I remember when this album was released, it sounded so pure. Some singers you can spot a mile away. Dylan, Young, Cash, and Levon are part of that group. His strong southern roots tie him to a worn-in in earthy sound.
Sometimes a singer is married to a feeling that no one else has, and Levon had that quality. Some songs are meant to be heard by him, and Robbie Robertson was the first to notice this and used it to its full effect. This song was on Dirt Farmer, Levon’s 2007 comeback record and his first solo album in a quarter-century. He was battling throat cancer when he recorded it, his voice raspier than in the old Band days, but somehow more potent.
The song was written by Steve Earle, and Levon brought the song to life. Earle does a great version of it as well, but it was a perfect song for Levon to interrupt. The arrangement is a slow march of banjo, fiddle, and mandolin, paced like a funeral procession up a foggy Appalachian ridge. But it’s that voice that carries the load. Levon sings it not as a narrator but as a ghost buried with his kin under the mountain he gave his life to.
What’s remarkable about Dirt Farmer is how Helm made it in the twilight of his life, and yet it plays like the core of his legacy. He wasn’t trying to impress anyone or reinvent The Band; it’s pure Levon. It was produced by Larry Campbell and Amy Helm, his daughter.
The album won the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album in February 2008. I usually don’t list Grammy awards, but if any album deserved an award…this one does.
This live video is shaky but the only one I found. The sound is fine.
The Mountain
I was born on this mountain a long long time ago Before they knocked down the timber and stripped mined all the coal When you rose up in the morning before it was light To go down in that dark hole and come back up at night I was born on this mountain, this mountain’s my home She holds me and she keeps me from a worry and a woe Well they took everything she gave, she gave it now she’s gone But I’ll die on this mountain, this mountain’s my home
I was young on this mountain but now I am old And I knew every holler, every cool swimmin’ hole Til a one night I lay down and I woke up to find That my childhood was over I went back down in the mine
There’s a hole in this mountain it’s dark and it’s deep And God only knows all the secrets that it keeps There’s a chill in the air only miners can feel There’re ghosts in the tunnels that the company sealed
Good times come and they go Even a good man’ll break He’ll let his troubles bury him whole Even though he knows what’s at stake
I’m just starting to explore Justin’s music lately. I’m going over some of his catalog, and I really love what I’ve been hearing. It’s pure music at its finest with a great marriage of music and lyrics. Around a month ago, I was cruising around YouTube and I found him singing this song on The David Letterman song around 2020…I kept listening to it over and over.
When I heard this song, I stopped what I was doing just to listen. This sounds corny, but I did get lost in the moment and listened carefully. I don’t usually do that with songs on the first listen…but this I did. I love its gospel, blues, rock, and overall feeling. It’s a very somber song, but he packages it with an upbeat music attack. He was born in 1982 to Carol Ann Hunter Earle, and his father was singer/songwriter Steve Earle. He was born in Nashville and named in honor of his father’s mentor, Townes Van Zant.
When he got older, he started to help out his dad touring, and he was in a couple of bands in Nashville. A rock band called The Distributors and a bluegrass band called the Swindlers, and he continued to play in The Dukes, his father’s backup band. He had his own style, and I admired him for that.
In 2007, he released his first EP called Yuma, and then he released his first album, The Good Life, in 2008. Harlem River Blues came off the album of the same name in 2010. It was his highest charting album in the US. It peaked at #47 on the Billboard Album Charts, #18 on the Billboard Rock Album Charts, #9 on the Billboard Indie Charts, and #3 on the Billboard Folk Charts.
The song received acclaim and earned Earle the Song of the Year award at the 2011 Americana Music Honors & Awards. Justin Townes Earl passed away in 2020 at 38 years old.
I had to include three versions…all of them have something to offer.
