Dwight Yoakam – Guitars, Cadillacs

Buck Owens made the Bakersville sound popular and it’s one of my favorite types of country. My friend deKE mentioned this one on a list and again I’m surprised I haven’t posted it already. Yoakam and Steve Earle came out at around the same time and they were not like everyone else (George Jones has a funny quote about that at the bottom of the page). They were a breath of fresh air in country music and they crossed over genres as well.

It was released in 1986 and was the second single off of his debut album Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc. This song was written by Dwight Yoakam. Pete Anderson (producer) was a huge help in the making of the album. He provided some ideas music-wise, played the guitar, and even sang background vocals.

The two of them were surprised that the album had as much success as it did. Country music at the time was geared more toward country-pop and Dwight wrote these honky tonk type songs that weren’t popular at the time.

It originally came out as a six-track EP in 1984 on a small label. Warner Brothers were listening as he made it into a full album and it was released in 1986. The album peaked at #1 on the Billboard Country Charts, #61 on the Billboard Album Charts. The song Guitars, Cadillacs peaked at #4 on the Billboard Country Charts, and #2 on the Canadian Country Charts in 1986.

Rolling Stone magazine ranked this song as number 94 in their list of the 100 greatest country songs.

Dwight Yoakam:  “We were reinterpreting the Bakersfield ‘shuffle sound’ of Buck Owens and what he was doing with that terse kind of shuffle.”

Pete Anderson: “I was a guitar player for hire in the early ’80s in Los Angeles, and I played mostly country music. I played some blues gigs and kind of roots rock Americana gigs. He needed a guitar player to play a gig, and we played together. He was playing some of his original songs and I got to hear the songs and said..Man, these are really good songs.”

George Jones: ‘We spent all these years trying not to be called hillbillies, and Dwight Yoakam and Steve Earle fucked it up in one day.'”

Guitars, Cadillacs

Girl you taught me how to hurt real bad and cry myself to sleep
And showed me how this town can shatter dreams
Another lesson ’bout a naive fool who came to Babylon
And found out that the pie don’t taste so sweet

Now it’s guitars, Cadillacs, hillbilly music
Lonely, lonely streets that I call home
Yeah, my guitars, Cadillacs, hillbilly music
It’s the only thing that keeps me hangin’ on

Ain’t no glamour in this tinseled land of lost and wasted lives
Painful scars are all that’s left of me
Oh, but thank you girl for teachin’ me brand new ways to be cruel
If I can find my mind now I guess I’ll just leave

And it’s guitars, Cadillacs, hillbilly music
Lonely, lonely streets that I call home
Yeah, my guitars, Cadillacs, hillbilly music
It’s the only thing that keeps me hangin’ on

Oh it’s guitars, Cadillacs, hillbilly music
Lonely, lonely streets that I call home
Yeah, my guitars, Cadillacs, hillbilly music
It’s the only thing that keeps me hangin’ on
It’s the only thing that keeps me hangin’ on
It’s the only thing that keeps me hangin’ on

…

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

37 thoughts on “Dwight Yoakam – Guitars, Cadillacs”

  1. I came to Dwight late in life but saw him for my 67th birthday. Love this song! Having spent a bit of time in Bakersfield, I have to say I like the music more than the city. Ignore the YouTube video which says he died. It is wrong and, oddly, is narrated by a voice that sounds artificial.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. I hate when those videos come out just desparate for clicks.
      I didn’t know him well until the mid 90s…our guitar player wanted to play one of his songs…I thought really? But then…he played “Fast as You” and I was sold.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  2. I like this one! Dwight has to be near the top of my favorite ‘country’ artists of ’80s & ’90s. Pete Anderson is multi-talented too. Blue Rodeo worked with him for one album, it turned out great though they weren’t keen on him.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  3. Funny bit about Bakersfield, to me. I remember my dad telling me, when I was quite young, he had cousins there. Bakersfield, California. I remember that. I don’t think he ever went to visit them or vice versa. But I thought ‘California, how cool!’ and envisioned La-la Land, palm trees, big swimming pools, wide beaches…not some country music, factory town!

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

    1. I know…I’ve read where it was full of people that migrated from Oklahoma and brought country music with them….so that started it…which that does make sense.

      Liked by 3 people

      Reply

    1. Yes….a week after you had that Bakersfield sound I read an old post…and I had this one ready but then I looked at the date so I withdrew of course…I’ll be doing one soon Jim now that Star Trek is gone.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

    1. They both came out around the same time and it was great for country. They embraced the old while the old ones at the time were trying to get away from that.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

  8. Some sharp lyrics in this one- a lot of Country lyrics can be either too slick or too banal. This one finds some nice middle ground. I just wish, at times, the producers of some of these song didn’t have the cash to splash on a Country lickin’ fiddle player. Just sayin’ is all y’ll.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

    1. Yea…for some it’s a requirement. When I was younger I felt the same way about Steel Guitars…that sound…then I heard the way Van Morisson used them and I began to like them a bit…but fiddles and steel guitar can be overused.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply

      3. Yeah dude went back in 89 0r 90 to hear On The Road Again lol….plus you had to give it up for him…I don’t own any of his stuff but a bunch of us hard rockers went because of him…

        Liked by 1 person

Leave a comment