This one's a song from way back, growing up in Minnesota and spending time at Hemming Farms in scenic Bertha, MN, listening to one of the best "classic" country stations in western Minnesota, K-106 from Wadena, MN. I remember listening to hours of music like this, blaring through a single speaker over the din of a tractor's diesel engine, driving through the cloud of hay dust while towing a hay baler.
K-106 also switched formats on Saturday nights, to play a syndicated oldies program featuring hits from the late 1950s through late 1960s. Good times.
David Allen Coe was a peer of the members of The Highwaymen as an "outlaw country" performer. He has a storied life, spending 20 years as a guest of correctional institutions, lived in a hearse outside the Ryman Auditorium (home of the Grand Ole Opry), and after his house in Florida was seized by the IRS, he lived in a cave in Tennessee until he got back on his feet.
Fun fact: Mr. Coe wrote "Take This Job and Shove It," which went #1 on the country chart when performed by Johnny Paycheck.
Well, a friend of mine named Steve Goodman wrote that song.
And he told me it was the perfect country and western song.
I wrote him back a letter and I told him it was not the perfect country and western song, because he hadn't said anything at all about mama,
or trains,
or trucks,
or prison,
or gettin' drunk.
Well, he sat down and wrote another verse to the song
And he sent it to me,
And after reading it,
I realized that my friend had written the perfect country and western song.
And I felt obliged to include it on this album.
The last verse goes like this here:
