(Source: amerikanrambler)
I saw you standing in the hallway,
Red plastic cup, and one of them big long cigarettes
You asked me if I could play you some Dylan
I said “Dylan who?” you told me to kiss your ass
I apologized, but you could tell I didn’t mean it
By the way I rolled my eyes
And then you said it wasn’t me it was…
Drive-By Truckers - Pulaski // Mahogany Session (by themahoganysessions)
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Mike Cooley - Space City (Live at the 40 Watt)
Mike Cooley did a couple solo shows in late February, 2005. This may or may not be the same performance that Patterson admitted to shedding a tear to, mentioned in The Secret to a Happy Ending. The song later appeared on A Blessing and a Curse.
KD:In “Cartoon Gold” there’s a line, “Jesus made the flowers but it took a dog to make the story good.” Is that what you look for in a story, the dark little details, like the dog shit being tracked on the floor?
MC:Oh yeah. Well, that’s just part of it. I don’t know why I thought of that, but it cracked me up, so… [Laughs] I don’t even know what the Hell it means!
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
There’s a certain characteristic to the songs Mike Cooley writes for The Drive-By Truckers. A sort of laconic, no-bullshit kind of voice, one that doesn’t have a lot of time for pity, either for himself or others, with a noticeable lack of sentiment. But as harsh as his songs often seem on the surface, they are often speaking less from a place of disgust with his subjects than of disappointment for their failures, as on “When The Pin Hits The Shell” from Decoration Day, a song that upbraids a friend who’s committed suicide but at the same time refuses to bow to self-righteousness.
“Pulaski”, from the band’s newest album, starts of seemingly as an indictment of a Southern expatriate, “fresh out of college” who’s turned her back on her upbringing, losing her accent and giving up her Baptist faith in rural Tennessee for a new life in California. It’s an easy target, and if the song only concentrated on this aspect, it would come off as mean and ugly. But it quickly becomes an altogether more tender thing, a sad sketch about broken dreams and heartbreak. It’s a masterful song.
