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October 16, 2018

Top Fifty David Allan Coe Songs - Playlist by Tyler Mahan Coe (Cocaine & Rhinestones Podcast)





The 50 Best Songs by David Allan Coe

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old photo of David Allan Coe wearing leather jacket and big belt buckle

I have no delusions that this post will create such waves as my post on what happened to the David Allan Coe band.

However, this blog was not initiated as a theater of war. Baby Black Widows is to be a compendium of things I consider important in life. I felt it would be naive of myself to expect to be able to have such a public outlet without first discussing the situation with my father. I'm hoping that this post can serve as a segue toward this site's intended purpose, as well as clarify some things about my feelings toward my father.

On the 8th, I expressed my dismay at so many DAC shows having been derailed by his complaining at not having received the recognition he felt he deserved. Let me be clear, he DOES deserve that recognition. David Allan Coe has done some amazing things in his career.

Earlier in the year, in response to all those superficial "Best David Allan Coe Songs" lists made by the kind of people who listen to Greatest Hits albums, I posted a list on Facebook of my Top Fifty DAC Songs. I'm going to post that again here, using the extra space to offer added commentary.

First though, some unsolicited advice for any who hope to pursue a career in music:

Do it because you have to do it or you will go crazy. Do not concern yourself with criticism or acclaim. You will receive both if you are creating anything worthwhile. Concern yourself with being worthwhile. Be worthy.
[I originally made a YouTube playlist for this post but the songs keep being removed due to copyrights stuff. Now they're linked to the albums on Amazon. Get these songs in your life. You'll thank me. Even though they are technically bootlegs, the Bear Family compilation records are the absolute best CD reproductions for fans: liner notes, song lyrics, bonus tracks, etc.]


Top Fifty David Allan Coe Songs
These are my 50 favorite songs by my father. In other words, this is a personal list. I'm not trying to objectively qualify these songs or anything so foolish as that. These are the songs that I would be most likely to sit around and listen to in my room alone:



50. "Actions Speak Louder Than Words" - I guess this was his advice for me and I guess I took it. I've never been one for much sitting around thinking or talking when I could be doing.

49. "A Country Boy (Who Rolled the Rock Away)" - Nobody sings about Hank better than DAC sings about Hank.

48. "Looking in the Mirror" - The first of several "cheating" songs on this list. You'll hear DAC go on and on about how he's the greatest writer of drinking songs in the world. Whether or not that's true, I find myself more impressed with his commentary on relationships. Whether narrating from the outside or singing from the perspective of cheater, cheated, man or woman, he pulls the reality of those situations right into focus.

47. "Rose Knows" - See? Another relationship gone wrong song. This one is interesting because it sets up another common lyrical theme, which is that of the person who has committed a wrongful act, knows it was wrong, may or may not be remorseful, knows they will be caught but does not take action to alter their course.

46. "A Sense of Humor" - Dad used to beat A LOT of asses... He tells a story about beating up a karate instructor, who then sued my father because "nobody wants to learn karate from a guy who got beat up by a hillbilly," which, in the story, prompted my father to beat him up again in the courtroom. Doubt that's true. Good story, though.

45. "Living on the Run" - The sound of the slide guitar in this is crazy. I sometimes find myself daydreaming about different cool production tricks to try when recording music. This song gave me the idea of doubling a slide guitar part with a kazoo. Still haven't tried that one...

44. "O Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie/Motherless Child" - This is so pure, which is particular because the production of these King Records sessions is not my favorite. 

43. "River" - If you're already familiar with this song and want to gain a new appreciation for it, watch Heartworn Highways, where my father goes to perform for the inmates at Tennessee State Prison. Singing a song about being in prison to men in prison put a fire into that performance.

42. "Free Born Ramblin' Man" - My father was almost a hippie. If he'd liked psychotropic drugs, it would have been a sure thing.

41. "Yesterday's Wine" - Stellar harmonies...

40. "So Tired of Honkytonk Angels & Wine" - This is particularly great because he wrote it at the beginning of his career and it's such a world-weary sentiment. Guess he didn't have much of a childhood...

39. "Tanya Montana" - Tanya's song got a better melody/steel part than mine. I'll never forgive her. Trivia: this is the only song for which my father ever made an official music video.

38. "A Satisfied Mind" - I'm pretty sure I like this recording of this song better than any other one. Actually, I could say the same thing of almost the entire Texas Moon album. 

37. "Wild Irish Rose" - There are a lot of stories about Pop Coe getting drunk and beating his wives and children, so this song is probably true. It's not pleasant but it happens. You can get down about it or sing about it.

36. "Cold Turkey" - I realize this song could sound goofy to some but it is FUNK AS HELL. "OOH baby" Imagine Clarence Carter doing this song.

35. "Love Is a Never Ending War" - This is one of the first songs that was really interesting to me as a child. I have a distinct memory of watching the band run through this song over and over in soundcheck one day until the keyboard player figured out the part he should play after the first line in the chorus. I think the first time it happens in the album version is around the 2:15 point. 4 year-old me thought that part was awesome.

