Great Songs, pretty good record: Stupid song, great record

"One of These Days," and "Uncle Frank," both by Mike Cooley (of DBT). Phenomenal songs that I hadn't much paid attention to until recently, mostly because "Pizza Deliverance" was recorded before the Drive By Truckers really found themselves. I've got it and I've listened to it, but some of it doesn't connect in the way that their post "SRO" stuff does. When the band plays those songs NOW, they are AMAZING, but the versions on the record are just good. "One of These Days" contains some of those great Cooley lines that I can't help but share:

"Dropped out of school when he was just sixteen
fell right in to a tire plant
building the very things that make the asphalt sing
and put Alabama far behind you"

Here's another one:

"It's no wonder everybodie's scared of downtown Birmingham
it's just a little too close to home
But there's more crooks down here and the cops don't care,
while old white men wearing ties can do anything they want."

And another:

"One of these days when my face looks like a roadmap gonna find my way back home.
And i'll go walking on the west side after dark and leave my gun locked in my car.
One of these days you'll take one look at me and run. "

Mike Cooley is something else boy.

Luckily, "Uncle Frank" got rerecorded and released on "The Fine Print," so it's ready to appreciated for the masterpiece that it is. I think DBT needs to do a big live record someday so that we can hear the band as it is now play some of the early stuff. The astonishing versions of "The Living Bubba" and "18 Wheels of Love" on the Austin City Limits thing suggest that there are other songs would be well served by a little refurbishing.


AS I was considering this topic, it occured to me that many of the classic 50's rock and roll songs are kind of interesting in the light of my categories. Little Richard cut some undeniably great records that redefined popular music. Most of the songs he recorded are way beyond stupid.

Tutti Frutti, for example. It was originally a song about anal sex, and a pro songwriter came in and scribbled down some quick couplets to replace the original lyrics.

Here are some of the original the lyrics to Tutti Frutti:

"A wop bop a loo mop, a good goddam!
Tutti Frutti, good booty
If it don’t fit, don’t force it
You can grease it, make it easy."

Here are the revised versions that are in the record:

"I got a gal named Daisy
She almost drives me crazy
I got a gal named Daisy
She almost drives me crazy
She knows how to love me, yes indeed
boy you don't know
What she do to me"

Not really up to Cooley's line about tires, but it's still a great record. There are a few good covers of it too.

And one truly god-awful one, which was actually a bigger hit than LR's version:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lvieb2OedWE


This shit is awesome:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FYHgbrUyirE&feature=related