dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE with Patterson's 7/18 Post

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Clams
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dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE with Patterson's 7/18 Post

Post by Clams »

In honor of the kick ass (to say the least) version played on Saturday night in Montclair.

It's one of those songs that sounds tounge-in-cheek but in reality has a lot more truth than anyone wants to admit. AAW has what I would an almost-definitive version (I say "almost" because it's a pre-State Trooper version). I also remember a year or two back they opened with this song at a show in Baltimore.

Tired of living in Buttholeville
Tired of my job and my wife Lucille
Tired of my kids Ronnie and Neil
Tired of my 68 Bonneville
Working down at Billy Bob's Bar and Grille
The food here tastes like the way I feel
There's a girl on the dance floor dressed to kill
She's the best looking woman in Buttholeville

One day I'm gonna get out of Buttholeville
Gonna reach right in Gonna grab the till
Buy a brand new hat and a Coupe deVille
lay a patch on the road that runs over the hill
There's a beach somewhere where the water's are still
Gonna lay in the sun till my skin peels
Drinking the best scotch whiskey, eating lobster and eel
and I'm never going back to Buttholeville

Never going, never going, never going never going back!
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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE

Post by GuitarManUpstairs »

Somehow I only recently (in the last few months) started really digging this song. It was after hearing it live at the 40Watt this year as the closer on night 1 that it hit me what an epic guitar freak of a song this is. Since then i listened to The Dirt Underneath recordings off the archive and really dig Patterson's into about Buttholeville being a "State of mind, not just the state of AL/GA." Really dig that one, but my favorite recording thusfar has to be Live at the Variety Playhouse from the Sometimes Late at night EP. Just a complete rocker with Jody Dickinson sitting in with them. I have to listen to that one on 11.
Never going back to Buttholeville. (Good luck with that!)

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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE

Post by beantownbubba »

Gotta love the "ronnie and neil" line :)

Am i right in thinking that the "'68 bonneville" line is not a complaint about having an old used car but rather a lament that he's tired of being stuck in a (sub)culture in which driving a '68 bonneville is a statement and one that says a lot more than he would like to have attributed to himself?
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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE

Post by Smarty Jones »

[quote="GuitarManUpstairs"]really dig Patterson's into about Buttholeville being a "State of mind, not just the state of AL/GA."[quote]

I can see where PH is coming from on that. If you think about it, the whole concept of Buttholeville seems to embody a man trying to escape the mediocre, anonymous, quietly complacent and contented lifestyle and mindframe of Small Town, USA. Everyone's had a point in their life where the place they grew up in/lived in seemed like Buttholeville and they wanted out. This song really serves as Patterson's "fuck you" to small-town mentality, not any one small town in particular.
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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE

Post by beantownbubba »

Hey Smarty, Shackleford's on the board now. I'm thinking "match race". :idea: 8-)
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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE

Post by Nobody Girl »

After a particularly crappy day at work, there's nothing quite like blasting Buttholeville and speeding down the interstate.

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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE

Post by Kudzu Guillotine »

Isn't there some kind of backstory to this song in that in pissed off some of the hometown folks like maybe Jay Johnson? Can't remember the details now or where I read that but I seem to remember something like that in connection with "Buttholeville".

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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE

Post by Smitty »

Kudzu Guillotine wrote:Isn't there some kind of backstory to this song in that in pissed off some of the hometown folks like maybe Jay Johnson? Can't remember the details now or where I read that but I seem to remember something like that in connection with "Buttholeville".


Yeah I believe it pissed off Jimmy Johnson; I believe "Ronne & Neil" was sort-of a peace offering to him.
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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE

Post by Shackleford »

Good tune.

beantownbubba wrote:Hey Smarty, Shackleford's on the board now. I'm thinking "match race". :idea: 8-)

My names more after Rusty Shackleford from King of The HIll, but I'm fine with the horse that won me some dough. 8-)

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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE

Post by pearlysnaps »

This tune has reached its stature within my mind mostly because of how the band brings it live. I mean, it can be the perfect sweaty rock catharsis. And while the lyrics can seem a bit lampoonish, once you scrape down to the dirt underneath its lyrics also reveal quite a bit of insight. I don't think the following is the most eloquent line I've ever heard, but it is the one from this tune that sticks with me and captures a great slice of small shithole town life: "The food here tastes like the way I feel"

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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE

Post by Smarty Jones »

Shackleford wrote:My names more after Rusty Shackleford from King of The HIll, but I'm fine with the horse that won me some dough. 8-)


Hey, Shackleford! Welcome!!

