Track of the Week #51: Shut Up and Get on the Plane

[Iowan]

Well your wishes and your feelings
Your bad dreams and intuitions
Are about as much good to me right now as a brand new set of golf clubs
We've been this close to death before, we were just too drunk to know it
Guess the price of being sobers being scared out of your mind

When it comes your time to go, ain't no good way to go about it
Ain't no use in thinking bout it
You'll just drive yourself insane
There comes a time for everything
And the time has come for you to shut your mouth and get your ass on the plane

Ain't nothing I'd rather do right now than just go on home and lay around
But that ain't never an option for a working man like me
How much is enough you ask
I'll ask the man when I get a chance
All I know right now, there's somewhere else I'm suppose to be

Screaming engines, shooting flames
Dirty needles and cheap cocaine
Some gal's old man with a gun
To me it's all the same
Dead is dead and it ain't no different than walking around if you ain't living
Living in fear's just another way of dying before your time

When Clams approached me about Track of the Week, I could not believe that this song was still on the list.

To me, Shut Up and Get on the Plane is a near perfect distillation of everything the Truckers are into 3:41. Southern boogie; greasy blues progression; punk energy; reckless soloing. It's snarling, defiant poetry at its finest. Cooley absolutely nails the ethos of working hard and living hard. Going balls to the walls with no fear of the end.

I discovered the Truckers at an interesting point in life. I had just finished undergard, and knew I was going to apply to law school, but I needed a year off. My folks were going through a nasty divorce (divorce with grown children is really, really weird). Something about the music just caught me and never let go. I'd never seen a band be so damn honest, and at the end of the day so fiercely proud of who they were warts and all. This really made sense to me. I know I'm flawed, but damn it, I'm proud of who I am and where I've come from. This song was just 1 in a number of their songs that bowled me over. Every fucking line of the song felt like something I could embrace. The line "the price of being sober's being scared out of your mind" reminded me of a couple buddies who were in that "I don't know what to do with myself so I'm drinking myself stupid" phase of life. The whole spirit of the song seemed to sum up where I (we) were in life: living hard and halfway aware of the consequences; yet still stubborn and proud of who we were and what lay in front of us. Living in fear IS dying before your time. Rather than run from things, we tried to brace them head on. Giving it hell every day. It isn't a sustainable way to go about things. The Truckers have realized that. I've realized that (hell, I knew it at the time). But the message is still the same. Growing up isn't living scared; its just living smart.

At the end of the day, like so many other Trucker songs, this one moved me in ways that I can't describe (and truthfully don't want to be able to describe). It encapsules everything that is right with rock and roll, and in a way, life.

That being said, I'm going to shut my mouth and get my ass on the plane.

[Sub]

Love this song it really took on a new meaning for me a few years ago when I was at a point in my life where everything was changing. I was about to board a plane really hesitant and scared of what was to come and had on some truckers. I was sitting at the bar having some drinks calming my nerves about my uncertain next move and this tune came on. Kind of felt like it was telling me to stop being a bitch and just get on the plane to my fresh start.

Just another classic Cooley tune. I really love how the lyrics can be relatable on so many levels.

[Clams]

Excellent post by Iowan, and a great follow up by Sub.

[Zip City]

"I guess the price of being sober is being scared out of your mind"

and

"Livin' in fear's just another way of dying before your time"

may be #1A and #1B on the list of all time best Cooley lyrics.


Also, in another example of Hood and Cooley writing songs about the same thing (Shut Up vs. Greenville), Cooley wins in a landslide

[Virgil Caine]

This song makes me think of Cooley as a hard-ass motivational speaker, saying "Don't be a bitch. We all got problems, fucking take care of your own shit." One of my favorite DBT tracks. It makes me refuse to live in fear.

[Fool No Where]

True story. I had my ipod on shuffle and this played as I was waiting to boarding a plane from Mumbai to Zurich.

[Rocky]

Great post Iowan about a great song. If someone wrote "it encapsules everything that is right with rock and roll" about a song I wrote I could sleep well at night.

[pearlysnaps]

This song makes me think of Cooley as a hard-ass motivational speaker, saying "Don't be a bitch. We all got problems, fucking take care of your own shit."

I sometimes, half-jokingly, use this as my own internal motivational speaker when I need it.

You know:

Inner whiner: I don't want to do iiiittttt
Inner Motivational Speaker Cooler: Come on, Dude, shut your mouth and get your ass on the plane.

Getting on the plane can mean anything.

[pearlysnaps]

oops double post

[Iowan]

This song makes me think of Cooley as a hard-ass motivational speaker, saying "Don't be a bitch. We all got problems, fucking take care of your own shit."

I sometimes, half-jokingly, use this as my own internal motivational speaker when I need it.

You know:

Inner whiner: I don't want to do iiiittttt
Inner Motivational Speaker Cooler: Come on, Dude, shut your mouth and get your ass on the plane.

Getting on the plane can mean anything.

Absolutely.

[scotto]

Great job Iowan and all who've commented.
I think about these lines a lot these days, but not for any dramatic, death-defying reasons.
At this point in my life, with a job that's equal parts deeply frustrating and incredibly rewarding, being obviously (and happily) settled down, and facing fewer life-altering options, shutting my mouth and getting my ass on the plane is as much about contented acceptance as it is about screaming through life with wreckless abandon.
If I catch myself having a pity party about not being a famous author or not living in a cabin somewhere or not being independently wealthy and having to still face the 40-hour-a-week grind at age 51, I try to remember all the living I've done and all the good things I have and just go ahead and smile and get my ass on the plane.
Getting on the plane can indeed mean anything.

[njMark]

I prefer getting my ass on the couch, moaning about life and doing nothing.

[Beaverdam]

At 87, my grandmother died last week, and I needed to write a eulogy; she was a brave woman and was not fearful. I'm in the process of writing, but the title is "Living in Fear is Just Another Way of Dying Before your Time!"

To avoid copyright infringement and lawsuits, I gave credit to Cooley in the speech.

[Zip City]

At 87, my grandmother died last week, and I needed to write a eulogy; she was a brave woman and was not fearful. I'm in the process of writing, but the title is "Living in Fear is Just Another Way of Dying Before your Time!"

To avoid copyright infringement and lawsuits, I gave credit to Cooley in the speech.

One of Cooley's top 5 lines

[Beaverdam]

At 87, my grandmother died last week, and I needed to write a eulogy; she was a brave woman and was not fearful. I'm in the process of writing, but the title is "Living in Fear is Just Another Way of Dying Before your Time!"

To avoid copyright infringement and lawsuits, I gave credit to Cooley in the speech.

This weekend I stood in the pulpit of a small, country church in the middle of nowhere VA and spoke of Mike Cooley in the pulpit; he was mentioned in conjunction with King David (Psalms) who also wrote about not being afraid. That may have been a first!!!!