I've always liked this song...
As far as me gettin' open to country in the mid-'80s... That's prolly not true if you consider the fact I was into the Grateful Dead in the wayback, and the fact I always loved artists like Emmylou Harris and her peers. But there was a time when all of us Swells looked down our noses at country music. The fact you liked "shit-kicking" music just wasn't COOL, yanno? Ah, but then we grew up.
Hell, I even have a Toby Keith album in my collection now. The Old Me would find that fact almost incomprehensible if'n ya went back 30 years or so. Times DO change, most often for the better.
Well a friend of mine named Steve Goodman wrote that songWell, he fixed that, didn't he? Apropos o' not much... I can't remember when it was that I became open... really open... to country music but I'm thinkin' it was about the time I bought my first Lyle Lovett album, which would be sometime in the mid- to late-'80s. The Lyle Lovett station on iTunes is where we heard Mr. Coe today, like this:
And he told me it was the perfect country and western song
I wrote him back a letter and I told him it was not the
Perfect country and western song because he hadn't said
Anything at all about momma or trains or trucks or prison or gettin' drunk
As far as me gettin' open to country in the mid-'80s... That's prolly not true if you consider the fact I was into the Grateful Dead in the wayback, and the fact I always loved artists like Emmylou Harris and her peers. But there was a time when all of us Swells looked down our noses at country music. The fact you liked "shit-kicking" music just wasn't COOL, yanno? Ah, but then we grew up.
Hell, I even have a Toby Keith album in my collection now. The Old Me would find that fact almost incomprehensible if'n ya went back 30 years or so. Times DO change, most often for the better.
Unless you grew up in the South, then you NEVER lost that country bent... as it were... :-)
ReplyDeleteI was born in the south, but grew up all over the freakin' world. Does that say anything?
DeleteMy stepdad used to drive my mom nuts playin' country on the radio.
ReplyDeleteThat was back in the fifties when a lot of it sounded like someone was skinning a cat without benefit of anesthetic.
That was about the only exposure I had until the Navy.
Whew. David Allan Coe, a truly bad man. Somebody once said "If Willie and Waylon are outlaws, David Allan Coe is Al Capone."
ReplyDeleteHe used to show up riding a Harley with not one but two heavily endowed blondes in tow.
I wouldn't listen to it until 42 and then found some of it really amusing. It's good for the soul to hear a little voice in the back seat singing along with Red Neck Yacht Club.
ReplyDelete@ Skip: My first exposure to country came in the AF. I had literally never heard anything in the genre before... Mom was into r&r, pop, and show tunes; Dad was into jazz. To make matters worse, ALL the authority figures in my early AF life... which is to say the fat lifers... listened to country and HATED rock 'n' roll. That created an immediate and lasting divide, one I didn't get over until well after I left the AF.
ReplyDelete@ Rob: Yeah, he IS a bad-ass... in a not-good way. Not many artists have done as much time as he has.
@ Curtis: We were about the same age when we got around to it, then. I hear ya bout the sing-alongs, too.
Even in the '50s in high school, country (shit kickin' music) wasn't cool except for the rare cross over hit. I secretly listened to it in the basement when I was messing around with some wood project or other on the workbench. But I didn't let my friends know I liked it. HS music talk usually centered on the R & B on WLAC radio or the latest Rock and Roll stuff. Your coming to country later in life reminds me of the political turn I took in my late '50s early '60s, from sickening liberal to libertarian conservative..I hope your musical conversion hasn't lost you any friends or caused extended family issues the way my political one did.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, Dan. I thought everyone (in a manner of speaking) in the south, including teens, enjoyed country music. Then again, every single teenager alive rejects what their parents like, so there's that. As for losing friends... I've had a few raised eyebrows but nothing more than that. I also tend to keep the country on the shelf when entertaining friends that don't care for it. I'm not into proselytizing. I think a political conversion is tougher; like you I lost friends when I switched teams.
Delete