Harlem River Blues
Lord, I’m goin’ uptown to the Harlem River to drown Dirty water gonna cover me over And I’m not gonna make a sound
I’m on a roll, mama, I gotta go Gotta get there while I still can Troubled days are behind me now And I know they’re gonna let me in When you see me walkin’ up the FDR Just a-singin’ and a-clappin’ my hands Tell my mama I love her, tell my father I tried Give my money to my baby to spend
‘Cause Lord, I’m goin’ uptown to the Harlem River to drown Dirty water gonna cover me over And I’m not gonna make a sound
Good times come and they go Even a good man’ll break He’ll let his troubles bury him whole Even though he knows what’s at stake So I’m taking no chances Carrying over while I’m still good in His grace Sayin’ I’m no fool, mama I know the difference between tempting and choosing my fate
So Lord, I’m goin’ uptown to the Harlem River to drown Dirty water gonna cover me over And I’m not gonna make a sound
Lord, I’m goin’ uptown to the Harlem River to drown Dirty water gonna cover me over And I’m not gonna make a sound
Lord, I’m goin’ uptown to the Harlem River to drown Dirty water gonna cover me over And I’m not gonna make a sound
Every so often, I always go back to Steve Earle. When he first came out, rock and country stations would play him. I was way more of a rock fan than a modern country fan, but artists like Earle and Dwight Yoakum changed that for me. They brought in the Merle Haggard and Buck Owens Bakersfield sound, which I liked. Earle also brought in a Townes Van Zant and Texas songwriting approach. I saw many of my musician friends who were songwriters starting to pick up this approach, which was great to see.
This came off of his 1996 album I Feel Alright. It was his 6th album, and he had signed to Warner Brothers. I heard of him in the late eighties with a song called I Ain’t Ever Satisfied. I first saw him in 1989, opening up for Bob Dylan at the now-demolished Starwood Ampitheater in Nashville. He was one of the best opening acts I’ve ever seen, to that point. That night, Bob was sick (we found out later), and he only played for 45 minutes, but Steve Earle made the show worth it. I do remember someone yelling as Bob was leaving the stage, “I know you are an old son of a bitch but 45 minutes?” Bob was 48 at the time!
The album was released after Earle had successfully overcome heroin addiction and incarceration, and the lyrics matched that: Yeah, but be careful what you wish for friend ‘Cause I’ve been to hell and now I’m back again. One critic said at the time that this album was Earle telling people in the 90s: Don’t feel bad about feeling good. The album was critically acclaimed.
The album charted at #38 in Canada, #106 on the Billboard 100, #29 in New Zealand, and #44 in the UK in 1996. This song was released as a single but didn’t chart.
Steve Earle: I’m a folkie. I come from coffee houses just like Gram (Parsons), Townes (Van Zandt), Guy (Clark), and Chris (Hillman). We’re all post-Bob Dylan coffee house bred songwriters. South Texas was a great place to grow up musically, but then things really busted open when I moved to Nashville. I was still only 19 and got to see bluegrass music up close for the first time – and old-time music, music that was more from the Appalachian Mountains versus western swing – one of the main components of rock and roll in the first place.
Feel Alright
I was born my papa’s son A wanderin’ eye and a smokin’ gun Now some of you would live through me Then lock me up and throw away the key Or just find a place to hide away Hope that I’ll just go away, hah
Well, I feel alright I feel alright tonight I feel alright I feel alright tonight
And I’ll bring you precious contraband And ancient tales from distant lands Of conquerors and concubines And conjurers from darker times Betrayal and conspiracy, sacrilege and heresy
And I feel alright I feel alright tonight I feel alright I feel alright tonight
I got everything you won’t need Your darkest fear, your fondest dream I ask you questions, tell you lies Criticize and sympathize Yeah, but be careful what you wish for friend ‘Cause I’ve been to hell and now I’m back again
I feel alright Yeah, I feel alright tonight Yeah, I feel alright I feel alright tonight
I’m learning more about Townes Van Zandt and you don’t have to search for great songwriting in his catalog. Just pull up any song and it’s usually a winner. This is another song that makes songwriters sigh. Sunset diamonds roll across my memory and Cloudsroll by and hide the tears I’m crying It’s so original and it’s like a great artist painting a masterpiece.
This song was on his self-titled 3rd album released in 1969. It was recorded at Bradley’s Barn in Nashville in July of 1969.
