- David Allan Coe
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David Allan Coe 
Coe performing in March, 2009Background information Birth name David Alan Coe Born September 6, 1939 Origin Akron, Ohio Genres Country Occupations Musician, Songwriter, Actor Instruments Vocals
GuitarYears active 1956–present Labels Columbia, D.A.C., Plantation Associated acts Confederate Railroad, Bob Wayne and the Outlaw Carnies Website www.DavidAllenCoe.com David Allan Coe (born September 6, 1939) is an American outlaw country music singer who achieved popularity in the 1970s and 1980s. He has written and performed over 280 original songs throughout his career. As a singer, his biggest hits were "Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile," "The Ride," "You Never Even Called Me by My Name," "She Used to Love Me a Lot," and "Longhaired Redneck." His best-known compositions are the #1 successes "Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone)," which was covered by Tanya Tucker; and "Take This Job and Shove It," which was later covered by Johnny Paycheck that was later a hit movie (both Coe and Paycheck had minor parts in the film).
Contents
Biography
Coe was born in Akron, Ohio on September 6, 1939.[1] His favorite singer as a child was Johnny Ace.[2] After being sent to a reform school at the age of 9, he spent much of the next 20 years in correctional facilities. Coe received encouragement to begin writing songs from Screamin' Jay Hawkins, who he spent time in prison with.[3] Coe was treated poorly by racist inmates because he was friends with African American prisoners.[3] After concluding another prison term in 1967, Coe embarked on a music career in Nashville, living in a hearse which he parked in front of the Ryman Auditorium, where the Grand Ole Opry was located, and caught the attention of the independent record label Plantation Records, and signed a contract with the label.[1]
After the Internal Revenue Service seized his home in Key West, Florida, Coe lived in a cave in Tennessee, and later remarried and got back on his feet.[1]
Music career
Early career
In 1968, Coe released his debut album, Penitentiary Blues, followed by a tour with Grand Funk Railroad.[1] Although he developed a cult following with his performances, he was not able to develop any mainstream success, but other performers achieved charting success by recording songs Coe had written, including Billie Jo Spears' 1972 recording "Souvenirs & California Mem'rys" and Tanya Tucker's 1973 single "Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone)", which was a number one hit, and responsible for Coe becoming one of Nashville's hottest songwriters and Coe himself being signed by Columbia Records.[1] Coe recorded his own version of the song for his second Columbia album, Once Upon a Rhyme, released in 1975.[4] Allmusic writer Thom Jurek said of the song, "The amazing thing is that both versions are definitive."[4] The album also contained a cover of Steve Goodman's "You Never Even Called Me by My Name", which was a Top Ten Billboard hit, and was followed by a string of moderately successful hits.[1]
Coe was a featured performer in Heartworn Highways, a 1975 documentary film by James Szalapski. Other performers featured in this film included Guy Clark, Townes Van Zandt, Rodney Crowell, Steve Young, Steve Earle, and The Charlie Daniels Band. In 1977 Johnny Paycheck released a cover of Coe's "Take This Job And Shove It", which was a number one hit and Coe's most successful song.[1]
Underground albums
While Coe lived in Key West, Shel Silverstein, played his comedy album Freakin' at the Freakers Ball for Coe, spurring him to perform his own comedic songs for Silverstein, who encouraged Coe to record them, leading to the production of the independently released Nothing Sacred.[5] Jimmy Buffett accused Coe of plagiarizing the melody of "Divers Do It Deeper" from Buffett's "Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes", stating "I would have sued him, but I didn't want to give Coe the pleasure of having his name in the paper."[6] In response to the success of Buffett's song, Coe wrote a song insulting Buffet, and it appeared on Nothing Sacred.[6] The album was released by mail order in 1978, through the back pages of the biker magazine Easyriders.[5] Coe's 1979 Columbia album Spectrum VII contained a note stating "Jimmy Buffett doesn't live in Key West anymore", a lyric from a song from Nothing Sacred.[6]
In 1982, Coe released another independent album, Underground Album, which contained his most controversial song, "Nigger Fucker", which resulted in Coe being accused of racism.[7][8] Coe responded to the accusations by stating "Anyone that hears this album and says I'm a racist is full of shit".[3] Coe's drummer at the time, Kerry Brown, is African American and married to a white woman, as is Brown's father, Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown.[5]
Later career
During the 1980s, Coe enjoyed a resurgence in mainstream popularity, twice hitting the top 10 of the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart with "The Ride" (1983) and "Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile" (1984). "The Ride" recounts a drifter's encounter with the ghost of country music legend Hank Williams. "Mona Lisa" is a mid-tempo ballad about a broken love affair, featuring allusions to the iconic Da Vinci painting. He also just missed the top 10 in early 1985 with "She Used to Love Me a Lot".