I'm named after the horse that won my 12-yr-old heart many moons ago. It's nice to meet someone with a fellow horse name (whether you meant it to be or not). ;)

beantownbubba wrote:Hey Smarty, Shackleford's on the board now. I'm thinking "match race". :idea: 8-)


:lol: :lol: :lol: I'm afraid to ask just what that might entail. :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE

Post by Iowan »

A buddy and I always talk about writing a movie about living in rural Iowa (which could be rural anywhere) that would be accurate, and avoid the small town cliche shit.

We decided that the title would be "Buttholeville" and the opening scene would be cornfields shot out of an airplane (or car) as Buttholeville cranks. After the first pause at "she's the best looking woman in Buttholeville", the title would flash across the scene, and you'd pan down into the first scene.

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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE

Post by GuitarManUpstairs »

Iowan wrote:A buddy and I always talk about writing a movie about living in rural Iowa (which could be rural anywhere) that would be accurate, and avoid the small town cliche shit.

We decided that the title would be "Buttholeville" and the opening scene would be cornfields shot out of an airplane (or car) as Buttholeville cranks. After the first pause at "she's the best looking woman in Buttholeville", the title would flash across the scene, and you'd pan down into the first scene.


Very nice....I can totally see that - probably out of a car - I hope you or someone else does this. The first clip could be just a couple of guys riding down the road (maybe drinking beer - you know some cliche's have an element of truth. Its all about what you do with it.), they have a few lines of dialogue with the music low in the background then a shot of the car zooming past the camera at a low angle on the side of the road by a dead possum and the music kicks back in for the second verse as the opening credits play out......
Never going back to Buttholeville. (Good luck with that!)

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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE

Post by scotto »

beantownbubba wrote:Gotta love the "ronnie and neil" line :)

Am i right in thinking that the "'68 bonneville" line is not a complaint about having an old used car but rather a lament that he's tired of being stuck in a (sub)culture in which driving a '68 bonneville is a statement and one that says a lot more than he would like to have attributed to himself?

I think you're correct, Bean. Obviously, unlike the narrator, anyone who's not disenchanted with their own Buttholeville would kill for a '68 Bonneville.

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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE

Post by GuitarManUpstairs »

scotto wrote:
beantownbubba wrote:Gotta love the "ronnie and neil" line :)

Am i right in thinking that the "'68 bonneville" line is not a complaint about having an old used car but rather a lament that he's tired of being stuck in a (sub)culture in which driving a '68 bonneville is a statement and one that says a lot more than he would like to have attributed to himself?

I think you're correct, Bean. Obviously, unlike the narrator, anyone who's not disenchanted with their own Buttholeville would kill for a '68 Bonneville.


Yeah, like this in red...

Image
Never going back to Buttholeville. (Good luck with that!)

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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE

Post by Clams »

scotto wrote:
beantownbubba wrote:Gotta love the "ronnie and neil" line :)

Am i right in thinking that the "'68 bonneville" line is not a complaint about having an old used car but rather a lament that he's tired of being stuck in a (sub)culture in which driving a '68 bonneville is a statement and one that says a lot more than he would like to have attributed to himself?

I think you're correct, Bean. Obviously, unlike the narrator, anyone who's not disenchanted with their own Buttholeville would kill for a '68 Bonneville.



Isn't that really the point of the whole song (not just the Bonneville line)?
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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE

Post by beantownbubba »

Clams wrote:
scotto wrote:
beantownbubba wrote:Gotta love the "ronnie and neil" line :)

Am i right in thinking that the "'68 bonneville" line is not a complaint about having an old used car but rather a lament that he's tired of being stuck in a (sub)culture in which driving a '68 bonneville is a statement and one that says a lot more than he would like to have attributed to himself?

I think you're correct, Bean. Obviously, unlike the narrator, anyone who's not disenchanted with their own Buttholeville would kill for a '68 Bonneville.



Isn't that really the point of the whole song (not just the Bonneville line)?


