song of the week #132 - ASSHOLES

[Clams]

Here's one that'll really get you into that holiday spirit!!

The moral of this song is, don't cross Patterson Hood unless you don't mind being memorialized forever in a song called "Assholes."

I used to skip this song when my kids were around. Now they're a little older and I don't worry about it anymore. But if my daughter hears it, she'll shoot me a harsh look and say, "Language!!"


You buy me dinner when I'm in town
Talk about records that you know
Lay the friendship card upon me and out the door
Somebody said we hurt your feelings with our little dirty jokes
Then you accused us of stealing back our soul
Then you say that we're the assholes
Cause we bitched about the hassles
While you're sleeping in your castles
And we're still riding down the road
I hear you're all offended by the letters that I wrote
It's just a shame it hadn't ended long ago
Then you sicked your lawyers on me
Told them to go for the throat
And you just sat back and watched them have a go
Then you say that we're the assholes…
But I never would deny we have our share of the blame to absorb
But when you say that you're the reason for the things that we've achieved
I want to kick down your door
You like to say that we're the assholes
As if we somehow done you wrong
We just do what we have to, to carry on
I'm sure you'll find another asshole
To replace us for a song
You'll keep your office and expense account and we'll keep traveling along
When you say that we're all assholes
Guess it'd be useless to deny
I'm just saying you're the reason why

[Kudzu Guillotine]

Thought of this song yesterday when watching this piece on CBS Sunday Morning about "the A-word".

[Clams]

Word from the Hood:

Congratulations.
After 132 weeks, y'all picked the Wonka bar with the gold certificate.
Or at least picked what I consider my most underrated and misunderstood song in the catalog.
There's gold in them hills (or in that asshole).

I wrote it in the winter of 2007/2008, probably right before Xmas.
Contrary to what most people believe, we never call anyone an asshole in the song.
The song is about us. We're the assholes.
The song seeks to explain why.

Most people think the song is referring to our previous label.
We did have a very bad few years of relations with the folks who ran that label.
I'm happy to say that all of that is in the past, as most of the people we had issues with have moved on and I have always maintained a warm and friendly relationship with George Fontaine and his son
(who are now running things around there).
The song wasn't included on Go-Go Boots as any kind of continuance of vendetta, as much as that we all liked the song and thought it fit the tone of the album.

It was a very bad time and I was quite pissed. We all were.
I've moved on and I'm not going to go into any of that stuff here.
Lord knows, they're not the only people who have ever thought we were assholes.
Nor is the song a defense of assholery in general.
I will say, however, that anyone who is an artist and is protective of his/her art tends to sometimes come off as assholish in their defense of what they do.
Sometimes it's necessary.

Someday, if I ever write a book about my Huckleberry Finn adventure on the road and making these albums, I will probably go deep into the story of what went wrong in regards to our relationships with record labels in general. I think most people would be surprised at how fair it might turn out. (As I said in this post, We're the Assholes in the song).
We came up in a very DIY environment and I honestly never expected or wished to be signed to a record label.
Cooley and I had gone threw the rat race of trying to get a record deal back in the Adam's House Cat days and it had left us very frustrated and honestly filled with regret for not having just done things ourselves.
We started DBT vowing to do just that and quickly made and released four albums that way.
It wasn't easy and sometimes was brutally difficult, but we weren't answering to anyone except our own limitations.
The first year of touring behind Southern Rock Opera was especially rewarding on many levels, but it also presented us with a conundrum that signing seemed a way of solving.

When we ended up signed, first to Lost Highway and then to New West, we were often very difficult in regards to how we wanted things to be and could be ruthlessly uncompromising.
We weren't necessarily wrong, and often might have been right, but it still meant for some very turbulent times and I am very aware of my own share of the blame.
Add to that, we had three different managers during that time, each with very different views and methods. As a band, we were in management disarray until the end of 2005 and by then a lot had happened.
The lack of stability there added to the problems between us and the labels (and sometimes even between us).

Also noted in the song, we were often playing 175-225 shows a year then and many things we decided were based on what would work best for our show, our touring schedule, our time at home (with brand new babies around then) and other considerations that weren't always taken in account by people expecting things from us. ("sleeping in your castles...") It was a painful and stressful time, but as I said, a time we have thankfully mostly come out of.

