That fact, combined with the turmoil that surrounded him at the time, makes "I Just Don't Give a Damn" - an extremely acerbic song - all the more fascinating.
That fiddle floating in the background offers a portrait of loneliness and rage that is unbridled and self-destructive in the classic honky tonk style."
As if making his own state-of-the-union address before diving headlong into the gutter, Jones leaves no doubt as to his state of mind: On the bridge, Jones addresses the object of his scorn (presumably Wynette) directly, but also fully aware of the pain and torment he is about to inflict on himself: In the liner notes to the 1999 reissue of Memories of Us, Daniel Cooper writes that "I Just Don't Give a Damn" "hearkens back to the sort of material Jones's idol Hank Williams used to write when Hank was feeling his most embittered.
In his prolific career, Jones has made dozens of bone-chilling recordings that languish as forgotten, seemingly throwaway album tracks and B-sides...Yet all these years later 'I Just Don't Give a Damn' rings harrowingly true and honest, like a sketched, 3 a.m. self-portrait by one of America's greatest artists."
A rare, grainy clip of Jones performing the song at his Possum Holler club in Nashville is available on YouTube.