Well yes, but it's equally in tune (sorry) w/ the whole song to say that he's tired of driving this damn used car. Some of us not totally attuned to car culture might think that a "'68 bonneville" probably signifies something more than just a used car, but we're not really sure. So we ask. Or at least one of us does :)
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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE

Post by Iowan »

GuitarManUpstairs wrote:
Iowan wrote:A buddy and I always talk about writing a movie about living in rural Iowa (which could be rural anywhere) that would be accurate, and avoid the small town cliche shit.

We decided that the title would be "Buttholeville" and the opening scene would be cornfields shot out of an airplane (or car) as Buttholeville cranks. After the first pause at "she's the best looking woman in Buttholeville", the title would flash across the scene, and you'd pan down into the first scene.


Very nice....I can totally see that - probably out of a car - I hope you or someone else does this. The first clip could be just a couple of guys riding down the road (maybe drinking beer - you know some cliche's have an element of truth. Its all about what you do with it.), they have a few lines of dialogue with the music low in the background then a shot of the car zooming past the camera at a low angle on the side of the road by a dead possum and the music kicks back in for the second verse as the opening credits play out......


There will be A LOT of beer drinking in this movie. That's a cliche that's probably underrated, if anything.

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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE

Post by dime in the gutter »

studio cut is a monster. guitars sound like an air raid. amps crackling, popping and buzzing.

final 40 seconds might be the core of the whole lp.

and ya'll are breaking down the wrong car.....it's the coup deville that matters most.....pimpin'.

gonna reach right in, gonna grab the till.

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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE

Post by Iowan »

dime in the gutter wrote:studio cut is a monster. guitars sound like an air raid. amps crackling, popping and buzzing.

final 40 seconds might be the core of the whole lp.


and ya'll are breaking down the wrong car.....it's the coup deville that matters most.....pimpin'.

gonna reach right in, gonna grab the till.



Yup. First spin through GB, I was really disappointed until I got to Buttholeville. Now, I know this sounds like blasphemy (and I warmed up to the album quickly), but I was coming from the perspective of SRO through ABAAC. Once the "air raid" guitars started pummeling my ear drums, I was immediately soothed.

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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE

Post by beantownbubba »

dime in the gutter wrote:studio cut is a monster. guitars sound like an air raid. amps crackling, popping and buzzing.

final 40 seconds might be the core of the whole lp.

and ya'll are breaking down the wrong car.....it's the coup deville that matters most.....pimpin'.

gonna reach right in, gonna grab the till.


Even i know what a coupe de ville signifies :lol:
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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE

Post by Drop D »

That makes more sense. To me in Blighty this is a '68 Bonneville. Life would have to be really shit to be tired of this!

Image

Love this song to end the show but I can't figure out how or when they decide if it'll be State Trooper or non-State Trooper.

It's one of those devastatingly simple but effective Rock 'n' Roll songs that tell a universal truth - dissatisfaction with provincial life and the dream of something better somewhere, anywhere, else.

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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE

Post by Tequila Cowboy »

BUTTHOLEVILLE by Patterson Hood

BUTTHOLEVILLE

I wrote Buttholeville on my kitchen table at my crappy one bedroom apartment in
Florence AL in the spring of 1988.
I was then playing with Mike Cooley in the band Adam's House Cat.
Things weren't going particularly well on any level back then.
I was very frustrated with everything in my life, personal, musical, financial, you name it.
I don't remember if I had my guitar or not, as sometimes I wrote without it, especially as
my girlfriend, who lived with me then, worked days and was usually in bed by 10.

Dirty little secret,
I wasn't actually intending the song about any one particular town at all.
I was certainly frustrated about where I was and there was a lot about my hometown that
was pissing me off for sure, but the song was more about my general state of mind
(and the general state of mind of the people I had to do business with at the time, booking
my band in a bunch of redneck clubs in the southeast) than just my hometown.
I was just mad and frustrated and such simple emotions inspire a very simple (you could
even say simplistic) song.
Basically one chord (nowadays a G minor although with us tuned down that would be
played like an A minor) driving over and over in a slight variation to a Chuck Berry riff
(Appropriated almost verbatim from Bruce Springsteen's "State Trooper", although that
might have occurred later when the band worked it up).
None of that is too clear, like so much from that point of my life.
It's all a blurry hazy collage of memories that each year renders a little blurrier and
hazier.