Bradley’s Barn deserves its own post. It was owned by Owen Bradley and he recorded so many well-known artists such as Buddy Holly, Gene Vincent, Kitty Wells, Patsy Cline, Brenda Lee, Loretta Lynn, Lenny Dee, and Conway Twitty to name a few.
Steve Earle points out in a quote that Townes had walking pneumonia in New York and wrote this song based on that. Some sources say he got part of it when he was younger and he went through insulin shock therapy for manic depression. In that “treatment,” you would be shocked and have injections of insulin to put you in a coma daily. He lost much of his long-term memory from this treatment.
He came out of that far from cured. He had a fatalistic view of the world and holes in his memory. It very well could have caused some of his substance abuse and depression problems afterward.
It’s also said to be about coal miners, specifically about pneumoconiosis commonly known as Black Lung Disease.
Secondhandsongs has 22 versions of the song including the original.
Steve Earle: I’ve done it for a very, very long time and it’s one of my favorite Townes songs. The story I heard was that he was in New York and he had pneumonia, literally, just got walkin’ pneumonia. He was literally sick with a respiratory ailment. It’s literal past the poetic decimal point. He was a bad-ass. The difference between Townes and Bob Dylan is, and this makes Townes a lot more radical to me in some ways, is Dylan was really heavily influenced by the same kinds of music, but lyrically he was influenced more by modern French poets and the Beats. Whereas Townes was much more influenced by old-school, conventional lyric poets like Robert Frost and Walt Whitman. And it’s cool, it’s where a lot of the uniqueness of his voice comes from. ‘Cause it is Lightnin’ Hopkins against Robert Frost, and it’s pretty startling.
Lungs
Well, won’t you lend your lungs to me?
Mine are collapsing
Plant my feet and bitterly breathe
Up the time that’s passing.
Breath I’ll take and breath I’ll give
Pray the day ain’t poison
Stand among the ones that live
In lonely indecision.
Fingers walk the darkness down
Mind is on the midnight
Gather up the gold you’ve found
You fool, it’s only moonlight.
If you try to take it home
Your hands will turn to butter
You better leave this dream alone
Try to find another.
Salvation sat and crossed herself
Called the devil partner
Wisdom burned upon a shelf
Who’ll kill the raging cancer
Seal the river at it’s mouth
Take the water prisoner
Fill the sky with screams and cries
Bathe in fiery answers
Jesus was an only son
And love his only concept
Strangers cry in foreign tongues
And dirty up the doorstep
And I for one, and you for two
Ain’t got the time for outside
Just keep your injured looks to you
We’ll tell the world we tried
Three albums shaped this year for me. One was by The Traveling Wilburys, U2, and the other was by Keith Richards..
Traveling Wilburys – Handle With Care
This was the hit that kicked the Wilburys project off the ground. George Harrison and Jeff Lynne started the ball rolling… Initially an informal grouping with Roy Orbison and Tom Petty, they got together at Bob Dylan’s Santa Monica, California studio to quickly record an additional track as a B-side for the single release of Harrison’s song This Is Love. This was the song they came up with, which the record company immediately realized was too good to be released as a single B side. They also recorded “You Got It” at the session, which helped convince them to record an album together.
The title Handle With Care came when George Harrison saw the phrase on the side of a cardboard box in the studio.
Tom Petty on Bob Dylan: “There’s nobody I’ve ever met who knows more about the craft of how to put a song together than he does. I learned so much from just watching him work. He has an artist’s mind and can find in a line the keyword and think how to embellish it to bring the line out. I had never written more words than I needed, but he tended to write lots and lots of verses, then he’ll say, this verse is better than that, or this line. Slowly this great picture emerges. He was very good in The Traveling Wilbury’s: when somebody had a line, he could make it a lot better in big ways.”
Steve Earl – Copperhead Road
Brilliant song by Steve Earle. I became a fan of Steve Earle when I heard “I Ain’t Never Satisfied” off of the Exit 0 album. Copperhead Road was an actual road near Mountain City, Tennessee. It has since been renamed Copperhead Hollow Road, owing to the theft of road signs bearing the song’s name.
