David Allen Coe S/D, C or D?

I've never heard any 'mainstream' Coe, so I don't know how it compares.

so which DAC albums should i look for?

I don't know that any of his albums are good all the way through, but The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy, Longhaired Redneck, Tattoo, and The Ghost of Hank Williams all have some real high spots. Invictus means Unconquered also has a great reputation, but I haven't heard it. Avoid the compilations though, because I don't think he's ever released a good one.

As far as the offensive stuff goes, Nothing's Sacred is better than the Underground Album. 18 x-rated hits has just about all the songs on both. And there really are some good funny novelty tunes on these as well as some dreck as well as a few songs that are just too too offensive, such that you might want to avoid them all together.

Dude was crazy on that Heartworn Highway DVD.

I don't know his XXX/KKK "underground" LPs at all, but here's how I'd approximately rank the regular issue ones I've got:

1. Human Emotions (1978)
2. Rides Again (1977)
3. Longhaired Redneck (1976)
4. Penitentiary Blues (c. 1970; reissue as Hacktone CD 2005)
5. Spectrum VII (1979)
6. I've Got Something To Say (1980)

All worth owning, though (especially if you find cheap copies like I did. -- Thought I had Once Upon A Rhyme, too, but I'm not seeing a copy on my shelf, so maybe I decided not to keep that one.)

Best CD sampler I know is The Essential David Allan Coe (Sony 2004); best vinyl sampler is Greatest Hits (Columbia 1978).

i don't really know if this is s or d, or c or d, but i can't see talking about dac without it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LS8zHoxOFTw

damn, that song is a dead ringer for warren zevon.

(referring to the charming little ditty about sally, that is.)

the actual reason i revised it to ask, should i get tix to see him this spring? what is the david allan coe live experience like in 2010? i'm very much inclined to go, just want to make sure he can still bring it and all.

revived, that is

bumping in the hope that some kind soul will be able to answer my lil query.

it's ALLAN btw

Dude was crazy on that Heartworn Highway DVD.

― retrovaporized nebulizer (╓abies), Saturday, January 9, 2010 7:04 AM (5 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yep

need a picture of his outfit

I have to think that no one noted his death last week on ILX because most posters aware of him think the Nothing Sacred/Underground/18 X-rated material is a sincere representation of racist and misogynist beliefs. I don't. I think its pretty clear that he was writing in character, and, far less defensibly, indulging the racist and misogynist sensibilities of the bikers who made up his audience in the late 70s/early 80s.

He is my favorite country artist ever. It's as if Clarence Reid were as big a star with conventional r&b as Isaac Hayes or Curtis Mayfield, but had a cult audience with his profane Blowfly material. He played NYC for the first time in many decades in 2009 or something; he was a member of the Outlaws Motorcycle Club, and so there was bad blood for a long time with the NYC Angels that precluded him setting foot in NYC.

He was mentioned, and we did briefly discuss him/this. My take was whether or not he was some of the things people said he was, he still wrote several of the greatest country songs of all time.

I saw him play several years back at ... Taste of Chicago? 1997? I don't remember much except that he looked a little like Willie Nelson if Willie manned the door at a biker club.

Faretheewell, own worst enemy---in thy exploitational spirit, I hereby link "Coepolitan," a 2025 mix of my much earlier coverage in the Voice and Charlotte Creative Loafing with newer writing, updated w link to good Paste obit:
https://mydeprodation.blogspot.com/2025/09/coepolitan_50.html It's a handy guide, incl. suggestions as to why one might bother.

countrymusictunes

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5d
“David Allen Coe was always a difficult person to be close with, a difficult person to care about for several reasons. Nobody who ever knew him would disagree with that statement. But I did always care about him, even after it became clear that he and I were never going to speak to each other again. I never wanted anything bad to happen to him,” Tyler Mahan Coe, David Allen Coe’s son said on a video posted to Patreon four hours ago.

I was so sure i would have found the link to the Midnight Blue interview with him on here, but i guess its not above? He was definitely one of a kind... what sort of kind i'm not sure...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYTkjzGI_jg

content warning for language from the start (that language being racist/homophobic/ill considered/etc etc)

I have to think that no one noted his death last week on ILX because most posters aware of him think the Nothing Sacred/Underground/18 X-rated material is a sincere representation of racist and misogynist beliefs. I don't. I think its pretty clear that he was writing in character, and, far less defensibly, indulging the racist and misogynist sensibilities of the bikers who made up his audience in the late 70s/early 80s.

I do think of him that way, yes. I don't see what we're supposed to think of the narrator of "Rails" except that he's a party guy telling you some jokes that he finds funny.

his palling around with Pantera isn't a great case for the defense

I've never been interested in his notorious garbage, but a lot of his regular-release music was distinctively good, and his approach to the biz, other pros and fans, could be interesting when it wasn't boring.

Dude was crazy on that Heartworn Highway DVD.

― retrovaporized nebulizer (╓abies),

The NYTimes obit linked this piece from 2000 by Neil Strauss, featuring Kid Rock ("a strange amalgam of influences") and Kelefa Sanneh (from before he started writing there?).