Drive-By Truckers – Go-Go Boots written by: Taylor Cowan January 19, 2011
Share 6 5Like Release Date: February 15, 2011
Drive-By Truckers are bringing it all back home, sweet home. Channeling its native Muscle Shoals sound, the band paints that swampy Alabaman intersection of Soul and Country music lore. Eddie Hinton, a guitar legend of the local sound who passed away in 1995, serves as a muse to the album. Go-Go Boots features two Hinton covers, the first time Drive-By Truckers has tackled unoriginal material on a studio release.
Go-Go Boots is dirty, brooding and thoughtful Southern rock.
Give the guy props: His heart's in the right place and he reaches the "right" conclusions. But geez, that was painful to read. And yeah, I agree w/ you Otis.
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard
“Everybody Needs Love,” one of the Hinton covers, infers just what it says. It’s a little uninspired, if not altogether tired statement of a song.
Ummm really? Uninspired? Yeah, ummm no. Still good press is good press.
Well, what do u expect from someone who could write "...infers just what it says." ? Like i said, painful to read. It's also kind of odd to me that while I don't often use the word "inspired" to describe a song, I might well describe Patterson's vocals on this one w/ just that word and here Mr. (Ms?) Cowan is, plucking "uninspired" out of the air to apply to that same song.
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard
Hey y'all. Please do not post whole articles on 3DD. A link and a blurb is cool and falls under fair use. It's a cover your ass type thing if you know what I mean? Thanks for making 3DD what is. Onwards and upwards. These are the good old days!
mark lynn wrote:Hey y'all. Please do not post whole articles on 3DD. A link and a blurb is cool and falls under fair use. It's a cover your ass type thing if you know what I mean? Thanks for making 3DD what is. Onwards and upwards. These are the good old days!
Damn lawyers, always ruining it for everyone (not u mark, whomever advised you).
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard
I know I'm going to take some flack for this, but I totally agree on ENL, at least in studio form. It just never finds second gear, and I *hate* the way patterson was miced on it.
In 2009-10 Southern rock and roll stalwarts the Drive-By Truckers entered the studio and got after it. Before they realized it, they had laid down 2 albums worth of material. Having done the whole double album thing before, the Truckers opted for a different route, releasing 2 individual albums, one in the spring of 2010 with the other slated for the spring of 2011. The first offering was "The Big To Do", a lean, muscular outing that was slightly uneven by the DBTs standards, if only for a straggling end to an otherwise balls out rock and roll album that had featured some of the band's best songs to date, particularly Mike Cooley's outstanding character study of a stripper "Birthday Boy", and Patterson Hood's savage tale of a dried up music scene, "After the Scene Dies". The second offering was to be titled "Go-Go Boots" and according to Hood was the band's "R&B murder ballad album".
This initial description made me a little nervous. Between "The Big To Do" and Hood's 2009 solo album "Murdering Oscar", I had personally had my fill of sung-spoken songs about dead Southerners.
As it turns out, my fears were utterly baseless. While Hood's description is far from inaccurate, the results were outstanding and stand shoulder to shoulder with the lofty expectations that the Truckers have generated over the past 13 years.
Now, I own every album this band has ever released as well as countless bootlegs of live shows, and I can safely tell you that the opening track "I Do Believe" is unlike anything these guys (and gal) have ever released. It's a gorgeous pop song (that's supposed to be a compliment) that floats like a cruise in a convertible along the coast on a sunny day. I had the privilege of hearing the band play it for the first time ever on 9/29/10 in Iowa City. With a strong Motown groove, "I Do Believe" lives up to the R&B end of the description.
Next up is the first of 2 murder ballads which deal with the same incident (a respected COC preacher hires a couple of local goons to off his wife so he can marry his mistress). The title track is a creaky, swampy affair that features some filthy slide guitar from one Johnny Neff. You almost need to shower after this song.
With track #3, we get the first offering from DBT bassist Shonna Tucker. Tucker started writing songs for DBT albums with 2008's sprawling "Brighter Than Creation Dark". While those first couple tracks were noticeably a step down from the insanely high bar set by Hood and Cooley, with her 2 standout contributions to The Big To Do it became obvious that Tucker was growing into an excellent songwriter. "Dancing Ricky", her commentary on a man's runaway hubris might be her best work to date. Both catchy and thought provoking, it announces her ability to hold her own against Hood and Cooley (if "You Got Another" hadn't already done so) from a songwriting standpoint. Jay Gonzalez's electric piano adds a great, subtle layer to the verses here.