I do remember writing the words though.
It was very quick.
I had the first line and that led to the second and so on until it was done.
Probably not even ten minutes. Maybe five.
I wanted it to sound as redneck as what it was making fun of.
That was kind of the point.

Oh and Billy Bob was a real person.
Part of my frustration was having this band that was kind of starting to be kicking.
We had just won MUSICIAN Magazine's Best Unsigned Band thing and was getting all
of this buzz and press and no one would let us play in our hometown.
There was a club called Southern Touch that we had played a couple of gigs in very early
on and it sold to a new owner (who ran it into the ground in about four months flat).
We went to him trying to get a show and finally talked him into letting us charge $5 at
the door, collect it ourselves and play for that.
No money from him and he got to make the bar, which at that time was almost always
empty.
He agreed, then when we packed the place out he tried to steal the door $$ from us.
He wasn't around very long after that, but his name really was Billy Bob.

The car was real also, although it wasn't mine. (I actually drove a little Honda that I
ended up putting 1/4 million miles on).
I remembered a couple of brothers who were friends of mine since 1st grade (still are)
whose Mom drove a dirty gold 68 Bonneville four door.
In 1988, it wouldn't have been retro-cool yet, it was probably long since in a junkyard,
but it rhymed with Buttholeville so there you have it.
One of the brothers, much later mentioned that their mom had that kind of car and I told
him that’s where it came from.
I think he liked that.

Ronnie and Neil was THAT Ronnie and Neil which shows that even back then my mind
was already working towards that direction.
I was always fascinated by their misunderstood little feud and mutual admiration, which
leads to the Jimmy Johnson part of this story.

Jimmy Johnson was my Dad's partner in music at Muscle Shoals Sound for over 25
years. They were also really close, maybe best friends.
Jimmy discovered Lynyrd Skynyrd (before Al Kooper or Alan Walden) and engineered
the Rolling Stones’ sessions that brought us "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses".
He's a cool guy and really like part of my family.
I played in bands with his son Jay back in High School and could probably write a book
on just those stories alone.
Jimmy knew about us winning that contest and I'm sure was a little proud of me and
came to see Adam's House Cat play in early 89 (at a club called Swampers that later
opened where Southern Touch once was).
While he was there, he saw us play "Buttholeville" and was so angry that we would write
such a song about his beloved hometown, the place where all of his childhood dreams
had come true, that he wanted to 'whip my ass' and Jay actually had to talk him down
from doing so right then and there in front of everyone.
Jimmy was a big imposing guy back in those days and could easily have taken Cooley
and I both out. I doubt anyone there would have tried to stop it.

Now a little side note. I grew up loving my Dad and worshipping the music that he made.
My original record collection was like a miniature version of his. A little Elton, a little
Neil, a little Pink, a little Zeppelin.
The Beatles, The Stones, Steely Dan, even God-forbid some Eagles.
Then in 1977 I saw a thing on some late night TV show about this "horrible" new music
fad from England and I was hooked.
Suddenly I was scouring the racks looking for Punk Rock records (not necessarily easy to
find in North Alabama at the time).
I followed and learned the best I could but suddenly Punk Rock was My Dad's and I's
first generation gap.
He was a studio player in the business of trying to make everything sound as close to
perfect as possible and I loved a music that reveled in it's own imperfections.
I mistrusted the sheen that records were then thought to aspire to and loved the ratty
sounds and unbridled anger and emotion of this beloved new form of Rock.

I also recognized aspects of it in older more traditional albums by some older artists (Neil
Young, who was one of the few of the old guard to embrace it early on).

It wasn't until much later that I made the connection that early Rock and Roll and even
Country Music was often closer in spirit to the things I loved about Punk Rock than the
slick studio processed music of the late 70's (and for that matter much of what was later
called New Wave).
If Hank Williams had come along in 1977, he would have been called Punk Rock, but I
digress again.

I doubt Jimmy Johnson listened to much Punk Rock and I'm sure he would have hated it
if he did.
There was nothing in his formative experience to lead him to appreciate "Buttholeville".
It was just a bunch of spoiled snotty young kids thumbing their nose at him, his
hometown and the very life that he held so dear.
Never mind that my intention in writing the song had nothing to do with any of that,
suddenly his issue with my song and me became the story and I was far too young,
rebellious (perhaps snotty nosed and spoiled too) to back down.
To my way of thinking, anyone offended by a song was what that song was about so
therefore...