34. "Ride 'Em Cowboy" - An absolute pleasure to perform live. The imagery of the lyrics is so vivid. This really tells a story and makes something that's actually pretty stupid (rodeos) seem heroic and tragic.

33. "Lovin' You Comes So Natural" - Smooth hi-hat work. Very cool rhythm.

32. "What Can I Do" - It's all about that "could it be you?" stop.

31. "Southern Star" - How this wasn't a number one single I will never understand. Epitome of the era.

30. "Whiskey and Women" - The music sounds tough and swaggering, which makes it all the more effective when you realize the lyrics are about a guy who is suffering a pretty serious bout of anguish at the hands of a failed relationship.

29. "Revenge" - This is a very detailed story-song, which I usually don't like. The opening line is so strong that it carries the rest of the song, really. 

28. "Funeral Parlor Blues" - I'm always a fan of my father doing atypical things. His first album, Penitentiary Blues, betrays that he never really wanted to be a "country" artist. He came to Nashville with R&B ambitions that didn't pan out.

 27. "Take It Easy Rider" - I love Guy Clark. I love Larry Jon Wilson.
26. "Under Rachel's Wings" - You can't touch this melody. It just evolves and evolves.
25. "Southern Man" - This is so weird and good and, honestly, somehow even more compelling than Neil Young's recording.
24. "Now I Lay Me Down to Cheat" - "...awwwww, but it crossed his...." DAC would throw a recitation into every song if he didn't have anyone there to talk him out of it.
23. "Ride Me Down Easy" - So many nights singing this on the bus, headed to the next town... That fiddle doesn't quit. This is, to me, a perfect example of my father hearing a great song, taking it and putting it in his pocket and saying, "That's mine now."
22. "Ice Cold Love" - I have seen people say this is the WORST David Allan Coe song. I don't get that at all. This song is amazing. Look at the album cover (Rough Rider). Okay, now imagine THAT DUDE going into a professional recording studio with a Casio keyboard and telling the session musicians they can sit this one out because he's got it all covered.
21 & 20. "Human Emotions"/"(She Finally Crossed Over) Love's Cheating Line" - These are one musical moment and flow together on the LP seamlessly. It's perfect. You can hear the Ray Charles influence so clearly. The melody of "she packed up her suitcase" gets stuck in my head on a regular basis. I would like to dedicate the second song to my horrible ex-girlfriend who (yeah, did cheat on me but also) said my father isn't a very good singer and mostly "just kind of talks." I broke up with her a couple days after she said that. And...
19. "I'm Gonna Hurt Her on the Radio" - This is the fantasy. She breaks your heart and you become rich and famous and she can't escape it.
18. "Honey Don't" - Rebel Son does a great cover of this live. I don't have any idea what all of the stuff about being a roadie for the devil is supposed to mean.
17. "Piece of Wood and Steel" - I still have trouble keeping this song and #14 apart because we'd always work them into a medley for the live show. I'm not a fan of the Marty Robbins background vocals on this recording but man is this song tough. When you're ten years deep into the life of a constantly touring musician, it's the only thing you can see, the only thing that matters. Your relationships fall away and you're left stripped down to one thing: your instrument. All you are is a guitar.
16. "Just to Prove My Love for You" - Pure novelty but done exactly right.
15. "I Hate Love" - This is a tough one to perform when it's the truth. There was a particularly rough period when I was extremely heartbroken and would end up sobbing during every show. This song was the one that did it most nights. Waylon & Willie add some flavor to this recording.
14. "She Used to Love Me a Lot" - The story here is actually pretty cruel. The narrator sees a woman who used to think he hung the moon and decides to see if he can get back in there for a night. Keep in mind we'd medley this with "Piece of Wood & Steel," so the narrator could be viewed as having sociopathic tendencies.
13. "Why You Been Gone So Long" - I love this recording but I gotta take this opportunity to let fellow Mickey Newbury fans know that Saint Cecilia Knows put together this Mickey box set that you absolutely must own. I hope to eventually write a piece dedicated to it. In the meantime, get it on Amazon (Drag City reissue): An American Trilogy
12. "Another Pretty Country Song" - I heard that this was the only song played at the funeral for the members of Lynyrd Skynyrd who died in that plane crash. I have no way of knowing if that's true but the song is a great debunker of how glamourous life on "the road" is supposed to be. Your family gets neglected and almost nobody knows who you are as a person but, hey, sweet jewelry.
11. "Rough Rider" - These lyrics are amazing. Guy walks into a bar thinking he's the man and the barmaid lets him know he's just a man.
10. "Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone)" - Written as wedding vows for my uncle's wedding. Jumpstarted Tanya Tucker's career when she was just a teenager. You might know that stuff but you probably don't know that Townes Van Zandt was convinced my father stole this melody from his song, "If I Needed You." The beginning of the melody (and only the beginning) is very close, I'll give him that. But my father always maintained that Townes was actually the one who stole the melody but (being a notorious blackout drunk) mistakenly thought it was the other way around. Both songs were written and performed publicly around the same time, so there's no real way to know who got to it first. And I love Townes' music but there's no question this is the better song.
09. "Ghost of Hank Williams" - Nobody sings about Hank better than DAC sings about Hank. Nobody.
08. "Got You On My Mind" - Back to the Texas Moon album again. These sad blues-y songs work so well with his deep voice. He can hum and that's all it takes. Side note: from playing Jimmy Reed's "Honest I Do" so much live, I always think it's on Texas Moon. The sad truth is that my father never recorded his version of it.
07. "Until Hell Freezes Over" - It's mostly tears from here on, boys and girls. If you haven't heard Living on the Edge, be very careful here. The album can absolutely destroy you if love hasn't panned out well in your life. Trivia: Bonnie "Prince" Billy recorded a cover of a different song from the album. I don't really like it but I don't really like any of his music - no offense.
06. "If This Is Just a Game" - Another shoplifting melody. The keyboard parts are perfect.
05. "Crazy Mary" - Saddest narrative in any song I've heard in my life. I tracked down the folk singer who wrote the song and his version is nothing like this. The violin on this track is massive. This is one for a rainy day.
04. "A Sad Country Song" - This song is more about sad country songs than it is a sad country song itself but I like post-modern stuff.
03. "You Take My Breath Away" - Crippling, for very personal reasons and it wouldn't be fair to other people still living for me to explain.
02. "Spotlight" - This is the pinnacle of songs written about the life of a performing artist. Everything that nobody ever says and that Bob Dylan started trying to say to the media in the mid-'60s is right here, laid out in plain English. It's all just a matter of perspective.


