David Allan Coe's debut album for Columbia proves beyond the shadow of doubt that he was the original alt-country antihero. Released in 1974, Coe revealed an adopted persona: The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy. He was equal parts hell-raising biker ex-con (this aspect was accurate); a pre-punk badass full of piss and vinegar, spewing vitriol (and bad humor) at the Nash Vegas establishment (and anyone who didn't like his music); a hillbilly version of Marc Bolan's glitz and glitter; and a sensitive country singer and songwriter heavily influenced by Merle Haggard, as good as anybody at his best — and that includes Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Billy Joe Shaver, and Kris Kristofferson, to name but a few. Opening with "A Sad Country Song," Coe displays his lyrical and melodic gift that comes out of the great Texas and Bakersfield traditions. Amid a whining pedal steel, shimmery fiddle, and a waltz tempo heard above the guitars, Coe sings to the lonely and alone and offers his brand of empathy this way: "Just look for my name on a jukebox/When you're tired of being alone/Put in a dime and I'll take the time/ To sing you a sad country song." On the very next track, producer Ron Bledsoe borrows textural ideas from Mickey Newbury's recordings and Scott Walker's delivery on Michael Smith's folk classic "Crazy Mary." And speaking of Newbury, Coe's reading of his "33rd of August" is reverential but not to the point of mere imitation. The rain and thunder sounds are kept as essential elements of the song's composition. Coe understates his beautiful baritone in homage to Newbury's own considerable gift for understatement. Other Coe signature tunes like "I Still Sing the Old Songs" and "Atlanta Song" are recorded here for the first time, along with a killer cover of Guy Clark's "Desperadoes Waiting for a Train." Unlike later Coe recordings, there are no novelty tracks here, and as a label debut this is as auspicious as it gets.
DAVID ALLAN COE
THE MYSTERIOUS RHINESTONE COWBOY
Columbia KC-32942June/1974
Produced by Billy Sherrill & Ron Bledsoe
Billy Sanford, Johnny Christopher, Tommy Allsup - guitarBobby Thompson - rh.guitar/banjo
Pete Drake, Lloyd Green - steel
Mike Leech, Henry Strzelecki - bass
Kenny Malone - drums
Hargus Pig Robbins, Ron Oates - piano
Buddy Spicher - violin/fiddle/mandolin
Charlie McCoy - harmonica/vibes
Recorded:
1974, Columbia Studio, Nashville / Pete's Place, Nashville
1.
SAD COUNTRY SONG
(David A. Coe) « © '74 Careers Music, BMI »If you're feeling lonely and think you're the only
One left that's alone in a bar
If you need somebody with shoulders to cry on
Well baby I'm not very far
Just look for my name on a jukebox
When you're tired of being alone
Put in a dime and I'll take the time
To sing you a sad country song
[ guitar + steel ] If you started drinkin' and still can't stop thinkin'
About all those all nights alone
If teardrops start fallin' and you keep on callin'
To find out there's nobody home
Just look for my name on a jukebox...
I'll sing you a sad country song
**********
2.
CRAZY MARY
(Michael Smith) « © '74 Bird Avenue Publishing, ASCAP »Crazy Mary from Londonderry lives next door to the cemetery
How many lovers have you buried we would shout running scared
Along the green and golden paths that took us home away from Crazy Mary
In the lamplight burning low dimly through enchanted woods
She rocks beside the fire that was never lit and as we ran on by
Pretending to be frightened we'd shout and laugh at Crazy Mary
She would never answer us smiled through the window softly
Wild eyed and wild haired but we were sure that in the dark of night
She cursed us soundly casting spells and such to run us into donkeys
Crazy Mary from Londonderry...
[ violin ] So it seems that older now we stand upon this wind swept moor
The lonely grave before us testifies that Crazy Mary sings and dreams
Her dreams somewhere but not where little kids can follow after
And on the stone these words dear friend please write me down as one who loved
The raven haired and laughing lads that swore that they would marry me
And soon their sons came running by and here I lie forgotten Crazy Mary
Crazy Mary from Londonderry...