I guess our feud lasted well over ten years.
I didn't really see much of him during those days and as that song got more (negative)
attention in my hometown, the legend around it became bigger and bigger.
As they say in John Ford movies, "Print The Legend".

A few years later, I ended up moving off and a few years passed and I began rethinking
my turbulent relationship with home, both literally and figuratively.
Home, as in my family and home as in my hometown and home as in my region, which I
have also always had a somewhat bumpy relationship.
As it's well known, I co-wrote an album, maybe several about these things and on 'that
one' in particular, I wrote a song about the friendship/feud of Ronnie and Neil.
In writing that song, I wanted to re-connect it with my own roots and my own little Rock
Feud so I wrote the Jimmy Johnson verse as a sort of acknowledgement/fig leaf to him.
To further connect the dots, Jimmy and Ronnie Van Zant, both of whom possessed very
explosive tempers, had had their own falling out way back and Ronnie wrote the Muscle
Shoals verse of "Sweet Home Alabama" as his fig leaf to Jimmy.
I loved connecting "Ronnie and Neil" to "Buttholeville" and have always sort of
considered that song to be part of the Southern Rock Opera narrative.
I sent Jimmy a copy of Southern Rock Opera and was told that he appreciated it. I doubt
he wants to whip my ass anymore.

It should be noted as I write this that last night my band played a show in a mid-sized
Canadian city.
To folks where I'm from, Canada is this mythical liberal place with big beautiful clean
cities, wide-open spaces and abundant free healthcare.

Canadians are known as a friendly people.
A big part of the front row last night was this group of drunk morons wearing matching
hockey jerseys and acting like total assholes.
They were dipping Skoal for Christ sake, something I've never seen at a DBT show in
Alabama or Georgia.
They were bumping into the fine folks around them who were trying to enjoy a show that
they paid their hard earned money for.
They were spilling beer all around and I actually saw one do a line of something off of
his buddy's fist.
I have no idea where they were from and really don't care. (Some nice people I talked to
after the show speculated that they were from the surrounding countryside).
There were only five or six of them but that's all it took to make it a shitty experience for
most of the people around them,
so Buttholeville Really is a State of Mind.

In a couple of weeks I will be participating in a panel at the WC Handy Festival in
Florence AL dedicated to the multiple generations in Muscle Shoals Music.

http://www.wchandymusicfestival.org/



I will be sitting with my Dad and Jimmy and Jay Johnson.
DBT will be playing a show that evening, headlining the local festival, which for the
record we've never been asked to play before.
A lot of our never being invited probably is directly related to my having written that
song back in 1988.
I suspect that "Buttholeville" will come up (it usually does whenever I see Jimmy).
I'm still not sorry for the song or my intent with it, but I am sorry that he took it the
wrong way and was so angered about it.

I certainly won't bring it up.

The last time I saw Jimmy Johnson was when The Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section
was being inducted into The Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville.
It was a beautiful ceremony that included Booker T and The MGs, Duane Eddy, The
Crickets, Keith Richards and George Jones among many others
Jimmy came up to me afterwards and said he sure was proud of me and what all I had
done.

Then he proceeded to tell me he really never thought that he would feel that way since I
used to be so misguided and all.

"You've turned out OK, but I sure don't like that song you wrote".

- Patterson Hood -Originally written in the Back Lounge on Tour Bus (Brittany) outside
The Phoenix, Toronto Ontario June 15th, 2011, revised and updated on July 16, 2011
from my office in Athens GA.
We call him Scooby Do, but Scooby doesn’t do. Scooby, is not involved

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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE

Post by Kudzu Guillotine »

Tequila Cowboy wrote:
BUTTHOLEVILLE by Patterson Hood

BUTTHOLEVILLE

I wrote Buttholeville on my kitchen table at my crappy one bedroom apartment in
Florence AL in the spring of 1988.
I was then playing with Mike Cooley in the band Adam's House Cat.
Things weren't going particularly well on any level back then.
I was very frustrated with everything in my life, personal, musical, financial, you name it.
I don't remember if I had my guitar or not, as sometimes I wrote without it, especially as
my girlfriend, who lived with me then, worked days and was usually in bed by 10.