01. "Pledging My Love" - Seriously, please, do not listen to this if you are having a hard time with a significant other. The intro about Johnny Ace committing suicide directly after recording his version of this song isn't exactly true and neither is it true that Johnny died playing Russian Roulette. But, hey, they didn't have the Internet when my father heard the story. His version of it, though, is what I've known for most of my life and certainly affects my reaction to the song. It haunts me, the idea of a man writing these words and then killing himself because it rings so true, even though it isn't at all.
Thank you for your time.

Are there any questions?

-TMC
at

October 13, 2018

John Entwistle - My Wife (Playlist)


 The song is about a man who has gone out and gotten drunk and been gone for a period of time (due to being locked up in the drunk tank) and is in fear of his wife because she thinks he was spending time with another woman. 

John Entwistle 

My Wife playlist

.


My Wife is a song by the Who

written by bass guitarist John Entwistle.

released in 1971


Who's Next,




6 November 1971



"My Wife" was the fourth track on "Who's Next" recorded at Olympic Studios May 1971.

While it did appear on Who's Next

it was thought that it was not a part of the Lifehouse project[2],

which was confirmed in 2000, when it was not included in Pete Townshend's Lifehouse Chronicles box set. 
The song drolly describes, in first person, all the things he needs to have or do to protect himself from her wrath.

"My Wife" is arguably John Entwistle's highlight on "Who's Next" being that he takes on the lead vocals, bass guitar, piano, and horn section
Unusually, this song does not feature a guitar solo, which is most likely because Entwistle could only "write on bass guitar or in my head, just transfer it to manuscript paper, or piano,"[5] and did not play the guitar. Instead of a guitar solo, in the longer breaks between verses there is a horn part by Entwistle. This song is in the key of B major. 
 In 1979 "My Wife" was again released as a B-side single, this time to "Long Live Rock". This version was recorded live and released on The Kids Are Alright. What is rare about this version is that it was the only song released from The Who's 1977 concert at the Kilburn State Theatre in London.[6] The rest of the songs were not released until 2008 on the DVD The Who at Kilburn: 1977. The song is unlike the studio version as it has a guitar solo by Townshend but no piano or horns. 



 In November 1973, Entwistle re-recorded the song and released it on his third solo album Rigor Mortis Sets In. A live version of the song was featured on the two-disc compilation album So Who's the Bass Player? The Ox Anthology which was released on 22 March 2005. 