Track #4 is Cooley's first contribution to the album, the gorgeous classic country head bobber "Cartoon Gold". Featuring his trademark wry, nebulous, but ultimately incredibly gripping lyrics, as well as a great shuffling drum line from the EZ-B Brad Morgan, "Cartoon Gold" is an instant Cooley classic. Wouldn't be a DBT album without one.
4 of the next 5 offerings feature Hood back at the vocal/songwriting helm. The original "Ray's Automatic Weapon" is classic Hood. A ringing, buoyant chord progression that seemingly wants to soar (but never quite does) belies a story of troubling discontent as he describes (in this author's opinion) a look into PTSD. Hood's take on Eddie Hinton's beautiful "Everybody Needs Love" ranks amongst his best performances as a vocalist. Song #3 in this set is "Assholes", the lone misfire on the album. A comment on DBT's fight with former record label New West, it's too much of an inside joke to really be affecting to someone who wasn't involved. Also, it's lilting melody, while pretty, is fairly boring by DBT standards. Especially when the story it tells isn't one that's particularly moving. From "Assholes", things pick up immediately as we get another Cooley contribution, the golden dripping classic country "Weakest Man", a song that's been around for awhile and finally finds itself on a record. I'm glad it did, as I've always felt the chorus boasted one of his best lines. From here, the album moves to it's centerpiece, Hood's "Used To Be a Cop".
UTBAC defines Hood's early description of the album. Tucker and Morgan show why they are one of the most underrated rhythm sections in rock and roll as Cooley, Neff, and Hood squeal their guitars over a tale of a broken man pushed to the end of his rope. We don't know if any dies in this song, but by the end of it, you expect another murder right around the corner. Gonzalez's keys carry the mid section of the song, the character's lone flashback to better days.
Up next is the understated "Fireplace Poker". "Fireplace Poker" is the companion song to the title track, as it goes into a little more gory detail about that same murder. Clocking in over 8:00 minutes, it fleshes out ALL the details, including the good Reverend finishing the job the hired goons with "15 whacks of the fireplace poker". Despite it's slower pace, and half spoken lyrics, "Fireplace Poker" aptly demonstrates the bands ability to slow things down and really explore the subtleties of these arrangements. A melodic bass line, sparse acoustic guitar picking and another wonderful (yet subtle) piano fill keeps this listener engaged throughout.
As we come into the homestretch, Hood takes a little bit of a break, and turns things back over to Tucker as the band tackles it's 2nd Eddie Hinton cover of the album, "Where's Eddie?" If "Dancing Ricky" cemented Tucker as a songwriter, "Where's Eddie" cements her place as a first rate vocalist. She absolutely kills the song with what is, in my opinion, the best vocal performance on a DBT album to date. Somewhere, Eddie Hinton is smiling at the job the DBTs have done with his songs.
Hood is back up with probably the most "fun" song on the album, the light hearted take on holiday gatherings in a dysfunctional family "The Thanksgiving Filter". Don't let the jokey nature of the verses fool you, the chorus on "Thanksgiving Filter" is one of the catchier ones in Hood's canon, and the song is one of the more upbeat rockers on the album.
Second to last is the final chapter in Cooley's Country Trilogy. Like "Weakest Man", "Pulaski" has been around for a long time and DBT fans have been clamoring for a proper recording for years. We finally have it. "Pulaski" is the heartbreaking tale of a young girl who leaves her home town in Tennessee for the bright lights of California, only to find herself longing for home. She returns at the end of the song, but this time she's in a wooden box. I can't stress this enough, but ever since the Trucker's 2nd album "Pizza Deliverance", Cooley has shown the ability to write at least one song that stops you dead in your tracks and holds your mind captive on every single album. "Pulaski" does it here.
There's an old saying about saving the best for last. Patterson Hood was paying attention. With the album's closer, Hood delivers one of the best songs he's every written, the soaring, beautiful, and touching "Mercy Buckets". It is a song of unflinching devotion to the one you love, and Hood manages to deliver a genuine, gritty sentiment without ever sounding sappy or pandering. "If you need a place to hide out for awhile, I'll help you hide the bodies in a little while" Hood sings. Only the DBTs could write a love song that includes helping your partner cover up a murder. The song is a perfect crescendo for the album as Cooley lays down a Rock God solo that sounds straight out of 1975 as Hood croons "I will be your saving grace". The guitars soar, the drums crash and everything explodes into a beautiful release. If there is such thing as a musical equivalent of an orgasm, this is it.