**********
3.
RIVER
(David A. Coe - Marty Younts) « © '74 Careers Music, BMI »River you heard my first cry as a baby
And like my mom you sang me lullabies
You knew my fishing pole when I was eight years old
And river you never told me lies
River I can see you from my window
Your muddy water makes me feel alone
River you keep flowing like you know just where you're going
But river will you ever take me home
River I'm not proud of what I've done
Somehow my fishing pole became a gun
Through these prison bars I see that you're still running free
But river I've got no place to run
River I can see you from my window...
River I can see you from my window...
**********
4.
33RD OF AUGUST
(Mickey Newbury) « © '70 Acuff-Rose Music, BMI »Well today there's no salvation band's packed up and gone
And I'm left standing with my penny in my hand
There's a big crowd at the station where the blind man sings his song
He sees Lord what they can't understand
It's the 33rd of August Lord and I'm finally coming down
Eight days from Sunday finds me Saturday bound
Once I stumbled through the darkness fell down to my knees
A thousand voices screaming in my brain
Woke up in a squad car busted down for vacancy
And outside my cell it's sure as hell it looked like rain
Now I've got my dangerous feeling under lock and chain
I've killed my violent nature with a smile
Though the demons danced and sang their songs within my fevered brain
Not all my God like thoughts Lord were defiled
It's the 33rd of August Lord...
Yesterday's newspaper forecast no rain for today
Yesterday's news was old news so I threw it away
Sometimes at night Lord you know I can still feel the pain
And outside my cell it sure as hell it looks like rain
**********
5.
BOSSIER CITY
(Bobby J. Bourgoin) « © '74 Cedarwood Publishing, BMI »My hands are shaking as I'm sadly learning
The truth behind your innocent disguise
You never thought I knew that you had been untrue
But I once saw the devil somewhere in your eyes
And now you got the nerve to ask me where I'm going
And I don't believe I'd tell you if I knew
I'll be gone when the sun comes up tomorrow
I believe it's time to say goodbye to you
And it sure smells like snow in Bossier City
But there ain't no weather quite as cold as you
I'd sooner stand in mother nature's anger
Than to spend another lonely night with you
[ steel ] I'm talking but I'm feeling you're not listening
My words they just fall heavy on the floor
Yes it's true that you knew I would not stay forever
And you won't see me cryin' when I walk out your door
And now you got the nerve to ask me where I'm going...
**********
6.
ATLANTA SONG
(David A. Coe) « © '74 Careers Music, BMI »I met her in Atlanta she was a dancing in a cafe
With a price tag on her body and a tombstone in her eye
You could tell she was not happy by the way she kept on staring
Past the other side of nowhere at a man she'd like to try
And the makeup she had painted could not hide the youthful motions
Of her body fom the music or the crowd
I started like all the others with my right hand in my pocket
While she showed us everything the law allowed
(play it Pete Drake)
[ steel - fiddle ] Twenty bucks an hour later my one bedroom apartment
I was feeling weak from all the seeds I'd sown
She was sweet she was gentle as she introduced my body
To some pleasures it had never ever known
When I woke up in the morning she was a laying there beside me
Like a kitten with her face turned to the sun
And a look of satisfaction on her lips that made me wonder
If she ever felt ashamed of what we'd done
So I left her in Atlanta...
**********
7.