What is interesting is Earle tells a story of three generations, of three different eras, and shows how they intersect all in one song. Earle himself called the album the world’s first blend of heavy metal and bluegrass.
U2 – Angel Of Harlem
This song has an old feel and a lot of power. It was on the Rattle and Hum album. I’ve talked to many U2 fans who don’t like the album a lot but it is my favorite album the band did. It broke a little from their previous albums. The Edge backed off the reverb and delay some on this album. They traded their “new wave” sound for Americana and I loved it. Rattle and Hum is very rootsy and raw. For me and I’m sure I’m in the minority…this song was one of the best singles of the 80s. I could hear Van Morrison doing this. This song is what made me go back and listen to the rest of their catalog. This album is not The Joshua Tree Part II…they go down a different path like great bands do.
The “Angel of Harlem” is Billie Holiday, a Jazz singer who moved to Harlem as a teenager in 1928. She played a variety of nightclubs and became famous for her spectacular voice and ability to move her audience to tears. She dealt with racism, drug problems, and bad relationships for most of her life, and her sadness was often revealed in her songs. She died of cirrhosis of the liver in 1959 at age 44.
Angel of Harlem was recorded at Sun Studio in Memphis.
Tracy Chapman – Fast Car
When I heard this song it sounded so different than other songs at the time. It’s a well-written song lyrically and musically that has a folk feel to it. It could have been a hit in any era… the lyrics got my attention. While they’re standing in the welfare lines / crying at the doorsteps of those armies of salvation / wasting time in the unemployment lines / sitting around waiting for a promotion.
The song remains one of my favorites from that era. I always thought this song was an instant classic. It could have been released in 1973.
A still unknown Tracy Chapman was booked to appear down the bill at the Nelson Mandela birthday concert at Wembley Stadium on June 11, 1987. She had no reason to think her appearance would be the catalyst for a career breakthrough. After performing several songs from her self-titled debut during the afternoon, Chapman thought she’d done her bit and could relax and enjoy the rest of the concert.
That would not be the case… later in the evening, Stevie Wonder was delayed when the computer discs for his performance went missing, and Chapman was ushered back onto the stage again. In front of a huge prime-time audience, she performed “Fast Car” alone with her acoustic guitar. Afterward, the song raced up the charts on both sides of the Atlantic.
Keith Richards – Take It So Hard
When I heard this song with the opening riff coming from that 5-string G turning that he is known for I loved it. I bought the album Talk is Cheap which some reviews half-jokingly called the best Rolling Stones album in years (It WAS!). The song got plenty of play on rock stations at the time. It peaked at #3 in the Mainstream Rock Tracks. The album was recorded in a period when Mick and Keith were feuding with each other about the direction of the Stones. They were not recording or playing live. “You Don’t Move Me Anymore” off of the album points right at Mick.
Personally, I’ve always liked Keith’s voice. Happy, Salt of the Earth, You Got the Silver, and Before They Make Me Run rank among my favorite Stones songs. This song would fit on any Stones album.
It was love at first listen to this song. They had another hit that was larger in Don’t Dream It’s Over but this song is a perfect pop song. The lyric “bring life to frozen ground” still stands out to me and I cannot hear this song enough. As far as pop songs go it’s hard to beat this New Zealand band.
The song dates back to 1984 when Neil Finn did a demo of the song. He was still in Split Enz at that time. They split in 1985 so Finn and drummer Paul Hester formed Crowded House.
The song was written by Neil Finn and Mitchell Froom.
R.E.M. – Fall On Me
A musician friend of mine invited me over to listen to this album. We must have played it 5 times through by nighttime.
Bill Berry (drummer) said the song was specifically about Acid Rain, which occurs when the burning of fossil fuels releases sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides into the atmosphere, causing rain to be acidic and threatening the environment.