During an interview Pete Townshend described "My Wife" as "the best new rock number on the album [Who's Next]."[5]
  Critic Mark Deming called "My Wife" the "comic relief" on "Who's Next".[7]
 While it's certainly true that Pete Townshend has a keen sense of humor, on Who's Next, the album salvaged from the pieces of the stalled Lifehouse project, Townshend gave John Entwistle the honor of penning the album's comic relief number, and he certainly came up with a corker. "My Wife" is built around a theme as old as vaudeville -- after a few too many drinks, Entwistle runs into a spot of trouble with the law and doesn't make it home that night. His spouse, however, is convinced he's absent because he's been seeing another woman, and now she's on the warpath, and Entwistle is convinced he's got a lot of running to do to escape the wrath of a woman scorned. Not a brilliant premise, to be sure, but Entwistle milks it for all the absurdity he can -- fast cars, planes, bodyguards, guns, martial arts experts, and even tanks aren't enough to keep Entwistle safe from his enraged one-time beloved, and the taller the tale gets, the more amusing it becomes. It helps that Entwistle married his lyrics to a cracking good tune, in fact one of his best -- "My Wife" roars along with a bluesy élan that doesn't get in the way of its commendable physical momentum, and Entwistle fortified the Who's enthusiastic performance with a rollicking piano line and some well-placed horn overdubs (the brass, of course, being played by Entwistle himself). "My Wife" is easily the least-weighty song on Who's Next, but in many ways that's the song's greatest virtue; Lifehouse was as serious and inward-looking a project as the Who would ever attempt, and in the midst of the complex puzzle assembled on Who's Next, "My Wife" served as a reminder that the Who were more than just the platform for a visionary musical genius -- they were a damn good rock & roll band who knew how to give the crowd a good time, and don't let anyone tell you that's not important.
 
Because of excessive live performances John Entwistle wrote "The Quiet One" to replace this song, although he would still perform the song for his solo career and his later performances with The Who.[8]
  Rob Mitchum of Pitchfork Media called it "the only listenable song of [Entwistle's] writing career."[9]




  • Jp from Roanoke, VaOn the “Kids Are Alright” album, and also on the video available on this page, there are one or two words which are spoken at the very end, after the song is over. On the album I think it is Roger D. that speaks the words, but on the video on this page it sounds like John E. is saying them. Anyone know what the word or words are? It sounds like “be offs” or something like that. Thanks.
  • Guy from Woodinville, WaThis is the funniest song ever written. EVER!! I had to write down the lyrics for this way back when I was a teenager.Loved it then and now that I've been married 23 years, I love it more than ever. Hilarious! I think there's a whole side to joh Entwistle that we never really saw, only in his lyrics.
  • Rob from Charleston, Sc, WvMan,I can't believe it. I recently rediscovered this song. I heard this song in college when it was released in 1971. I was also a DJ on a Progressive Rock FM station and played the song. I always loved the instrumentation and the horns in the final 1/3 of the song. I have been married 35 years next month and the lyrics apply to me so much!! I have a new found appreciation of this song!
  • Fudge from Los Banos, CaPlayed at my wedding in my head...Unbelievable drum part...Keith Moon...RIP..
  • Carolina from Palm Springs, Caoh, jeez i absolutely Love this song...and The Who in general :) . John Entwistle rocks, yo!!
  • Sage from San Fran, Cawhen she first heard it she thought it was hilarious and wanted to chase the band mémbers around when they were preforming it
  • Jack from Riverside, CaJohn's major (and only) contribution to Who's Next...
    He wrote it, sung it, and played bass, piano and brass on it.
  • Allen from Bethel, AkI didn't understand a word of this song until I downloaded the lyrics. I like it.
  • Aylin from MontrealJohn Entwistle certainly had a sense of humour. (Eg. Boris)
  • Mike from Germantown, MdIt is a clasic song of a man running away from his wife.This is shown in the line "When she catches up with me Won't be no time to explain"
  • Paul from Aurora, IlI thought this song was where a guy waits to shoot his wife right when she walks into the door and then run away with his friends. This is a pretty good song.
  • James from Staffordshire, EnglandIts wrote and sung by john! It also made the album' Who's Next. Not sure if it was meant to be on the Lifehouse Project of pete's but i Love the Song and glad i got to hear it! Rock on, Rock God John!!
  • Spence from Smithfield, VaI thought this song what fit perfect in the soundtrack to the movie Mr. and Mrs. Smith, where husband and wife are trying to kill eachother.
  • Stefanie Magura from Rock Hill, ScThis song is hilarious! I love it!
  • Vincent from St. Davids, EnglandThis song hasnt put off maraige. Cause now it sounds like great fun!
  • Fintan from Cheltenham, EnglandHis wife Alison thought it was funny when she first heard it.
  • Jude from Thomasville, GaIt takes a genius to write an upbeat, rocking song about your wife wanting to murder you -- but that goes without saying since the songwriter is John Entwistle! It doesn't fit in with all Pete's "Lifehouse" music, and I like it even better for that.
  • Kabrams from Dallas, Txpretty funny song once you figure out the lyrics... john entwistle wasn't a bad songwriter
  • Gregmon from Intelbuquerque, NmAll I did was have a bit too much to drink
    And I picked the wrong precinct
    Got picked up by the law
    And now I ain't got time to think

    I just love that line.
  • Anthony from Clearwater, FlJohn sang it - and did a great job. This is one of my favorite Who tunes.
at

October 12, 2018

John Phillip's lost Pussycat (full album) with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards is a hardcore drug orgy for losers


John Phillip's lost Pussycat (full album) with Mick Jagger and Keith Richards is a hardcore drug orgy for losers


John Phillips - Pussycat (full album playlist)

John Phillips, the mastermind behind the sunshine-pop sound of the Mamas and the Papas, as well as a notorious drug abuser, must have been an extremely frustrating person to work with. Gifted but irretrievably dissolute, Phillips seems more interested in romanticizing failure and squandering talent rather than applying his ample supply of it with any consistency.