In the end, I feel that both parties have moved on in better ways and hopefully both sides have learned from the experience. As I said, I am close friends with The Fontaines and none of it was ever directed towards them anyway. We have very great relations with the fine folks at ATO Records and I am thankful to have very good relations with the folks who own a large swath of our catalog. I am also grateful for the song, as it's one that I feel holds up for many other contexts than the one that initially inspired us. I'm sure there are no shortages of people that think we're assholes that I can easily direct the emotions of the song to. And as I said, the song was really about ourselves anyway.

Yours Truly,
Patterson Hood
Drive-By Truckers

[Zip City]

was there a postscript explaining what Cooley's "FNW" on his guitar meant?

[dime in the gutter]

duke silver is not gonna like these developments one bit.

or maybe it was iowan.

[Gang Green]

I was just going to say, not one of my favorites, but now I have to re evaluate. After all, it's the gold ticket. I'm listening to Assholes as i write this post. The song I mean.

[Iowan]

duke silver is not gonna like these developments one bit.

or maybe it was iowan.

Its about Jason.

[Duke Silver]

duke silver is not gonna like these developments one bit.

or maybe it was iowan.

at the risk of being an asshole myself, i have to disagree with patterson here. i think it's a bit disingenuous to say that the song is "about" dbt. the band might be the assholes in the song, but the song is directed at "you," and the "you" in the song is pretty clearly their former label. and although he never calls anyone else an asshole in the song, the last line kinda speaks for itself.

[Clams]

duke silver is not gonna like these developments one bit.

or maybe it was iowan.

at the risk of being an asshole myself, i have to disagree with patterson here. i think it's a bit disingenuous to say that the song is "about" dbt. the band might be the assholes in the song, but the song is directed at "you," and the "you" in the song is pretty clearly their former label. and although he never calls anyone else an asshole in the song, the last line kinda speaks for itself.

I'm sort of with Duke here. It doesn't matter whether it's technically true that "If you listen closely, you'll notice that we never actually call them assholes, it's them who called us the assholes." In the end, if you are having a feud or disagreement with another party, and you write a song about it called "Assholes," there's gonna be a perception that you're calling them an asshole. That's the reality of it.

But in the end... glad to see they've buried the hatchet.

[sg207]

was there a postscript explaining what Cooley's "FNW" on his guitar meant?

I think that was pretty clear. I remember Shonna addressing it at a show in Nashville, and said something along the lines of, "Fuck em. We don't mean any disrespect or nothing, just fuck 'em."

[beantownbubba]

duke silver is not gonna like these developments one bit.

or maybe it was iowan.

at the risk of being an asshole myself, i have to disagree with patterson here. i think it's a bit disingenuous to say that the song is "about" dbt. the band might be the assholes in the song, but the song is directed at "you," and the "you" in the song is pretty clearly their former label. and although he never calls anyone else an asshole in the song, the last line kinda speaks for itself.

Funny. I was listening to GGB the other day and thinking how well "Assholes" stood up and intended to come here and say so. Lo and behold, not only is it the SOTW, Patterson his own self chimes in! But, ummmm, errrrr, Duke has it right. As I think i may have said initially (when the album was released) I think the song does translate well to other scenarios beyond bands & labels, so I think Patterson's right about that ("it's one that I feel holds up for many other contexts than the one that initially inspired us"), but that's because there are so many assholes "out there" (besides ourselves).

[John A Arkansawyer]

I have a hard time disagreeing with an artist about the meaning of his or her work.

There's some support for what Patterson says in the song. I'd long caught a little smugness off the narrator. But there's also some support for the people the song is addressed to being assholes. For me, the moral of this story is there are always enough assholes to go around.

[rlipps]

was there a postscript explaining what Cooley's "FNW" on his guitar meant?

I think that was pretty clear. I remember Shonna addressing it at a show in Nashville, and said something along the lines of, "Fuck em. We don't mean any disrespect or nothing, just fuck 'em."

I remember that from the Nashville show too

[Zip City]

was there a postscript explaining what Cooley's "FNW" on his guitar meant?

I think that was pretty clear. I remember Shonna addressing it at a show in Nashville, and said something along the lines of, "Fuck em. We don't mean any disrespect or nothing, just fuck 'em."

I remember that from the Nashville show too

Ha ha ha, I knew what it meant. It just ran contrary to Mr. Hood's explanation of the song

[Iowan]

Ha ha ha, I knew what it meant. It just ran contrary to Mr. Hood's explanation of the song

I've posted it before, but I think a lot of times musicians are either blatantly dishonest when discussing their music, or are just too close to it to view it objectively.