OLD MAN TELL ME
(Buzz Rabin - David A. Coe) « © '74 Careers Music, BMI »I've seen the old man sittin' round the courthouse square back home in town
Talking bout the big war back in 1943
Sayin' how much good it's done medals gleamin' in the sun
Cussin' at my long hair and my talk of bein' free
Their vision like their battle scars of other wars has faded
Like the colors on the ribbons from the battles that they've won
If there's one thing I've learned it's this you just can't shake hands with a fist
And I once did my talkin' with a gun
And old man I know what you've seen but yours is not the only dream
I have to believe in something more than yesterday
Let it die just like the past I believe there's hope at last
Old man did you ever have to pray
Old man can you show me the way
[ harmonica ] He shakes his head from time to time and rambles somewhere in his mind
Mumbling bout the Civil War and how we should have won
Settin' up his battle plans on checkerboards at his command
Watchin' all his gallant kings go falling one by one
And son he'd say there's not much time for you to straighten out your mind
But you never listen to the things I try to say
And I just turn my head and cry never understanding why
He's set up that checkerboard when he knew I couldn't play
**********
8.
DESPERADOS WAITING FOR THE TRAIN
(Guy Clark) « © '73 World Song Publishing, ASCAP »I'd sing the Red River Valley
And he'd sit in the kitchen and cry
Run his fingers through seventy years of livin'
Wonder Lord has every well I drilled ran dry
We were friends me and that old man
Like desperados waiting for the train
Like desperados waiting for the train
He's a drifter and a driller of oil wells
And an old school man of the world
Taught me how to drive his car when he's too drunk to
And he'd wink and give me money for the girls
And our lives was like some old western movie
Like desperados waiting for the train
Like desperados waiting for the train
From the time that I could walk he take me with him
To a place called the Green Frog Cafe
There was old men with beer guts and dominos
Lyin' bout their lives while they'd play
And I was just a kid that they all called his sidekick
Like desperados waiting for the train
Like desperados waiting for the train
Now I looked up and he was pushin' eighty
And there's brown tobacco stains all down his chin
To me he's one of the heroes of this country
So why's he all dressed up like some old men
Drinking beer and playing moon and forty-two
Like desperados waiting for the train
Like desperados waiting for the train
Then just before he died I went to see him
I was grown and he was almost gone
We just closed our eyes and dreamed us up a kitchen
And sang another verse to that old song
Don't cry Jack it's only Jesus comin'
Like desperados waiting for the train
Like desperados waiting for the train
Like desperados waiting for the train
**********
9.
I STILL SING THE OLD SONGS
(David A. Coe) « © '74 Careers Music, BMI »Grandpa I've been thinking bout you lately
Wondering if you'd found your peace of mind
I guess you'd be proud to know your grandsons
Never crossed that Mason Dixon line
And I still sing the old songs that you taught me
And I still pray to Jesus now and then
And just like you I wish that he would save me
To see the day the South will rise again
Daddy wore his Purple Heart so proudly
Long before I turned into a man
Buried with our flag across his casket
I was still too young to understand
And I still sing the old songs....
Mama spent her last years in the garden
While I took my turn behind a gun
Lord I'd give my life to find the freedom
Lost within the old songs that you sung
And I still sing the old songs...
**********
10.
OLD GREY GOOSE IS DEAD
(arr. David A. Coe) « © '74 Careers Music, BMI »Go tell Aunt Rody go tell Aunt Rody
Go tell Aunt Rody the old grey goose is dead
Grandpa found her dying grandpa found her dying
Grandpa found her lying in the millpond on her head
The gander won't eat now gander won't eat now
Gander won't eat now because his wife is dead
Somebody go tell Aunt Rhody go tell Aunt Rody
Go tell Aunt Rhody that the old grey goose is dead
[ fiddle - banjo ] Let's pray for the babies pray for the babies
Pray for the babies because their mama's dead
Somebody go tell Aunt Rhody...
[ fiddle ] Lord now go tell Aunt Rhody children go tell Aunt Rhody
Want you to go tell Aunt Rhody tell her that the old grey goose is dead
Everybody go tell Aunt Rhody now now go tell Aunt Rhody
Now now go tell Aunt Rhody
Go tell Aunt Rhody tell her that the old grey goose is dead
**********
