dbt tracks week 23 - Uncle Frank ---> T.V.A.

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beantownbubba
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Re: dbt tracks week 23 - Uncle Frank ---> T.V.A.

Post by beantownbubba »

Clams wrote:Why has Uncle Frank never held down a job or needed one in his life? He seems like the type of guy who would have a strong work ethic, right? And in the next line they assure him there will be work for him in town building cars. Is he independently wealthy (doubtful)? Does he live off the land and therefor not need a job? After listening all these years, I still wonder about that line.
He is self reliant; he takes care of himself presumably in a variety of ways including hunting, fishing, probably building his own cabin from materials on his 15 rocky acres, etc. In this case "job" = working for someone else/working for wages.
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phungi
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Re: dbt tracks week 23 - Uncle Frank ---> T.V.A.

Post by phungi »

beantownbubba wrote:
Clams wrote:Why has Uncle Frank never held down a job or needed one in his life? He seems like the type of guy who would have a strong work ethic, right? And in the next line they assure him there will be work for him in town building cars. Is he independently wealthy (doubtful)? Does he live off the land and therefor not need a job? After listening all these years, I still wonder about that line.
He is self reliant; he takes care of himself presumably in a variety of ways including hunting, fishing, probably building his own cabin from materials on his 15 rocky acres, etc. In this case "job" = working for someone else/working for wages.
makes sense in the context of taking away access to the land and wildlife by damming the river...
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Re: dbt tracks week 23 - Uncle Frank ---> T.V.A.

Post by Zip City »

He went into the army right out of high school and this is the first time he has had to make ends meet on his own
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Clams
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Re: dbt tracks week 23 - Uncle Frank ---> T.V.A.

Post by Clams »

beantownbubba wrote:
Clams wrote:Why has Uncle Frank never held down a job or needed one in his life? He seems like the type of guy who would have a strong work ethic, right? And in the next line they assure him there will be work for him in town building cars. Is he independently wealthy (doubtful)? Does he live off the land and therefor not need a job? After listening all these years, I still wonder about that line.
He is self reliant; he takes care of himself presumably in a variety of ways including hunting, fishing, probably building his own cabin from materials on his 15 rocky acres, etc. In this case "job" = working for someone else/working for wages.
Agree with all of that, but they assured him there's be work for him in town building cars. So it seems he does seek traditional employment. Yet he never held down a job or wanted one his whole life? I duuno. Just one of the things that spins around my head as I listen to these songs for like the 10,000th time.
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beantownbubba
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Re: dbt tracks week 23 - Uncle Frank ---> T.V.A.

Post by beantownbubba »

Clams wrote:
beantownbubba wrote:
Clams wrote:Why has Uncle Frank never held down a job or needed one in his life? He seems like the type of guy who would have a strong work ethic, right? And in the next line they assure him there will be work for him in town building cars. Is he independently wealthy (doubtful)? Does he live off the land and therefor not need a job? After listening all these years, I still wonder about that line.
He is self reliant; he takes care of himself presumably in a variety of ways including hunting, fishing, probably building his own cabin from materials on his 15 rocky acres, etc. In this case "job" = working for someone else/working for wages.
Agree with all of that, but they assured him there's be work for him in town building cars. So it seems he does seek traditional employment. Yet he never held down a job or wanted one his whole life? I duuno. Just one of the things that spins around my head as I listen to these songs for like the 10,000th time.
If I'm right about Uncle Frank's "alternative work life," then it makes sense to me that the people who were taking away that livelihood would promise him that there'd be another way to make a living and that he'd grab on to it. He never needed a job until he did. And when he did, he got fucked. They left him w/ nothing and no way to make something out of nothing which left him w/ only one way out.
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard

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Clams
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Re: dbt tracks week 23 - Uncle Frank ---> T.V.A.

Post by Clams »

beantownbubba wrote: If I'm right about Uncle Frank's "alternative work life," then it makes sense to me that the people who were taking away that livelihood would promise him that there'd be another way to make a living and that he'd grab on to it. He never needed a job until he did. And when he did, he got fucked. They left him w/ nothing and no way to make something out of nothing which left him w/ only one way out.
So "there'll be work for him in town building cars" is more an indication of the dickheads in the TVA who made promises they never intended to keep than it is of Frank who didn't give a shit about their jobs anyway (cuz he never held down a job or needed one in his life). Makes sense, thank you Mr. Bubba.
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Re: dbt tracks week 23 - Uncle Frank ---> T.V.A.

Post by bovine knievel »

^^^^
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Re: dbt tracks week 23 - Uncle Frank ---> T.V.A.