Michael Stipe said about the song: “I was reading an article in Boston when I was on tour with the Golden Palominos, and Chris Stamey showed me this article about this guy that did an experiment from the Leaning Tower of Pisa, whereby he dropped a pound of feathers and a pound of iron to prove that there was… a difference in the… density? What did he prove? I don’t even know. They fall just as fast.”
Steve Earle – Someday
Ever since I heard him in the mid to late 80s I liked Steve Earle. He opened up for Bob Dylan in 1988 and he was fantastic. His music was between country, folk, and rock. You can’t really put Earle in a box…and you shouldn’t. I’ve read reviewers compare him to Randy Newman, Bruce Springsteen, and Waylon Jennings in the same review. That is a great span of artists.
The song is about escaping the town you are living in. I knew a lot of people who wanted to escape the small town I grew up in. The song reminds me a little of The River by Bruce Springsteen in content. It’s a song that many people will be able to relate to.
The song was from his debut album Guitar Town. I remember he was being played on country radio and WKDF…Nashville’s number-one rock station back in the 80s. The album is ranked 489 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s top 500 albums. They called it a rocker’s version of country.
Georgia Satellites – Keep Your Hands To Yourself
A friend of mine who played guitar in high school got a bootleg of this song a year before it was officially released. His band was playing in the gym before we went on and they played this song. I thought they wrote it until I asked him. It’s a great-sounding song live.
It was an instant bar band song classic. It was a song you didn’t really have to rehearse…just one listen would do it. We learned it in one take… and again it was one of only a handful of times that we played a song in the top ten at the time. This is the kind of music I missed in the mainstream during the mid to late eighties.
This was the only big hit for the Georgia Satellites, although lead singer Dan Baird had a hit as a solo artist in 1992 with “I Love You Period.” They didn’t have another big hit but they did have some songs that got airplay on radio and MTV like Battleship Chains and a cover of Hippy Shake. This was one of the few straight-out rock and roll songs to hit the charts at this time.
Dwight Yoakam – Guitars, Cadillacs
Buck Owens made the Bakersville sound popular and it’s one of my favorite types of country. 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). They were a breath of fresh air in country music and they crossed over genres as well. They essentially brought the country back to being country and not southern rock pop with a twang.
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.
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.’”
Ever since I heard him in the mid to late 80s I liked Steve Earle. He opened up for Bob Dylan in 1988 and he was fantastic. His music was between country, folk, and rock. You can’t really put Earle in a box…and you shouldn’t. I’ve read reviewers compare him to Randy Newman, Bruce Springsteen, and Waylon Jennings in the same review. That is a great span of artists.
The song is about escaping the town you are living in. I knew a lot of people who wanted to escape the small town I grew up in. The song reminds me a little of The River by Bruce Springsteen in content. It’s a song that many people will be able to relate to.
The song was from his debut album Guitar Town. I remember he was being played on country radio and WKDF…Nashville’s number-one rock station back in the 80s. The album is ranked 489 on Rolling Stone Magazine’s top 500 albums. They called it a rocker’s version of country. The album peaked at #1 on the Billboard Country Charts, #89 on the Billboard Album Charts, and #82 in Canada.
Four singles were pulled off of that album. Hillbilly Highway, Guitar Town, Someday, and Goodbye’s All We Got Left. All were in the top 40 in the Billboard Country Charts and two of them were top 10. Someday peaked at #28 on the Billboard Country Charts and #31 on the Canada Country Charts.
His next album Exit-0 is one that pushed him closer to the rock genre. His third album Copperhead Road broke him in the rock genre. Earle himself calls his music the world’s first blend of heavy metal and bluegrass…according to Wiki…Rolling Stone magazine called his music “Power Twang.”
Someday
There ain’t a lot that you can do in this town
You drive down to the lake and then you turn back around
You go to school and you learn to read and write
So you can walk into the county bank and sign away your life
I work at the fillin’ station on the interstate
Pumpin’ gasoline and countin’ out of state plates
They ask me how far into Memphis son, and where’s the nearest beer
And they don’t even know that there’s a town around here
Someday I’m finally gonna let go
‘Cause I know there’s a better way
And I want to know what’s over that rainbow
I’m gonna get out of here someday
Now my brother went to college cause he played football
I’m still hangin’ round cause I’m a little bit small
I got me a 67 Chevy, she’s low and sleek and black
Someday I’ll put her on that interstate and never look back
I first found out about Steve Earle through this song. It has remained one of my favorite songs. Steve has released a lot of great songs since but it’s the honesty of this song that I like so much.