Its like when you see some dinosaur rocker talk about how their new album is the best thing they've ever put out. I think a lot of times they really believe that, but to everyone else that statement is questionable at best.

[John A Arkansawyer]

Ha ha ha, I knew what it meant. It just ran contrary to Mr. Hood's explanation of the song

I've posted it before, but I think a lot of times musicians are either blatantly dishonest when discussing their music, or are just too close to it to view it objectively.

I think Patterson is describing the song he wishes he wrote, maybe even tried to write. As I said, there is some evidence in the song for what he says. I just think a better summary of it might be, "When something stinks real bad, there are likely to be assholes all around."

Its like when you see some dinosaur rocker talk about how their new album is the best thing they've ever put out. I think a lot of times they really believe that, but to everyone else that statement is questionable at best.

And then there's Randy Newman:



This is one of my favorite ever singalongs. Damn, but he's having a good time! And the irony of this being on one of his very best albums is rich as hell.

[Iowan]

I've posted it before, but I think a lot of times musicians are either blatantly dishonest when discussing their music, or are just too close to it to view it objectively.

I think Patterson is describing the song he wishes he wrote, maybe even tried to write. As I said, there is some evidence in the song for what he says. I just think a better summary of it might be, "When something stinks real bad, there are likely to be assholes all around."

That's exactly what I'm getting at when saying they're just "too close" to their work to view/discuss it objectively. They describe what they wanted it to be, not what it is.

[Tequila Cowboy]

This discussion just reminds me of this:

Whoever did write this doesnt know the first thing about
Kurt Vonnegut!

[beantownbubba]

I've posted it before, but I think a lot of times musicians are either blatantly dishonest when discussing their music, or are just too close to it to view it objectively.

I think Patterson is describing the song he wishes he wrote, maybe even tried to write. As I said, there is some evidence in the song for what he says. I just think a better summary of it might be, "When something stinks real bad, there are likely to be assholes all around."

That's exactly what I'm getting at when saying they're just "too close" to their work to view/discuss it objectively. They describe what they wanted it to be, not what it is.

Blatantly dishonest seems like a harsh judgment and probably applies mostly to artists pushing new albums that they know are, ummmm, not their best work. It certainly doesn't apply to PH here.

While all of the above comments are true some of the time, I think that in many cases, including this one, the answer might be simpler (and is not original to me): Once a song is released it is subject to interpretation by the listener and it may strike the larger world in a totally different way than what the writer intended or thought s/he wrote. Could be a mistake (think "Every Breath You Take") or it could be the subconscious at work (think of the musical equivalent of The Lord of the Rings which Tolkien apparently did not intend as a commentary on 20th century totalitarianism but which was clearly influenced by same) or it could be regional variations (while it doesn't affect meaning that much think of all of us Northerners who thought Jason was talking about Memorial Day when he sang about Decoration Day) to a thousand other reasons.

[Iowan]

That's exactly what I'm getting at when saying they're just "too close" to their work to view/discuss it objectively. They describe what they wanted it to be, not what it is.

Blatantly dishonest seems like a harsh judgment and probably applies mostly to artists pushing new albums that they know are, ummmm, not their best work. It certainly doesn't apply to PH here.

While all of the above comments are true some of the time, I think that in many cases, including this one, the answer might be simpler (and is not original to me): Once a song is released it is subject to interpretation by the listener and it may strike the larger world in a totally different way than what the writer intended or thought s/he wrote. Could be a mistake (think "Every Breath You Take") or it could be the subconscious at work (think of the musical equivalent of The Lord of the Rings which Tolkien apparently did not intend as a commentary on 20th century totalitarianism but which was clearly influenced by same) or it could be regional variations (while it doesn't affect meaning that much think of all of us Northerners who thought Jason was talking about Memorial Day when he sang about Decoration Day) to a thousand other reasons.

I'm not accusing PH of blatant dishonesty. I have no doubt he, at least consciously, wanted DBT to be the assholes. I'm saying he's too close to his own work to view it objectively. Like every other artist out there.

[Smitty]

Well I for one am thankful to belong to a community that can dig so deep into assholes.

[Tequila Cowboy]

Well I for one am thankful to belong to a community that can dig so deep into assholes.

[John A Arkansawyer]