Dirty little secret,
I wasn't actually intending the song about any one particular town at all.
I was certainly frustrated about where I was and there was a lot about my hometown that
was pissing me off for sure, but the song was more about my general state of mind
(and the general state of mind of the people I had to do business with at the time, booking
my band in a bunch of redneck clubs in the southeast) than just my hometown.
I was just mad and frustrated and such simple emotions inspire a very simple (you could
even say simplistic) song.
Basically one chord (nowadays a G minor although with us tuned down that would be
played like an A minor) driving over and over in a slight variation to a Chuck Berry riff
(Appropriated almost verbatim from Bruce Springsteen's "State Trooper", although that
might have occurred later when the band worked it up).
None of that is too clear, like so much from that point of my life.
It's all a blurry hazy collage of memories that each year renders a little blurrier and
hazier.

I do remember writing the words though.
It was very quick.
I had the first line and that led to the second and so on until it was done.
Probably not even ten minutes. Maybe five.
I wanted it to sound as redneck as what it was making fun of.
That was kind of the point.

Oh and Billy Bob was a real person.
Part of my frustration was having this band that was kind of starting to be kicking.
We had just won MUSICIAN Magazine's Best Unsigned Band thing and was getting all
of this buzz and press and no one would let us play in our hometown.
There was a club called Southern Touch that we had played a couple of gigs in very early
on and it sold to a new owner (who ran it into the ground in about four months flat).
We went to him trying to get a show and finally talked him into letting us charge $5 at
the door, collect it ourselves and play for that.
No money from him and he got to make the bar, which at that time was almost always
empty.
He agreed, then when we packed the place out he tried to steal the door $$ from us.
He wasn't around very long after that, but his name really was Billy Bob.

The car was real also, although it wasn't mine. (I actually drove a little Honda that I
ended up putting 1/4 million miles on).
I remembered a couple of brothers who were friends of mine since 1st grade (still are)
whose Mom drove a dirty gold 68 Bonneville four door.
In 1988, it wouldn't have been retro-cool yet, it was probably long since in a junkyard,
but it rhymed with Buttholeville so there you have it.
One of the brothers, much later mentioned that their mom had that kind of car and I told
him that’s where it came from.
I think he liked that.

Ronnie and Neil was THAT Ronnie and Neil which shows that even back then my mind
was already working towards that direction.
I was always fascinated by their misunderstood little feud and mutual admiration, which
leads to the Jimmy Johnson part of this story.

Jimmy Johnson was my Dad's partner in music at Muscle Shoals Sound for over 25
years. They were also really close, maybe best friends.
Jimmy discovered Lynyrd Skynyrd (before Al Kooper or Alan Walden) and engineered
the Rolling Stones’ sessions that brought us "Brown Sugar" and "Wild Horses".
He's a cool guy and really like part of my family.
I played in bands with his son Jay back in High School and could probably write a book
on just those stories alone.
Jimmy knew about us winning that contest and I'm sure was a little proud of me and
came to see Adam's House Cat play in early 89 (at a club called Swampers that later
opened where Southern Touch once was).
While he was there, he saw us play "Buttholeville" and was so angry that we would write
such a song about his beloved hometown, the place where all of his childhood dreams
had come true, that he wanted to 'whip my ass' and Jay actually had to talk him down
from doing so right then and there in front of everyone.
Jimmy was a big imposing guy back in those days and could easily have taken Cooley
and I both out. I doubt anyone there would have tried to stop it.

Now a little side note. I grew up loving my Dad and worshipping the music that he made.
My original record collection was like a miniature version of his. A little Elton, a little
Neil, a little Pink, a little Zeppelin.
The Beatles, The Stones, Steely Dan, even God-forbid some Eagles.
Then in 1977 I saw a thing on some late night TV show about this "horrible" new music
fad from England and I was hooked.
Suddenly I was scouring the racks looking for Punk Rock records (not necessarily easy to
find in North Alabama at the time).
I followed and learned the best I could but suddenly Punk Rock was My Dad's and I's
first generation gap.
He was a studio player in the business of trying to make everything sound as close to
perfect as possible and I loved a music that reveled in it's own imperfections.
I mistrusted the sheen that records were then thought to aspire to and loved the ratty
sounds and unbridled anger and emotion of this beloved new form of Rock.