I was working at a factory and going to college and I had a radio on while driving a tow motor. After I heard it I immediately bought the album “Exit 0” and enjoyed the complete album. The lyrics ring true of the human spirit…we are never satisfied. Steve Earle was one of the highlights of the 80s for me. Down to earth music and very rootsy.
The night after I got Exit O I learned this song and our band played it. I went to my first Bob Dylan concert on August 20, 1989, and Steve Earle opened up for him. That was one of the best pairings I’ve seen. He played this song and the night was complete…Copperhead Road was pretty good also! I’ve seen Dylan 8 times but this was probably the worse. He played for maybe 40 minutes and left the stage. I remember someone behind me screaming…”I know you are an old son of a b****” but come on… Bob was 48 that year.
Steve is such an underrated American songwriter. The year before this song he released his breakout album Guitar Town. He was straddling the line between country and rock at this period. It’s hard to classify Earle and no need to…he writes great songs that many can relate to.
The song peaked at #26 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Charts in 1987. The album Exit 0 peaked at #15 on the Billboard Album Country Charts and #36 in Canada.
Just a cool note… Waylon Jennings makes a cameo appearance at the end of the video.
I Ain’t Ever Satisfied
I was born by the railroad tracks Well the train whistle wailed and I wailed right back Well papa left mama when I was quite young He said now “One of these days you’re gonna follow me son”
Woh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh I ain’t ever satisfied Woh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh I ain’t ever satisfied
Now I had me a woman she was my world But I ran off with my back street girl Now my back street woman could not be true She left me standin’ on the boulevard thinkin’ ’bout you
I’ve got an empty feeling deep inside I’m going over to the other side Last night I dreamed I made it to the promise land I was standin’ at the gate and I had the key in my hand Saint Peter said “Come on in boy, you’re finally home” I said “No thanks Pete, I’ll just be moving along”
Woh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh I ain’t ever satisfied Woh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh-oh I ain’t ever satisfied
Webb Wilder is just different…different in a great way. He looks like he dropped out of a 50’s black and white detective show. The song peaked at #16 in the Mainstream Rock Songs in 1992.
His real name is John “Webb” McMurry and according to wiki “The Webb Wilder character was created in 1984 for a short comedy film created by friend called “Webb Wilder Private Eye.” The character was a backwoods private detective who fell out of the 1950s and happened to also be a musician. The short appeared on the television variety show “Night Flight.”[Whatever it is it works.
Webb Wilder’s quote when asked what kind of music he plays.
“I came to Nashville as kind of a hunch, an educated guess that it would be a good place for me. Rock ‘n’ roll and country have more in common than not. We don’t have the typical Nashville country sound, but we thought we could use that to our advantage. It’s sorta like we’re a roots band for rock ‘n’ roll fans and a rock band for roots fans” he also adds these phrases…“Swampadelic”, “Service-station attendant music”, “Uneasy listening”, “Psychobilly”
Psychobilly….Now that is a cool description.
By 1991 I was walking through a street fair in Nashville and there he was playing with his band. He had just put out an album called Doodad that got some local and national airplay. His music is a mixture of rock/country/rockabilly/punk and anything else he can throw in. The man has the gift of gab also.
I’ve seen him a couple of times in the 90s and he can bring the house down. He did get some MTV and VHI play nationally in 1991-92. His other known songs are my favorite “Meet Your New Landlord,” Poolside, and “Human Cannonball”. He has had some great backing bands. He also did a great cover of Steve Earle’s The Devil’s Right Hand….
I’m including my favorite song by him called Meet Your New Landlord and of course Tough it Out.
Tough It Out
When I was in the cradle Momma used to say “Now, baby Don’t ya cry cry cry” She turned on the radio And fed me rock and roll Lullaby-by-by Well it got under my skin And man it pulled me in ’cause it was strong strong strong I hit the ground runnin’ And let me tell ya somethin’ I was gone gone gone
Get offa my line ’cause I’m comin’ through I’m aimin’ high And I’m willin’ to shoot
I won’t bow, I won’t bend I won’t break, I’ll tough it out I won’t budge, I won’t deal I won’t change, I’ll tough it out (Tough it out) Keep rockin’ (tough it out) No stoppin’ ‘Til I win the prize, I’ll tough it out (Tough it out) Straight ahead (tough it out) knock ’em dead No compromise, I’ll tough it out
Now I’ve got somethin’ For ever man woman And child child child We don’t leave the hall ’til they’re bouncin’ off the walls Goin’ wild wild wild It might happen any day Might be light years away I don’t mind mind mind We got our head down, ears back Headed for the barn Feelin’ fine fine fine
Get offa my line ’cause I’m comin’ through I’m aimin’ high And I’m willin’ to shoot
I won’t bow, I won’t bend I won’t break, I’ll tough it out I won’t budge, I won’t deal I won’t change, I’ll tough it out (Tough it out) Keep rockin’ (tough it out) No stoppin’ ‘Til I win the prize, I’ll tough it out (Tough it out) Straight ahead (tough it out) knock ’em dead No compromise, I’ll tough it out(Tough it out) (tough it out)
You might catch me down But I won’t stay caught Now I might not sell But I can’t be bought
I won’t bow, I won’t bend I won’t break, I’ll tough it out I won’t budge, I won’t deal I won’t change, I’ll tough it out (Tough it out) Keep Rockin’ (tough it out) No stoppin’ ‘Til I win the prize, I’ll tough it out (Tough it out) Straight ahead (tough it out) knock ’em dead No compromise, I’ll tough it out
I won’t bow, I won’t bend I won’t break, I’ll tough it out I won’t budge, I won’t deal I won’t change, I’ll tough it out Tough it out ‘Til I win the prize, I’ll tough it out Tough it out No compromise, I’ll tough it out
The first time I heard this song I was actually playing it on guitar. A buddy of mine started to play it in the late eighties and I started to follow him with the chords. I asked him where he heard it and he played me the Copperhead Road album. This one became one of my favorites off of the album.
It’s a great piece of songwriting.
The Copperhead Road album peaked at #56 in the Billboard Album Charts in 1989… which is hard to believe it wasn’t higher than that. It did peak at #7 in the Country Billboard Chart in 1989.
It’s a great song that has been covered by many artists including Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, and the Highwaymen.
From Songfacts
Songwriter Steve Earle is well known as a vocal opponent of capital punishment; running to 3 minutes 1 second, this classic miniature has a message for those who are likely to end up facing it; an attack on what Louis Farrakhan called “the glorification of the gun,” it makes the point that though a gun can get you into a lot of trouble, it can’t get you out of it.
In the song, the unfortunate storyteller fails to heed his mother’s warnings about carrying a pistol, and his youthful fascination ends with him shooting a man dead after being cheated at cards. When the authorities come for him, he protests they have the wrong man because “nothing touched the trigger but the Devil’s right hand”, which in the 21st Century would amount to an insanity defense, but would have probably not have swayed a jury in late 19th Century America wherein this cameo is set.
Waylon Jennings released this song before Earle did – he included it on his 1986 album Will the Wolf Survive. Jennings and Earle were good friends and kindred spirits; during one of Earle’s stints in prison, Jennings wore a bandana in his honor (Earle wears a bandana on his right wrist).