13 years after the release of their first album, the Drive-By Truckers continue to show that they're amongst the best songwriters, musicians and artists out there today. While it ultimately falls short of their holy triumverate of Southern Rock Opera, Decoration Day, and The Dirty South, Go-Go Boots ranks amongst the top half of their albums and is a sure fire bet to wind up on many Best of 2011 lists.
I still don't understand why "assholes" is too much of an in joke or too specific when compared to every love song or break up song or fuck off song ever written. It seems just as applicable to the average business blow up as your basic love song is to your average love affair. Except it's PH & DBT, so it's way better than average and they get it exactly right. From the chutzpah of rhyming "assholes," hassles" and "castles" to the knowing comparison of the band's life on the road to the suit's life on the expense account to the dynamics of the interpersonal relationships (e.g. "playing the friend card"), this sounds like life to me.
And I was really surprised to see your take on "hiding out" in mercy buckets. The murder angle never occurred to me tho i have to concede it's a fair interpretation. But I also think it's fair to say that the bodies he's talking about are the "you" and the "I" of the song.
Notwithstanding, an excellent job sir!
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard
Nice job Iowan. I nearly agree but to me Fireplace Poker is the weakest track (but by no means a bad song) while Assholes is one of my favorites. Jay's harmonies alone would make that one for me but then the line: But when you say that you're the reason for the things we've achieved I wanna kick down your door brings it home. I can totally understand that sentiment. Still your review is top notch and I'm just picking nits.
We call him Scooby Do, but Scooby doesn’t do. Scooby, is not involved
beantownbubba wrote:Forgot to mention that, in a similar but different vein, Newbury Comics is featuring Go Go Boots pre orders (w/ signed booklet) in their weekly email.
beantownbubba wrote:Forgot to mention that, in a similar but different vein, Newbury Comics is featuring Go Go Boots pre orders (w/ signed booklet) in their weekly email.
Regarding "Mercy Buckets" and murder, I guess given Patterson's propensity to write songs where so many people die that a DBT album has a similar body count to First Blood, I hear the line "I'll help you hide the bodies in a little while" and think they gotta be moving some corpses out of the way.
Regarding "Assholes", I totally see the point you're making BTB, but for me it just falls short. Maybe the melody is too "happy" for a song about crumbling relationships? Not sure what it is, but "Assholes" still feels like a glimpse into some little fight that has no effect on me, and doesn't exude enough of a universal sentiment to really work for me.
I still don't understand why "assholes" is too much of an in joke or too specific when compared to every love song or break up song or fuck off song ever written. It seems just as applicable to the average business blow up as your basic love song is to your average love affair. Except it's PH & DBT, so it's way better than average and they get it exactly right. From the chutzpah of rhyming "assholes," hassles" and "castles" to the knowing comparison of the band's life on the road to the suit's life on the expense account to the dynamics of the interpersonal relationships (e.g. "playing the friend card"), this sounds like life to me.
x2 on the attaboys for the review, Iowan. That was a good read.
It's funny, BTB -- all the lines from "Assholes" that you single out for praise are reasons why it's my least favorite track on GGB. I think the assholes/castles/hassles rhyme sounds forced, "playing the friendship card" is a lazy cliche, which Patterson usually avoids using, and it really bugs me the way he switches between "I" and "we" throughout the song. The only line that connects with me is "you're the ones who made us this way," and it's the last line of the song. Too little, too late for me. I do really enjoy the music and melody, though. I kinda wish Patterson had sat on this one (no pun intended) for a while longer like he did with "Mercy Buckets." Coulda been a classic, instead it's just kinda "meh".
PS This may be a little forced, but I've noticed (i think) that the line on "assholes" (among those who've expressed an opinion) seems to break down fairly predictably between young and old. I wonder if it has anything to do w/ experience (or lack thereof) in the business world? I REALLY hope that doesn't sound condescending, i don't mean it that way. The age thing just strikes me as obvious, which leads to the possible explanation.