In 1990, Coe reissued his independent albums Nothing Sacred and Underground Album on compact disc, as well as the compilation 18 X-Rated Hits.[5] Throughout the 1990s, Coe had a successful career as a concert performer in the United States and Europe.[1] In 1999, Coe met Pantera guitarist Dimebag Darrell in Fort Worth, Texas, and the two musicians, struck by the similarity of the approaches between country and heavy metal, agreed to work together, and began production on an album.[3][9]
In 2000, Coe toured as the opening act for Kid Rock, and The New York Times published an article by journalist Neil Strauss, who described the material on Nothing Sacred and Underground Album as "among the most racist, misogynist, homophobic and obscene songs recorded by a popular songwriter."[10] During the writing of the article, Coe contacted Strauss, but Strauss did not acknowledge any interaction between the two in his article, which only stated that Coe's manager refused to speak on the record.[5][10]
In 2003, Coe wrote a song for Kid Rock, "Single Father", which appeared on Kid Rock's self-titled album, and was released as a single, which peaked at #50 on the Billboard Country Singles chart.[11][12] Rebel Meets Rebel, with Dimebag Darrell, Vinnie Paul and Rex Brown, recorded sporadically between 1999 and 2003, was released in 2006, two years after Dimebag Darrel's murder.[3][9] Allmusic described it as a "groundbreaking" country metal album.[13]
Style
Coe's musical style derives from blues, rock and country music traditions.[1][14] His vocal style is described as a "throaty baritone".[14] His lyrical content is often humorous or comedic, with William Ruhlmann describing him as a "near-parody of a country singer".[15] Stephen Thomas Erlewine describes Coe as "a great, unashamed country singer, singing the purest honky-tonk and hardest country of his era [...] He may not be the most original outlaw, but there's none more outlaw than him."[16]
Coe's lyrics frequently include references to alcohol and drug use, and are often boisterous and cocky.[13] Coe's debut album, Penitentiary Blues was described as "voodoo blues" and "redneck music" by Allmusic's Thom Jurek.[17] It focused on themes such as working for the first time, blood tests from veins used to inject heroin, prison time, hoodoo imagery and death.[17] The album's influences included Charlie Rich, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bo Diddley, Lightnin' Hopkins, and Tony Joe White.[17]
Coe's first country album, The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy, has been described as alt-country, "pre-punk" and "a hillbilly version of Marc Bolan's glitz and glitter".[18] Credited influences on the album include Merle Haggard.[18]
Coe's albums Nothing Sacred and Underground Album contained profane, sexually explicit material, including songs making reference to an orgy in Nashville's Centennial Park, sex with pornographic film star Linda Lovelace and insults directed at Jimmy Buffett and Anita Bryant.[6][7] The album Rebel Meets Rebel featured an anti-racist song, "Cherokee Cry", which criticizes the United States government's treatment of Native Americans.[13]
In his early career, Coe was known for his unpredictable live performances, in which he would ride a Harley-Davidson motorcycle onto the stage and curse at his audience.[1] Coe has also performed in a rhinestone suit and a mask which resembled that of The Lone Ranger, calling himself the "Masked Rhinestone Cowboy".[1]
Discography
Main article: David Allan Coe discographyBibliography
- Just For The Record...the Autobiography
- The Book of David
- Ex-Convict
- Poems, Prose and Short Stories
- Psychopath
- Whoopsy Daisy (audio book)
References
- General
- "David Allan Coe". AllMusic. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/david-allan-coe-p1560/charts-awards/billboard-singles/peak_pos-asc. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
- Tucker, Stephen R. (1998). "David Allan Coe". In The Encyclopedia of Country Music. Paul Kingsbury, Editor. New York: Oxford University Press. p. 102.