I also recognized aspects of it in older more traditional albums by some older artists (Neil
Young, who was one of the few of the old guard to embrace it early on).

It wasn't until much later that I made the connection that early Rock and Roll and even
Country Music was often closer in spirit to the things I loved about Punk Rock than the
slick studio processed music of the late 70's (and for that matter much of what was later
called New Wave).
If Hank Williams had come along in 1977, he would have been called Punk Rock, but I
digress again.

I doubt Jimmy Johnson listened to much Punk Rock and I'm sure he would have hated it
if he did.
There was nothing in his formative experience to lead him to appreciate "Buttholeville".
It was just a bunch of spoiled snotty young kids thumbing their nose at him, his
hometown and the very life that he held so dear.
Never mind that my intention in writing the song had nothing to do with any of that,
suddenly his issue with my song and me became the story and I was far too young,
rebellious (perhaps snotty nosed and spoiled too) to back down.
To my way of thinking, anyone offended by a song was what that song was about so
therefore...

I guess our feud lasted well over ten years.
I didn't really see much of him during those days and as that song got more (negative)
attention in my hometown, the legend around it became bigger and bigger.
As they say in John Ford movies, "Print The Legend".

A few years later, I ended up moving off and a few years passed and I began rethinking
my turbulent relationship with home, both literally and figuratively.
Home, as in my family and home as in my hometown and home as in my region, which I
have also always had a somewhat bumpy relationship.
As it's well known, I co-wrote an album, maybe several about these things and on 'that
one' in particular, I wrote a song about the friendship/feud of Ronnie and Neil.
In writing that song, I wanted to re-connect it with my own roots and my own little Rock
Feud so I wrote the Jimmy Johnson verse as a sort of acknowledgement/fig leaf to him.
To further connect the dots, Jimmy and Ronnie Van Zant, both of whom possessed very
explosive tempers, had had their own falling out way back and Ronnie wrote the Muscle
Shoals verse of "Sweet Home Alabama" as his fig leaf to Jimmy.
I loved connecting "Ronnie and Neil" to "Buttholeville" and have always sort of
considered that song to be part of the Southern Rock Opera narrative.
I sent Jimmy a copy of Southern Rock Opera and was told that he appreciated it. I doubt
he wants to whip my ass anymore.

It should be noted as I write this that last night my band played a show in a mid-sized
Canadian city.
To folks where I'm from, Canada is this mythical liberal place with big beautiful clean
cities, wide-open spaces and abundant free healthcare.

Canadians are known as a friendly people.
A big part of the front row last night was this group of drunk morons wearing matching
hockey jerseys and acting like total assholes.
They were dipping Skoal for Christ sake, something I've never seen at a DBT show in
Alabama or Georgia.
They were bumping into the fine folks around them who were trying to enjoy a show that
they paid their hard earned money for.
They were spilling beer all around and I actually saw one do a line of something off of
his buddy's fist.
I have no idea where they were from and really don't care. (Some nice people I talked to
after the show speculated that they were from the surrounding countryside).
There were only five or six of them but that's all it took to make it a shitty experience for
most of the people around them,
so Buttholeville Really is a State of Mind.

In a couple of weeks I will be participating in a panel at the WC Handy Festival in
Florence AL dedicated to the multiple generations in Muscle Shoals Music.

http://www.wchandymusicfestival.org/



I will be sitting with my Dad and Jimmy and Jay Johnson.
DBT will be playing a show that evening, headlining the local festival, which for the
record we've never been asked to play before.
A lot of our never being invited probably is directly related to my having written that
song back in 1988.
I suspect that "Buttholeville" will come up (it usually does whenever I see Jimmy).
I'm still not sorry for the song or my intent with it, but I am sorry that he took it the
wrong way and was so angered about it.

I certainly won't bring it up.

The last time I saw Jimmy Johnson was when The Muscle Shoals Sound Rhythm Section
was being inducted into The Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville.
It was a beautiful ceremony that included Booker T and The MGs, Duane Eddy, The
Crickets, Keith Richards and George Jones among many others
Jimmy came up to me afterwards and said he sure was proud of me and what all I had
done.

Then he proceeded to tell me he really never thought that he would feel that way since I
used to be so misguided and all.