Even in his chart-ruling heyday in the mid-1960s, he seemed drawn to themes of disappointment, betrayal, and regret (albeit cleverly masked by resplendent harmonies and catchy melodies), and after going solo, he made a career of living those themes out. Through the lost decades that followed the Mamas and Papas' breakup, he continued to show just enough brilliance in his intermittent efforts to make records that couldn't be written off entirely, no matter how many of the attempts ended up fizzling out, leaving behind a disarray of unfocused, unfinished masters.
The sessions that have now yielded Pussycat, the third in Varèse Sarabande's series of reissues of solo Phillips material, are a quintessential example. In 1976, after the Rolling Stones negotiated a vanity label for themselves, Mick Jagger signed Phillips, coming off several largely dormant years of dabbling with film scores and theatrical efforts, to record a solo album for the new label in London. Jagger and Keith Richards would play on the record as well as produce it, and a star-studded ensemble of musicians were brought in to contribute, including Ron Wood, Mick Taylor (in his first reunion with his former Stones compatriots), Michelle Phillips, and percussionist Reebop Kwaku Baah from Traffic, among others. Phillips and Richards were a match made in junkie heaven, and they bonded so thoroughly that Richards and Anita Pallenberg moved into Phillips' house in London during the sessions. Somewhat predictably, chaos ensued. Drug use reportedly escalated, and the sessions fell apart. Attempts were made to resurrect them later in New York, but the Stones by that time were at work in Paris on Some Girls, leaving a dispirited Phillips and engineer Harvey Jay Goldberg to try to bring the project to a close.

They finished 10 songs and submitted them to Atlantic, Rolling Stones Records' parent company. Unable to identify any hits in the miasma, the label shelved it. Phillips would later buy back the masters, which hadn't been released in their original mixes, until now. (The 2001 release Pay Pack and Follow offers some of the same tracks in radically different mixes.)
Pussycat is a relic of those halcyon days in the 1970s when margins at the major labels were fat enough to allow them to coddle rock royalty wrestling with their egos and their growing irrelevance. Had it been released, Pussycat would have been at peace with the period's other bloated indulgences, albums that put the tattered decadence and artistic foundering of legendary songwriters on full display: Leonard Cohen's Death of a Ladies Man, Gene Clark's No Other, and Nilsson's own Pussy Cats. Almost despite themselves, each of these flamboyantly overproduced extravaganzas has a irreducible core of sadness, making the overkill layers of backing vocals and horn sections, and session pros jamming, shimmer with an evocative poignancy even when in a conventional sense, they kind of suck. Listeners get to vicariously experience the thrill of heedlessly burning through entertainment industry money, and recklessly destroying brain cells with substance abuse in the futile process of searching for a creative spark.
It's a very specific sort of emotional vibe -- luxury-line desperation -- but if you've acquired a taste for it, it can make for sublime listening. Pussycat captures it best on such tracks as "Wilderness of Love," which is built around this tagline that eats its own tail: "Languishing in the splendor of being lost in a wilderness of love." Given the cast of characters on the record, it's no surprise that it sounds like the Stones albums of the mid-'70s, with a lot of casual grooves, somnambulist tempos, and ragged harmonies. "Oh Virginia" is a very faint echo of Exile on Main Street's country-inspired songs, and "She's Only 14", with its salacious jailbait lyrics, languid slide licks, and prominent Jagger backing vocals, seems like it could be a half-cooked Goat's Head Soup outtake.
As is frequently the case with Phillips, he doesn't hesitate to transform the potentially embarrassing details of his personal life into frank songs; "She's Only 14", inspired by his wayward daughter Mackenzie (of One Day at a Time fame), is typical. Phillips seems to find this approach irresistible, pitilessly recounting his own foibles as if putting the memories up for sale in song excuses his behavior. (Perhaps the most notorious example is "Let It Bleed, Genevieve", from his first solo album. The song recounts his skin-popping heroin use with another woman while his girlfriend was upstairs having a miscarriage.)
But the album's pinnacle is the title track, in which Phillips pours out his heart for the dancers at his favorite strip club, with whom he clearly empathizes. Phillips is never so compelling as when he's singing about the habitats of broken dreams -- strip clubs, junkie dens, southern California -- and he has a knack for finding just the right blend of self-pity, sentimentality, and scorn to achieve true pathos. On this track, he's complemented by an arrangement that suits the subject matter perfectly. The song ambles along, with Phillips confessing his intimate familiarity with the strip-club scene, and he sheepishly admits that if he had "a million hearts to give," he would give one to all the girls who work onstage. And then a booming backing vocalist breaks in to repeat the line, bringing the song to a complete halt, as if to remind us of the true magnitude of the wish he just expressed: that he deeply feels the pain of those compelled to expose and exploit themselves for a jeering or indifferent universe of spectators, and he wishes he could comfort them. He wishes he could comfort himself. But then the song lurches back into its insouciant rhythm, undermining its own poignancy. In this, it is a microcosm of the album, if not Phillips' entire career.

