his son has been busy making digital transfers of material locked away in storage. The Real Thang is the latest unearthed treasure to come from those archival efforts. In 2021, Jody also worked with the Black Keys’ Dan Auerbach on the posthumous Smoke From The Chimney.
Born and raised in rural Louisiana, White was close with Waylon Jennings, who fostered his forays into country music. And while Jennings is mentioned by name in “Goodbye L.A.,” the semi-autobiographical gem is pure White.
“It tells the story of a country boy who’d been out in Los Angeles for too long,” says Jody. “He loved having fun in the big city, but he needed to get back to his small-town roots in the South. The last verse is perhaps the most intriguing part of the song: ‘There were seven horses tethered/Out beside the cabin door/My companion said I’m sorry/I don’t believe we’ve met before.’ We’ll probably never know exactly what he’s talking about, but it’s fun for the listener to guess.”
We’re proud to premiere Tony Joe White’s “Goodbye L.A.”
—Hobart Rowland