Post by schlanky »

I thought about Uncle Frank a lot last week when I was on Lake Martin (Alabama).

Years ago, I wrote a hiking/backpacking column for a newspaper. There are a few trails along Lake Martin, and I went down there to hike a couple of them because I'd noticed they weren't yet in any of the popular hiking guides and I liked getting the scoop on trail descriptions before they made it into books.

At one of the trailheads, there was a kiosk with info about the creation of Lake Martin. It talked about how much power it generated for a large geographical area. It also mentioned that families were forced to move off land they'd owned because it would be flooded for the lake. Folks gathered at cemeteries and watched the graves of their loved ones being dug up and moved. That stuck with me because I'd never thought about the other side of the story.

I'd grown up spending a lot of time on other man-made power-generating lakes closer to home. The lakes had been around since way before I was born, but I'd never thought about what was there before the dams. Years later, when I got into DBT, this song talked about what I learned about walking Lake Martin.

From wiki:

Lake Martin is a reservoir, formed by the construction of Martin Dam on the Tallapoosa River. The Martin Dam powerhouse is used to generate hydroelectric power for Alabama Power Company. Construction on Martin Dam began in 1923 and was completed in 1926, creating what was at that time the largest man-made body of water in the world.

My brother-in-law bought a house on Lake Martin last year. I went down for the second part of last week for the 4th of July with the family and enjoyed the hell out of it. But out on the water, I couldn't help but think about the song and wonder what used to be underneath where I was. Kinda like that James Dickey book.
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Clams
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Re: dbt tracks week 23 - Uncle Frank ---> T.V.A.

Post by Clams »

schlanky wrote: My brother-in-law bought a house on Lake Martin last year. I went down for the second part of last week for the 4th of July with the family and enjoyed the hell out of it. But out on the water, I couldn't help but think about the song and wonder what used to be underneath where I was. Kinda like that James Dickey book.
Where doctors, lawyers and Schlanky teach their kids to water ski...
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Re: dbt tracks week 23 - Uncle Frank ---> T.V.A.

Post by John A Arkansawyer »

Clams wrote:Why has Uncle Frank never held down a job or needed one in his life? He seems like the type of guy who would have a strong work ethic, right?
The sooner we put those assholes in the grave&piss on the dirt above it, the better off we'll be

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phungi
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Re: dbt tracks week 23 - Uncle Frank ---> T.V.A.

Post by phungi »

Clams wrote:
schlanky wrote: My brother-in-law bought a house on Lake Martin last year. I went down for the second part of last week for the 4th of July with the family and enjoyed the hell out of it. But out on the water, I couldn't help but think about the song and wonder what used to be underneath where I was. Kinda like that James Dickey book.
Where doctors, lawyers and Schlanky teach their kids to water ski...
some may come for the blame, but ultimately stick around for the wit...
We got messed up minds for these messed up times...

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schlanky
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Re: dbt tracks week 23 - Uncle Frank ---> T.V.A.

Post by schlanky »

Clams wrote: Where doctors, lawyers and Schlanky teach their kids to water ski...
:P
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Cole Younger
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Re: dbt tracks week 23 - Uncle Frank ---> T.V.A.

Post by Cole Younger »

“You ever looked out at a lake and wondered what was buried beneath it? Man that’s just about as buried as you can get.” Lewis Melocke
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Re: dbt tracks week 23 - Uncle Frank ---> T.V.A.

Post by schlanky »

Cole Younger wrote:“You ever looked out at a lake and wondered what was buried beneath it? Man that’s just about as buried as you can get.” Lewis Medlock
Quoting because we lack a "like" button." That's one of my favorite books and one of my favorite movies. They're different from each other, but both are great in their own way---one medium gives what the other lacks. I slightly prefer the book, but knowing the actors went into it with no insurance or stuntmen makes the movie all the more impressive.
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Cole Younger
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Re: dbt tracks week 23 - Uncle Frank ---> T.V.A.

Post by Cole Younger »

schlanky wrote:
Cole Younger wrote:“You ever looked out at a lake and wondered what was buried beneath it? Man that’s just about as buried as you can get.” Lewis Medlock
Quoting because we lack a "like" button." That's one of my favorite books and one of my favorite movies. They're different from each other, but both are great in their own way---one medium gives what the other lacks. I slightly prefer the book, but knowing the actors went into it with no insurance or stuntmen makes the movie all the more impressive.
I've never read the book. I've read plenty of James Dickey but this is a case of having already seen the movie years ago and I know I'll find it impossible to imagine the characters as anyone but the actors. That's not necessarily a bad thing but it takes it out of your hands as far as it happening naturally. Incredibly my wife had never seen the movie until a few months ago when I got her to watch it with me on Netflix. She said it was awful. I've fished that very river and camped right next to it. I love the Chatooga River and Rabun County in general. Sadly that movie is no longer enough to scare the Atlanta folks from going up there so I usually have to hike a little farther up the river to get away from people when I'm up there now.
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Re: dbt tracks week 23 - Uncle Frank ---> T.V.A.