thanks to popmatters
at

October 10, 2018

Johnny Paycheck - Colorado Kool-Aid (How the Best Bar Fight Song of All Time was Written) *knife-proof earmuffs


Johnny Paycheck

Johnny Paycheck - Colorado Kool-Aid (How the Best Bar Fight Song of All Time was Written)



"I was sittin' in this beer joint down in Houston, Texas/ Drinkin' Colorado Kool-Aid and talkin' to some Mexicans..."

So begins one of the greatest bar-fight songs of all time.

Along with "Pardon Me (I've Got Someone To Kill)," "Colorado Kool-Aid" is one of the high-water marks of Johnny Paycheck at his existential meanest, the consummate tough-guy anthem.


The B-side of Paycheck's massive hit "Take This Job and Shove It," "Kool-Aid" stands alongside "Pardon Me" as some of the grittiest, most realistic output of the entire Outlaw era.
David Allan Coe always presented himself to be the bad boy of the Outlaw movement, but there isn't a song in Coe's catalog that approaches the blunt reality of "Colorado Kool-Aid."
The song is as much Charles Bukowski and Jack Kerouac as it is Hank Williams or the Stanley Bros., who did some of the best bluegrass versions of these meaner types of songs.


With his matter-of-fact delivery, like a regular sitting at his usual spot at the bar, Paycheck sells this one as few artists could.
It is literally almost perfect as a dramatic monologue.


Paycheck's droll delivery never waivers as he delivers lines like,
"Now, big man, if you get urge to spit a little beer/ Just open up your hand and spit it in your own ear."
What really sets the tune apart from the usual macho bar-fight song is that the little unnamed Mexican guy, when pushed far enough by the bar bully, turns out to be the badass.
And you can't but love it when this fellow cuts the bully's ear off, then


"bent over with a half-way grin, picked it up and handed it back to him."

Only the finest Colorado Kool-Aid will satisfy Johnny Paycheck.
Only the finest Colorado Kool-Aid will satisfy Johnny Paycheck
The song stands apart from 99.9 percent of all bar-fight songs for the telling details that leave no doubt about the legitimacy of Paycheck's bar room credentials.


Examples:
Paycheck notes about slicing off the bully's ear that the little Mexican fellow
"cut that thing off even with the sideburn."
That's the kind of detail LOM's English teachers used to tell us to add to our narratives to give them truth and life.
The Best Bar-Fight Song Of All Time: "Colorado Kool-Aid"


And Paycheck's rambling, confidential aside as the music fades is priceless barroom-brawl dialogue:


"I said, barmaid, set us up a round of Colorado Kool-Aid/ And while you're up there, bring this big fellow a box of Band-Aids."
And then Paycheck looks directly at us from his bar stool and lays the lesson on the line:
Now lemme tell you, if you're ever ridin' down in South Texas And decide to stop and drink some Colorado Kool-Aid And maybe talk to some Mexican And you get the urge to get a little tough Better make sure you've got your knife-proof earmuffs.

Words to live by....
"How you doin', big man/ Still got your ear there in your hand..."
For those of us who lived through the oil boom of the '70s and all the crazy bar stuff that went on here during that era, this is so Houston.

Lonesome Onry and Mean: Colorado Kool-Aid


Lonesome, Onry and Mean had just begun our phone interview with Monte Warden of the Wagoneers when we heard someone talking to Warden in the background.

Warden then asked,

"Are you that guy who wrote the blog about 'Colorado Kool-Aid'?"

We had to admit that we were.

"This is unbelievable," Warden exclaimed. "My wife's father wrote that song. It just made his day when we forwarded that blog to him."

Well, believe us, we thought that was pretty unbelievable too. And we weren't aware that Johnny Paycheck hadn't penned the song himself.

So, Monte, what's the story on that?

"Phil Thomas was a working Nashville songwriter, but he also had worked in promotion for Shiloh when they were hot," Warden explains. "That brought him to Houston some."

So, since Thomas wasn't from Houston and never lived here, just why did he begin the song with

"I was sittin' in this beer joint down in Houston, Texas / drinkin' Colorado Kool-Aid and talkin' to some Mexicans"?

"He always told me that he'd seen exactly those kinds of joints around Houston and it just worked," says Warden.

"He didn't have any particular knowledge of Houston, really, that's just the way the song came to him.

And between his lyrics and the way Johnny Paycheck delivered them, everything about that song seemed super-realistic."

