About The Song
It was Saturday, October 27, 1984. Alabama’s “If You’re Gonna Play In Texas (You Gotta Have A Fiddle In The Band)” was sitting at #1 on Billboard’s country singles chart, while a duet pairing of Merle Haggard and Janie Fricke called “A Place To Fall Apart” debuted on the list. That same weekend, Epic Records sponsored a three-hour program – “The Merle Haggard Story,” his first network radio special in ten years.
“A Place To Fall Apart” actually fell together from a series of events, starting with an idea songwriter Freddy Powers had while driving around Austin, Texas with Willie Nelson one afternoon. They threw around a couple of lines to start with.
The second part of the chain came on the same bus trip that yielded “Let’s Chase Each Other Around The Room” (a previously-told story here on Classic Country Music Stories). Powers and Merle Haggard were in Nashville at the Opryland Hotel. As of late, Haggard had been writing songs about his recent split from Leona Williams and he turned to Freddy and said, “I wish that I could write just one more little song to get her off my mind – finalize it.” Merle wanted to tell her in a song just how he felt.
Powers suggested he forget about melodies and rhymes and simply write everything he wanted to say in a letter. The first line of Haggard’s note read, “Leona, I’ll probably never see you eye-to-eye again,” which became the first line of “A Place To Fall Apart.”
Merle remembers that the song was extracted right from the letter, which he felt was a neat way of writing a song because it had no air of being contrived at all. It was real – the letter being of a real nature.
Then they burned the letter, Merle laughed.
“A Place To Fall Apart” and “Natural High” were both recorded at Eleven-Eleven Sound in Nashville with vocal support from Janie Fricke. Producer Ray Baker remembers that it was Haggard’s idea to call Fricke in at the last minute to overdub some lines. But Merle instructed her to kind of “ad-lib.” He told Janie, “Don’t pick a line and sing harmony to it. Just kind of go in and shut your eyes and feel it.” And she did.
“A Place To Fall Apart” reached the summit of Billboard’s country singles chart on February 2, 1985.
Video
Lyrics
I’ll probably never see you eye to eye again
This letter’s meant to be my last farewell
But you need to under-stand I’m nearly crazy
You need to know my life has gone to hell
Write me back and tell me why it ended
Send a letter that I can show my heart
I’ll be somewhere between “I love you” and what you’re feeling now
Lookin’ for a place to fall apart
Looking for a place to fall apart
Trying to find a place that I can leave my heart
I need to be somewhere hidin’ when I feel the teardrops start
Lookin’ for a place to fall a-part
I can’t seem to justify your leavin’ me
I’m be-wildered as to how it all came down
I thought everything was fine until your phone call
The call that turned my world around
Send me word and tell me why it ended
I need some final proof to show my heart
I’ll be somewhere between “I love you” and what you’re feelin’ now (I love you)
Lookin’ for a place to fall apart
Looking for a place to fall apart
Trying to find a place that I can leave my heart
I need to be somewhere hidin’ when I feel the teardrops start
Lookin’ for a place to fall a-part
Looking for a place to fall apart
Trying to find a place that I can leave my heart
I need to be somewhere hidin’ when I feel the teardrops start
Lookin’ for a place to fall a-part