If there is a single album nexus point between what Waylon’s early career was like, and what his Imperial King of Country era was like, it’s The Taker/Tulsa: The one album from his pre-outlaw period that stands above the rest, a record that would help break an outsider songwriter to the Nashville mainstream, prove Waylon had instincts that couldn’t be taught and was maybe onto something that would flower into all his commercial success later on.