- Specific
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k All Music Guide to Country Michael Erlewine pp. 95–96 ISBN 0879304758
- ^ James Sullivan (Jan 15th 2010). "Twisted Tales: David Allan Coe Takes the Outlaw Country Lifestyle to the Extreme". Spinner. http://www.spinner.com/2010/01/15/twisted-tales-david-allan-coe-takes-the-outlaw-country-lifestyl/. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
- ^ a b c d e Dan Leroy (July 14, 2005). "Coe Revisits Penitentiary". Rolling Stone. http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/coe-revisits-penitentiary-20050714. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
- ^ a b "Once Upon a Rhyme - David Allan Coe". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/album/once-upon-a-rhyme-r105958/review. Retrieved 6 September 2011.
- ^ a b c d e Tom Netherland (November 2000). "David Allan Coe rebuts racism charge". Country Standard Time. http://www.countrystandardtime.com/d/article.asp?xid=360. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
- ^ a b c d "Hello, Textas--Hello, St. Barts (and Montserrat)" Jimmy Buffett: The Man from Margaritaville Revealed p. 217 ISBN 0312168756
- ^ a b "White trash alchemies of the abject sublime" Bad music: the music we love to hate Christopher Washburne, Maiken Derno p. 37 ISBN 0415943663
- ^ Dixie Lullaby: A Story of Music, Race, and New Beginnings in a New South p. 204 ISBN 0820328723
- ^ a b Steve Leggett. "Rebel Meets Rebel". http://www.allmusic.com/artist/rebel-meets-rebel-p771849/biography. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
- ^ a b Neil Strauss (September 4, 2000). "Songwriter's Racist Songs From 1980's Haunt Him". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2000/09/04/arts/songwriter-s-racist-songs-from-1980-s-haunt-him.html. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
- ^ "Kid Rock - Kid Rock - Billboard Singles". AllMusic. 5 October 2011. http://www.allmusic.com/album/kid-rock-r663144/charts-awards/billboard-single.
- ^ "Are ya ready for some country? So's the Kid". Arizona Daily Star. October 7, 2004. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=ADSB&s_site=azstarnet&f_site=azstarnet&f_sitename=Arizona+Daily+Star%2C+The+%28AZ%29&p_multi=ADSB&p_theme=gannett&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=10603E0CE24CF87B&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved 5 October 2011. "the miseries of single parenting on the Coe-copenned "Single Father.""
- ^ a b c Megan Frye. "Rebel Meets Rebel - AllMusic". http://www.allmusic.com/album/rebel-meets-rebel-r828723/review. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
- ^ a b William Ruhlmann. "Recommended for Airplay - David Allan Coe". AllMusic. http://www.allmusic.com/album/recommended-for-airplay-r400746/review. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
- ^ William Ruhlmann. "Super Hits, Vol. 2". AllMusic. http://allmusic.com/album/super-hits-vol-2-r235027/review. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
- ^ Stephen Thomas Erlewine. "For the Record: The First 10 Years". AllMusic. http://www.allmusic.com/album/for-the-record-the-first-10-years-r92049/review. Retrieved 21 August 2011.
- ^ a b c Thom Jurek. "Penitentiary Blues - David Allan Coe". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/album/penitentiary-blues-r92039/review. Retrieved 6 September 2011.
- ^ a b Thom Jurek. "The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy - David Allan Coe". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-mysterious-rhinestone-cowboy-r637930/review. Retrieved 6 September 2011.
External links
Categories:- 1939 births
- Living people
- American country singers
- American male singers
- American country singer-songwriters
- People from Key West, Florida
- People from Shelby, North Carolina
- Musicians from Ohio
- King Records artists
- Obscenity controversies
- Protopunk musicians
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