Thomas went on to write two other Johnny Paycheck winners, "Billy Bardo" and

"Me and the I.R.S."
Other Thomas cuts include George Strait's "Baby Your Baby" and Gene Watson's "Drinking My Way Back Home."

at

lamar sorrento is quittin' art! buy art at lamarsorrento.com


lamar sorrento is quittin' art! 


 
bob dylan mississippi






read the following short story by lamar sorrento (and realize that i could not edit it any farther than i tried)

Raccoon
by Lamar Sorrento

i had helped a neighbor dispose of a giant dead raccoon, and I had put it in an old Amazon box that I had, and I placed it on the curb. 

i went in the house and called the city’s Dead Animal Pickup, but I found out they quit picking up dead animals at 1 PM everyday.

jesus, I thought, this thing is gonna stink to high heaven by tomorrow in this terrible heat.

i decided to haul the box over to the church across the street later and dump it in their garbage dumpster, which I knew would be emptied that night by the bi-weekly garbage truck, no one the wiser.

Feeling good about myself.


‘Gee…i’m glad I found the racoon a way out of here…out of the neighborhood...to lie in peace somewhere--a garbage dump is peaceful, I guess?'


But then later that night i was thinking,


"gee, I hope that raccoon doesn’t smell so bad that the truck driver stops the truck to see where all the stink is coming from.  his normal load is papers and lunch room trash, not dead bodies. I know he picks up garbage for a living but this raccoon outstinked anything that I had ever smelled…ever…it’s a dead body! not cantaloupe…dead animals are the king of all stink!"


The truck driver’s name is Bruno….well, he stops the truck on Peabody near Cleveland, pulls over to the curb, angrily gets out and straining his huge nasty torso, he climbs up the side of the garbage-laden dump truck. And he wades down among the trash…


there are some stenches for sure!


but he is used to most of the smells, but this new smell is monstrous, one of the worst ever.


gad, he takes out a flashlight…and his keen nostrils soon lead him to the offending box…eureka!  god almighty, the stink!


‘oh I see…exclaimed Bruno… some dork put a dead giant raccoon in this box and stuck me with it….haha very funny…..i almost fainted from the stink..!!..let’s see here…..hmmmm…name on the box says …..Sorrento on York ave…well, well…we’ll pay mr. sorrento a quick visit’…’too bad the street number got covered up in some ketchup and I cant read the whole thing..!!!!'


he drooled an evil nasty grin, showing off his greenish teeth glaring like rotten pieces of onion and , clutching the evil box , smell and all, he climbed out of the truck and got into the cab and drove off in a silent rage… ‘let’s head down York Ave and see if this Sorrento is around’…he mused. Meanwhile, My mind said to my brain……’Jesus….the box…!!....was my name on the box?…and address…?..oh no,…I forgot to check.!!..if that raccoon smells too ungodly strong then the driver might freak out and find the box then easily locate me and beat me with that dead stinking raccoon which will be quite stiff by then due to rigor mortis……god…..quick…..turn out all the lights……move the cars across the street……make the house look deserted…turn off all the lights…all of them,,,,,don’t make any sounds…..turn off the tv…turn off the oven ,as well… Breathless, i am just getting back from moving the cars out of sight across the street when a large nasty sanitation dump truck pulls right up to where I am standing…a gorilla type man leans out the window… ‘say brother……would you know a guy named Sorrento on this street…’..it was Bruno.. My heart jumped into my throat and it hid in a closet…..i couldn’t breath…. After what seems an eternity….i stammer out…..’uh….no I don’t think so.,..i don’t think…no I don’t know him……..’..i’m pretty sure’ Bruno glares at me…..’pretty sure huh’’’??!! I begin walking backwards and stumbling….i cry out……”uh,,,,,,ah ,,,,oh yea…him…..now I remember,,,,yes, he died….he’s dead…pretty sure, yea….died ..yea’’’ ‘what are you doing out here alone in this dark….memphis aint so safe…something could happen to a guy , you know’..said Bruno..in a suddenly friendly but fake tone.. ‘Well..i was just…. walking…you know……’….i said ‘, all the while imaging myself being soundly beaten like a baby mule with a giant stinking raccoon….. ‘you live around here?’ Bruno said, sounding more angry now… ‘me….?...no….i live …over on…….Harbert…….’ ‘harbert……lotta rich assholes over there….you rich,…..?....got any pets…?…you ..any yo neighbors got any pet animals…?...like, you know, wild animals..” ‘animals…?...ahh no…naw I don’t think so….one my neighbors ….got a goldfish pond’ ‘goldfish…!...them tings attract raccoons , I know that…’..Bruno’s eyes lit up..with dark undershadows.

‘You seen any raccoons around here…’?