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard
beantownbubba wrote:PS This may be a little forced, but I've noticed (i think) that the line on "assholes" (among those who've expressed an opinion) seems to break down fairly predictably between young and old. I wonder if it has anything to do w/ experience (or lack thereof) in the business world? I REALLY hope that doesn't sound condescending, i don't mean it that way. The age thing just strikes me as obvious, which leads to the possible explanation.
That isn't condescending at all, and a very plausible explanation.
beantownbubba wrote:PS This may be a little forced, but I've noticed (i think) that the line on "assholes" (among those who've expressed an opinion) seems to break down fairly predictably between young and old. I wonder if it has anything to do w/ experience (or lack thereof) in the business world? I REALLY hope that doesn't sound condescending, i don't mean it that way. The age thing just strikes me as obvious, which leads to the possible explanation.
Hmm, could be. If that's the case, would that make it the first "F You" song for the middle-aged, successful businessman demographic? Unexplored territory, there.
beantownbubba wrote:PS This may be a little forced, but I've noticed (i think) that the line on "assholes" (among those who've expressed an opinion) seems to break down fairly predictably between young and old. I wonder if it has anything to do w/ experience (or lack thereof) in the business world? I REALLY hope that doesn't sound condescending, i don't mean it that way. The age thing just strikes me as obvious, which leads to the possible explanation.
Hmm, could be. If that's the case, would that make it the first "F You" song for the middle-aged, successful businessman demographic? Unexplored territory, there.
Mid-size motorboat rock?
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard
beantownbubba wrote:PS This may be a little forced, but I've noticed (i think) that the line on "assholes" (among those who've expressed an opinion) seems to break down fairly predictably between young and old. I wonder if it has anything to do w/ experience (or lack thereof) in the business world? I REALLY hope that doesn't sound condescending, i don't mean it that way. The age thing just strikes me as obvious, which leads to the possible explanation.
Hmm, could be. If that's the case, would that make it the first "F You" song for the middle-aged, successful businessman demographic? Unexplored territory, there.
Regarding "Mercy Buckets" and murder, I guess given Patterson's propensity to write songs where so many people die that a DBT album has a similar body count to First Blood, I hear the line "I'll help you hide the bodies in a little while" and think they gotta be moving some corpses out of the way.
Regarding "Assholes", I totally see the point you're making BTB, but for me it just falls short. Maybe the melody is too "happy" for a song about crumbling relationships? Not sure what it is, but "Assholes" still feels like a glimpse into some little fight that has no effect on me, and doesn't exude enough of a universal sentiment to really work for me.
Iowan - I really dig your review...you should post it on the SPIN readers review section. I agree with almost all of it.
Regarding the Hide the Bodies line - I have heard this used as a figure of speach not necessarily meaning he's gonna help hide bodies. I think he's just saying "if you need refuge I'll provide it and we'll clean up the mess together in a little bit even if it makes me an accomplice....to whatever (maybe murder in a most extreme case.)" Kinda like telling your sister, "Sis, I helped you get away with murder when you were a kid." usually does not mean in the literal sense. Given the context of the song being on the same album with GGB and Fireplacepoker, etc... maybe you could argue a literal interpretation but I think here the imagery he is using fits that context but his message is basically just that, "I'm going to stick up for you even when you may be in the wrong and I'll risk my own implication and/or sacrifice my own principals in order to ensure you don't take a fall."
And...I like Assholes....the song anyway. Its not near my top 5 PH songs and probably down the list some on my album favorites but I think there's more universality to it than folks are giving it credit. I mean yeah it is about a very specific relationship but I think in a lot of ways that relationship is a microcosm of the relationship regular working folks have with the corporate establishment. So I give it more due than what it states at face value. Listen to it after This Fucking Job....bet they were written close together.
Last edited by GuitarManUpstairs on Tue Feb 01, 2011 1:57 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Never going back to Buttholeville. (Good luck with that!)
Actually, you're right: it doesn't say, but yes, i assume it's the band.
I think the assholes/castles/hassles rhyme sounds forced, "playing the friendship card" is a lazy cliche, which Patterson usually avoids using, and it really bugs me the way he switches between "I" and "we" throughout the song. The only line that connects with me is "you're the ones who made us this way," and it's the last line of the song. Too little, too late for me. I do really enjoy the music and melody, though. I kinda wish Patterson had sat on this one (no pun intended) for a while longer like he did with "Mercy Buckets." Coulda been a classic, instead it's just kinda "meh".