The Devil’s Right Hand
About the time that Daddy left to fight the big war I saw my first pistol in the general store In the general store, when I was thirteen I thought it was the finest thing I ever had seen
So l asked if I could have one someday when I grew up Mama dropped a dozen eggs, she really blew up She really blew up, and she didn’t understand Mama said the pistol is the devil’s right hand
The devil’s right hand, the devil’s right hand Mama says the pistol is the devil’s right hand
Me very first pistol was a cap and ball Colt Shoots as fast as lightnin’ but it loads a mite slow It loads a mite slow, and soon I found out It’ll get you into trouble but it can’t get you out
So about a year later I bought a Colt 45 Called a peacemaker but I never knew why I never knew why, I didn’t understand Mama says the pistol is the devil’s right hand
The devil’s right hand, the devil’s right hand Mama says the pistol is the devil’s right hand
Got into a card game in a company town I caught a miner cheating, I shot the dog down I shot the dog down, I watched the man fall He never touched his holster, never had a chance to draw
The trial was in the morning and they drug me out of bed Asked me how I pleaded, not guilty I said Not guilty I said, you’ve got the wrong man Nothing touched the trigger but the devil’s right hand
The devil’s right hand, the devil’s right hand Mama says the pistol is the devil’s right hand
The devil’s right hand, the devil’s right hand Mama says the pistol is the devil’s right hand
Brilliant song by Steve Earle. I became a fan of Steve Earle when I heard “I Aint Never Satisified” off of the Exit 0 album. Copperhead Road was an actual road near Mountain City, Tennessee. It has since been renamed Copperhead Hollow Road, owing to the theft of road signs bearing the song’s name.
What is interesting is Earle tells a story of three generations, of three different eras, and shows how they intersect all in one song.
This song peaked at #10 in the Billboard Mainstream Charts, #45 in the UK, and #12 in Canada in 1988.
Earle himself called the album the world’s first blend of heavy metal and bluegrass.
When you wrote things like “Copperhead Road,” did you know you had something that would be a signature song?
Steve Earle: Yeah. I did. That song I did. “Guitar Town,” I didn’t. I just thought I was writing a song that was going to open my tour and open my record, because I’d seen Springsteen come out and open the show with “Born in the U.S.A.” on that tour. That’s really when I started writing that album, the day after I saw that tour. But it had such a utilitarian reason to exist for me that I thought that was it. So I was shocked when they made it a single and shocked when it was a hit. But “Copperhead” I knew.
From Songfacts
Copperhead Road is a real road in East Tennessee where moonshine was made and two generations later, marijuana was grown. The song tells the story of a soldier who returns home from Vietnam and starts trafficking marijuana.
Copperhead Road is a highly acclaimed album that came after an interesting year for Earle: he spent New Year’s Day of 1988 in a Dallas jail charged with assaulting a policeman, had to deal with various legal and business issues, and at one point had a message on his answering machine that said, “This is Steve. I’m probably out shooting heroin, chasing 13-year-olds and beatin’ up cops. But I’m old and I tire easily, so leave a message and I’ll get back to you.” He also married his fifth wife around the time the album was released.
Along with “Guitar Town,” this is one of Earle’s signature songs. When he wrote it, he knew it would catch on.
Copperhead Road
Well my name’s John Lee Pettimore Same as my daddy and his daddy before You hardly ever saw Grandaddy down here He only came to town about twice a year He’d buy a hundred pounds of yeast and some copper line Everybody knew that he made moonshine Now the revenue man wanted Grandaddy bad He headed up the holler with everything he had It’s before my time but I’ve been told He never came back from Copperhead Road Now Daddy ran the whiskey in a big block Dodge Bought it at an auction at the Mason’s Lodge Johnson County Sheriff painted on the side Just shot a coat of primer then he looked inside Well him and my uncle tore that engine down I still remember that rumblin’ sound Well the sheriff came around in the middle of the night Heard mama cryin’, knew something wasn’t right He was headed down to Knoxville with the weekly load You could smell the whiskey burnin’ down Copperhead Road
I volunteered for the Army on my birthday They draft the white trash first,’round here anyway I done two tours of duty in Vietnam And I came home with a brand new plan I take the seed from Colombia and Mexico I plant it up the holler down Copperhead Road Well the D.E.A.’s got a chopper in the air I wake up screaming like I’m back over there I learned a thing or two from ol’ Charlie don’t you know You better stay away from Copperhead Road
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