Post by Tequila Cowboy »

When I was younger I spent some time boating on Lake Delevan in WI where an elephant was at the bottom of the lake. It always freaked me out.

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Re: dbt tracks week 23 - Uncle Frank ---> T.V.A.

Post by schlanky »

Tequila Cowboy wrote:When I was younger I spent some time boating on Lake Delevan in WI where an elephant was at the bottom of the lake. It always freaked me out.

http://beethoven23.tripod.com/Walworth/RomeoJuliet.html
I really hope there are some local ghost stories about how people out swimming sometimes feel something wrap around their leg and try to pull them down----something that could perhaps be an elephant trunk.
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Re: dbt tracks week 23 - Uncle Frank ---> T.V.A.

Post by Tequila Cowboy »

schlanky wrote:
Tequila Cowboy wrote:When I was younger I spent some time boating on Lake Delevan in WI where an elephant was at the bottom of the lake. It always freaked me out.

http://beethoven23.tripod.com/Walworth/RomeoJuliet.html
I really hope there are some local ghost stories about how people out swimming sometimes feel something wrap around their leg and try to pull them down----something that could perhaps be an elephant trunk.
Oh there are lots of elephant ghost stories and, at least as recently as twenty years ago, elephant bones still showed up from time to time. I have friends that claim to have seen Juliet on the shore. In an unrelated note those same friends owned Mae West's former summer house on the lake.,
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Re: dbt tracks week 23 - Uncle Frank ---> T.V.A.

Post by Gaetzi »

Uncle Frank- Top 3 DBT tune for me
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Re: dbt tracks week 23 - Uncle Frank ---> T.V.A.

Post by pearlbeer »

Clams wrote:
beantownbubba wrote:
Clams wrote:Why has Uncle Frank never held down a job or needed one in his life? He seems like the type of guy who would have a strong work ethic, right? And in the next line they assure him there will be work for him in town building cars. Is he independently wealthy (doubtful)? Does he live off the land and therefor not need a job? After listening all these years, I still wonder about that line.
He is self reliant; he takes care of himself presumably in a variety of ways including hunting, fishing, probably building his own cabin from materials on his 15 rocky acres, etc. In this case "job" = working for someone else/working for wages.
Agree with all of that, but they assured him there's be work for him in town building cars. So it seems he does seek traditional employment. Yet he never held down a job or wanted one his whole life? I duuno. Just one of the things that spins around my head as I listen to these songs for like the 10,000th time.
One of my all time favorite songs.

Uncle Frank lives off the land - never had a job or needed one in his life.
He had 15 rocky acres that no one else would want. But all that backed up water had to have somewhere to go.

The flooded the holler where Uncle Frank lived - took away his ability to live on the land - they took away the land itself. A promise was made to replace the land and the way of life that was taken away with a real job in town.
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litdimly
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Re: dbt tracks week 23 - Uncle Frank ---> T.V.A.

Post by litdimly »

The Bitter Southerner Podcast Episode 7: Progress, Heartbreak & Art: the TVA
The Tennessee Valley Authority’s dams brought electricity to the rural South, and in our region’s lore, it looms huge: the classic story of people vs. progress. We explore the progress, heartbreak and art of the TVA with guests Mike Cooley of the Drive-By Truckers, historian Lisa Russell, and author Caleb Johnson.

https://bittersoutherner.com/podcast/se ... sode-seven

Cole Younger
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Re: dbt tracks week 23 - Uncle Frank ---> T.V.A.

Post by Cole Younger »

litdimly wrote:The Bitter Southerner Podcast Episode 7: Progress, Heartbreak & Art: the TVA
The Tennessee Valley Authority’s dams brought electricity to the rural South, and in our region’s lore, it looms huge: the classic story of people vs. progress. We explore the progress, heartbreak and art of the TVA with guests Mike Cooley of the Drive-By Truckers, historian Lisa Russell, and author Caleb Johnson.

https://bittersoutherner.com/podcast/se ... sode-seven
Awesome. Thanks for posting and good to see you around.
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Re: dbt tracks week 23 - Uncle Frank ---> T.V.A.

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