 ‘ ‘nope..cant say I have’…….what color…?’ Bruno stared at me silently for quite a while…..i kept backing up trying not to fall over backwards. ‘well you have a good night , sir ‘ Bruno said with a sideways sloppy grin. ‘ I guess i will have to search elsewhere, because I WILL find this guy …’ My throat closed up tighter…I was dying from no air.. I watched him pull off and I felt better…..i relaxed some….then,,… Then..about 8 houses down the street, I saw his brake lights come on…they looked like the eyes of a radioactive monster….….he stopped…! He was right in front of the mystery house…the one on my street that no one exactly knows who lives there. They have a 6 ft iron fence with sharp spikes on top and a gate with razor wire on top…….several extremely mean dogs….a rebel flag….and various and sundry 4runners and Jeeps and off-road type trucks….with big lights on them..and skulls and stuff stuck on them… I watched in horror as Bruno stepped down from the cab…he had a box under his right arm….the box…!!..he had my Amazon box!!!..…….i used all the eye peering pressure i could muster……as he turned, ….God …..I could see there was a label on the box…. god that was the raccoon box… My horror grew exponentially as Bruno walked to the fence and non-chalantly heaved the box over into the yard…in the yard…!!!!!!...into the yard from hell….a dead raccoon in a box with my name and address on it……this is going to get way worse very fast…I felt as if my spine was flagpole. Bruno was driving off…..i tried to grab my breath…..what do I do..?..if those dogs get that dead raccoon out of that box ..the box with my name and address on it….i am dead…..really dead….these guys could be meth head terrorist assassins……or just normal mean rednecks,..i smelled doom and it smelled worse than the raccoon ever did.. I felt a cold sweat envelope my body like an frozen Tommy Copper body suit..which I guess, handily, I could be buried in also,…..then suddenly I sprinted, not walked down to the mystery house and stood there…..breathing hard like a monkey with asthma.. standing in front of the fence, I could see that no dogs were out but I sensed movements within the house…..it was now or never…like nowsville…I had to retrieve the box before anyone in that house found it…no matter what… No matter what……no matter what… The next morning the doctor at the emergency room asked me if I had been in a sword fight the night before.. I said….’yea….but I won.’

at

October 9, 2018

All Roads Lead Back To Red: A Pedal Steel Mixtape - round, playful, thick, smiley, and stoned


All Roads Lead Back To Red: A Pedal Steel Mixtape

red

This mix picks up where All Roads Lead To Red: A Pedal Steel Mixtape / Tribute left off, delving deeper into the seismography of the Velvet Hammer, Orville “O.J” “Red” Rhodes.

While perhaps best known as Michael Nesmith’s musical foil on the former Monkee’s 1970s country rock masterpieces, Red also played steel on countless LA sessions in the 1960s and 70s.



In addition to leaving his unmissable mark on such hits as James Taylor’s “Sweet Baby James” and The Carpenters’ “Top Of The World,” Red also played on album cuts by artists including The Beach Boys, The Byrds, Gene Vincent, and Nancy Sinatra.

The tones that emanated from Red’s steel sounded a lot like Red looked: they were round, playful, thick, smiley, and stoned.

His inventive licks and restrained fills  wove within the fabric of the LA scene a thread that bound diverse artists and distinct genres together into something resembling a coherent sound

m dawson

MP3:
All Roads Lead Back To Red (A Pedal Steel Mixtape / Tribute Vol 2)


  • Introduction (Michael Nesmith and Red Rhodes, The Amazing Zigzag Concert, 1974)
    Buffy Saint-Marie, “Sweet January” (Sweet America, 1976)
    Bert Jansch, “Stone Monkey” (LA Turnaround, 1974)
    Carole King, “Goodbye Don’t Mean I’m Gone” (Rhymes And Reasons, 1972)
    Gene Vincent, “Rainbow at Midnight” (I’m Back And I’m Proud, 1970)
    Bobby Jameson, “The Weight” (Working, 1969)
    Nancy Sinatra, “Here We Go Again” (Nancy, 1969)
    Garland Frady, “Teach Your Children” (Pure Country, 1973)
    Red Rhodes, “Crippled Lion” (Velvet Hammer In A Cowboy Band, 1973)
    Rod Taylor, “Lost Iron Man” (Rod Taylor, 1973)
    Steven Fromholz, “Late Night Neon Shadows” (A Rumor In My Own Time, 1976)
    Possum, “Ain’t Enough Of Me To Go Around” (Possum, 1971)
    Dominic Traiano, “The Wear And Tear On My Mind” (Dominic Traiano, 1972)
    Hoyt Axton, “Jambalaya” (Country Anthem, 1971)
    Doug Kershaw, “I’ve Got Mine” (Spanish Moss, 1970)
    The Byrds, “Wasn’t Born To Follow” (The Notorious Byrd Brothers, 1968)
    Danny Cox, “Just Like A Woman” (Birth Announcement, 1969)
    The Beach Boys, “Hold On Dear Brother” (Carl and the Passions – “So Tough”, 1972)
    John Phillips, “April Anne” (John The Wolfking Of LA, 1970)
    Delaney Bramlett, “A Little Bit Of You In Me” (Mobius Strip, 1973)
    Red Rhodes, “Rene” (Steel Guitar Favorites, 1967)
Previously: All Roads Lead To Red: A Pedal Steel Mixtape / Tribute
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