"You've turned out OK, but I sure don't like that song you wrote".

- Patterson Hood -Originally written in the Back Lounge on Tour Bus (Brittany) outside
The Phoenix, Toronto Ontario June 15th, 2011, revised and updated on July 16, 2011
from my office in Athens GA.


Another great read. Can't wait to see Patterson and company at the Songwriting panel during Hopscotch in September.

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Steve French
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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE

Post by Steve French »

Drop D wrote:That makes more sense. To me in Blighty this is a '68 Bonneville. Life would have to be really shit to be tired of this!

Image

Love this song to end the show but I can't figure out how or when they decide if it'll be State Trooper or non-State Trooper.

It's one of those devastatingly simple but effective Rock 'n' Roll songs that tell a universal truth - dissatisfaction with provincial life and the dream of something better somewhere, anywhere, else.


Awwww, hell thats a nice looking bike.
I've never taken a pissbreak during a DBT show but if I had it would have been during Dancing Ricky.

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Jonicont
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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE

Post by Jonicont »

"You've turned out OK, but I sure don't like that song you wrote".




:lol:
Always go to the show

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RevMatt
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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE

Post by RevMatt »

Drop D wrote:That makes more sense. To me in Blighty this is a '68 Bonneville. Life would have to be really shit to be tired of this!

Image

Love this song to end the show but I can't figure out how or when they decide if it'll be State Trooper or non-State Trooper.

It's one of those devastatingly simple but effective Rock 'n' Roll songs that tell a universal truth - dissatisfaction with provincial life and the dream of something better somewhere, anywhere, else.

I've got an '06 Bonneville I bought brand new and I haven't gotten tired of it yet.
I have nowhere else to go. There is no demand in the priesthood for elderly drug addicts

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RevMatt
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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE with Patterson's 7/18 Po

Post by RevMatt »

What a great story from Patterson.

I liked what he wrote about being frustrated with playing red neck bars. But I have sort of come full-circle.

I started playing in original bands in high school. The band I was in in high school actually played CBGB's three times during our senior year. (The gig sounds more impressive than it was. CBGB's was a total democracy back in the early eighties. Every band submitted a demo with a set's worth of original songs just to prove you weren't a cover band. Then Hilly would book you on a Monday night. If you drew well or played well you would move up to a Wednesday or Thursday. We were a group of high school kids from Jersey who brought in over 70 of our classmates. CBGB's never checked for IDs and our friends bought a lot of beer.) Anyhow, I have been playing original songs to a "hipster" audience since I was 17.

As most of you know, I have been on disability ever since my diagnosis of cancer and my stem cell transplant. I am hoping to return to full-time work next year. At the end of 2010 I decided that since "The Living Bubba" inspired me so much I would play at least 50 shows in 2011. I could not do this with my original band, Loud Day, since we are all 40 something guys with jobs. Touring is out of the question. So last January I joined a cover band who plays just about every weekend.

The one thing I discovered is that I really enjoy playing before a "non-hipster" audience. Just bikers and regular hard working folks who want to cut loose on a Saturday night with their friends and listen to our band play the music they grew up on. They are great people. Between sets, I don't argue with hipster experts about which Big Star album is the best (Third, IMO). Instead, we talk about things like straight pipes versus baffled and where the best rides are in NJ. They sometimes give shit about riding a Triumph instead of a Harley, but that's about it.

So, I would say that as a forty-something guy Patterson might find the people in those divey little bars refreshing. We grow up wanting to get the hell out of Buttholeville at all costs. But we learn that Buttholeville is just a state of mind. If we learn to accept people on their own terms we don't have any problems.
I have nowhere else to go. There is no demand in the priesthood for elderly drug addicts

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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE with Patterson's 7/18 Po

Post by beantownbubba »

If DBT needs some ideas of ways to generate some income, i think they ought to bottle whatever it is that gives P Hood his amazing energy. We know it's not cocaine or strippers ;) Damn, I cannot fathom how he does all that he does at such a high level and still finds time to amuse us w/ his awesome tales, explanations and observations.

Thanks.
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard

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bovine knievel
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Re: dbt tracks # 57 - BUTTHOLEVILLE with Patterson's 7/18 Po

Post by bovine knievel »

So where did he post that originally?
“Excited people get on daddy’s nerves.” - M. Cooley

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