David Allan Coe
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David Allan Coe (born David Alan Coe on September 6, 1939 in Akron, Ohio) is an American outlaw country music singer who achieved his greatest popularity in the 1970s. He has written and performed over 280 original songs throughout his long career. As a songwriter, one of his best-known compositions is "Would You Lay with Me (in a Field of Stone)", originally recorded by Tanya Tucker.
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[edit] Biography
Known for his outlaw persona, Coe reputedly spent most of his youth in various prisons until releasing his debut album, Penitentiary Blues, in 1968 and after touring with Grand Funk Railroad, he joined Danny Sheridan's notorious Eli Radish Band. His concerts were wild and unpredictable, as Coe began calling himself the Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy and he wore a rhinestone costume and Lone Ranger mask, riding into concerts on a motorcycle.
Coe finally hit the Top Ten with "You Never Even Called Me By My Name" in 1975. The song, written by Steve Goodman and John Prine with one verse inspired by a letter Coe sent to Goodman, is known as "the perfect country and western song". It includes a narrative in which Coe explains that the perfect country and western song has to mention "Mama, or trains, or trucks, or prison, or gettin' drunk", whereupon he sings the last verse:
- Well, I was drunk the day my Mom got out of prison,
- And I went to pick her up in the rain,
- But before I could get to the station in my pickup truck,
- She got runned over by a damned old train.
He is also known for his top country hit, "The Ride", which chronicles a driver picking up an Alabama hitch-hiker (the singer). The driver turns out to be the ghost of country singer Hank Williams.
For the most part, however, Coe was not able to expand beyond a cult following as a singer, and other artists found more success than him with his songs. Tanya Tucker, Billie Jo Spears, George Jones, Tammy Wynette, Alabama, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Garth Brooks, GG Allin, and Kid Rock all recorded Coe compositions. Johnny Paycheck even made a short acting career out of Coe's "Take This Job and Shove It". Coe was so annoyed at Paycheck for acting as if he had written the song that he wrote a second song "Take this job and shove it too" which includes the pun, "paycheck you may be a thing of the past". (Coe also fumed about Glen Campbell's success with the song "Rhinestone Cowboy".)
Tax trouble contributed to his career's instability during the 1980s, though he continued touring throughout the '90s, also doing some writing and acting work. He played a crooked bounty hunter in the movie, "Buckstone County Prison".
He still tours regularly, playing several shows a week, with his son on guitar, in addition to longtime guitarist Joe Finn. His concerts are still as wild and unpredictable as they ever were. This contributes to the cult following, and diverse crowds he draws. Ranging from bikers, and old hippies, to teenagers and elderly people. As Coe describes his audience in his song "Longhaired Redneck":
- Where bikers stare at cowboys who are laughin' at the hippies,
- Who are prayin' they'll get out of here alive.
Coe has been lionized since the 1980s by punk rock artists. Dead Kennedys covered "Take This Job and Shove It" on their final studio album Bedtime for Democracy in 1987, while GG Allin transformed Coe's "Longhaired Redneck" into his own "Outlaw Scumfuc" on his 1988 album Freaks, Faggots, Drunks and Junkies.
In 2002, Coe joined with Steve Popovich of Cleveland International Records to form a new record label, Coe Pop Records, which has reissued digitally remastered versions of classic songs by artists such as Patsy Cline, Conway Twitty, Merle Haggard and Roy Acuff. In 2003, Coe played a legendary live show at the David Bier House of Blues. The concert marked a turning point in his career.
In November 2005 Coe was featured with Merle Haggard, Toby Keith, Billy Joe Shaver, Jack Ingram, and Shelby Lynne on CMT's CMT Outlaws 2005.
Hank Williams III mentions Coe on two tracks on his 2006 album Straight to Hell, "Thrown Out Of The Bar" and "My Country Heroes".
In 1999, Coe met and befriended Pantera/Damageplan members and brothers Dimebag Darrell and Vinnie Paul. Starting in 1999 and finishing in 2003; the trio, along with Pantera bassist Rex Brown, recorded a project titled Rebel Meets Rebel. The album was released on Vinnie Paul's record label "Big Vin Records" on May 2, 2006.
[edit] Style
Coe's songs are known for strong rock arrangements, often with a Caribbean touch ("Divers Do It Deeper"), a tough band with tough guitar solos ("Longhaired Redneck"), personal lyrics ("Willie, Waylon, and Me"), and verbal facility ("X's and O's").
His long career has included twenty-six LPs, with 1987's Matter of Life... and Death being one of the most successful and critically acclaimed. He even put out a concept album, Compass Point that threads his autobiography (or that of his persona) through an encounter with the famous Caribbean studio for which it was named and where it was recorded.
Coe is sometimes called racist because of two records he recorded in the 1980s containing racist and misogynistic lyrics of extreme vulgarity. Various bootlegs by Johnny Rebel have been mistakenly attributed to Coe.
[edit] Selected discography
[edit] Solo
- Penitentiary Blues
- Requiem for a Harlequin
- Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy
- Once Upon a Rhyme
- Longhaired Redneck
- Texas Moon
- Rides Again
- Greatest Hits
- Tattoo
- Family Album
- Human Emotions
- Buckstone County Prison
- Spectrum VII
- Compass Point
- Nothing Sacred
- I've Got Something to Say
- Invictus Means Unconquered
- Tennessee Whiskey
- Rough Rider
- D.A.C.
- Underground Album
- Castles in the Sand
- Hello in There
- Just Divorced
- Darlin Darlin
- Nigger Fucker
- Unchained
- Son of the South
- Matter of Life and Death
- Crazy Daddy
- 1990 Songs for Sale
- Standing Too Close to the Flame
- Granny's off Her Rocker
- Living on the Edge
- If That Ain't Country (live)
- Recommended for Airplay
- Songwriter of the Tear
- Live at the Iron Horse Saloon
- Live at Billy Bob's Texas
- For the Soul and for the Mind
- 18 X-Rated Hits
- All I'll Ever Be (only available on his official website)
- Rebel Meets Rebel
[edit] External links
| Persondata | |
|---|---|
| NAME | Coe, David Allan |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Coe, David Alan (birth name) |
| SHORT DESCRIPTION | Country music singer |
| DATE OF BIRTH | September 6, 1939 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Akron, Ohio |
| DATE OF DEATH | |
| PLACE OF DEATH | |
