DBT Tracks - Week # 6 - One of These Days

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wolfgang
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Re: Question about One of These Days

Post by wolfgang »

Thanks

Mods can delete my thread if needs be. I didn't know the other one existed.

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Re: DBT Tracks - Week # 6 - One of These Days

Post by Mundane Mayhem »

Interesting read about one of the guys who died during the Capitol riots. Was a former Obama supporter and union leader at...a North Alabama tire plant. Rings a bell!

https://www.propublica.org/article/the- ... in-greeson
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week # 6 - One of These Days

Post by phungi »

after hearing this 3 nights in a row at HHC 2024, this song has been in my head, and after sharing it with my 21-year-old son (who happens to live in Chicago), I got to thinking (I know, dangerous stuff), which led me back to this thread, and I am revisiting this song and trying to unpack it

First verse: (if I had a dime for...)
the narrator is in the present and is exactly like his old man ("I wouldn't be like my old man today")

Second verse: (dropped out of school)
back-story of his old man

Third verse: (I remember him saying)
back in the present, reflecting.. clearly the old man got out of town and saw Chicago

Fourth verse (once a country boy):
assuming this is the old man that "saw the steam rise"

Last verse: (One of these days... look at me and run)
This has to be the narrator/son because he is looking into the future

So, the question for me is:
Taking the stance that this is written from the viewpoint of the narrator/son, is this a statement regarding why someone buys/carries a gun? and, why is the gun left in the car... because one day his face has the "road map" look of a man who has seen shit and no one is going to mess with him and he won't need the protection? for the first time, I am thinking this is a deep-dive into the psyche of someone who carries a gun?
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week # 6 - One of These Days

Post by brettac1 »

phungi wrote:
Sat Feb 24, 2024 12:35 pm
after hearing this 3 nights in a row at HHC 2024, this song has been in my head, and after sharing it with my 21-year-old son (who happens to live in Chicago), I got to thinking (I know, dangerous stuff), which led me back to this thread, and I am revisiting this song and trying to unpack it

First verse: (if I had a dime for...)
the narrator is in the present and is exactly like his old man ("I wouldn't be like my old man today")

Second verse: (dropped out of school)
back-story of his old man

Third verse: (I remember him saying)
back in the present, reflecting.. clearly the old man got out of town and saw Chicago

Fourth verse (once a country boy):
assuming this is the old man that "saw the steam rise"

Last verse: (One of these days... look at me and run)
This has to be the narrator/son because he is looking into the future

So, the question for me is:
Taking the stance that this is written from the viewpoint of the narrator/son, is this a statement regarding why someone buys/carries a gun? and, why is the gun left in the car... because one day his face has the "road map" look of a man who has seen shit and no one is going to mess with him and he won't need the protection? for the first time, I am thinking this is a deep-dive into the psyche of someone who carries a gun?
I don't know that it's necessarily a deep dive into the psyche of someone who carries a gun as much as it is that the narrator is (or will be, one of these days) a guy who instills fear into people he encounters and doesn't need to carry a gun when he goes out walking on the west side after dark anymore. I think if/when that day comes, he will no longer be like his old man because he didn't get scared and go back to where he came from. It's aspirational. At least that's my read on it.

IMO this is a Mt Rushmore Cooley song. Even moreso after losing my dad last year. I was thrilled that it got played three nights in a row and it really got to me the first night.
Last edited by brettac1 on Mon Feb 26, 2024 4:26 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week # 6 - One of These Days

Post by beantownbubba »

I'd say it's a deep dive into the psyche of fathers and sons, a regularly recurring topic for Cooley.

Bringing my own experiences/biases to my interpretation of the early part of the song, he's making fun of his dad for always saying "one of these days" he'll do this or that but never doing it. By the end, not only is the son saying and [not] doing the same things, he's a lot more like his father in many ways than he ever expected to be. His father scared people (implicitly including the son) and now the son scares people too; they both have the face of long, tough (emphasis on tough) experience and while they may not have traveled the globe their experiences shout "don't mess with me." Or put another way, "who needs a gun when you have a face and a walk like this?"
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week # 6 - One of These Days

Post by phungi »

I hope 3DD never cedes to FB, because (the collective) "you guys" are the best... this song is still percolating nearly 2 weeks after HHC
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week # 6 - One of These Days

Post by beantownbubba »

phungi wrote:
Tue Feb 27, 2024 4:02 pm
I hope 3DD never cedes to FB, because (the collective) "you guys" are the best... this song is still percolating nearly 2 weeks after HHC
I don't think 3dd is going anywhere but its future really depends on some of the former regulars (or newbies I suppose though that seems unlikely) coming back more, well, regularly. At homecoming somebody mentioned the relative difficulty of participating here via smartphones and that's a problem, but my guess is that most of those same people have laptops (hint hint). Anyway, it wouldn't take that many to breathe some life into the old girl.

It's always, errr interesting to read one's own old posts. I basically agree w/ my early posts here but I can't remember why I was so negative about the song. It's clearly a wonderful song though not one of my very, very favorites. A number of the other comments were spot on; I particularly like the ones about the pacing and the guitar solos. Did we ever figure out who played them (as a reminder the thread suggests Rob Malone)?
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week # 6 - One of These Days

Post by dime in the gutter »

i'm here.

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Re: DBT Tracks - Week # 6 - One of These Days

Post by Clams »

I think there's more going on in this song than just the father/son thing. That middle verse tells you that white men wearing ties (politicians, judges, etc) are deeply involved in whatever caused the steam to rise off that man's insides in downtown Birmingham. This would have to be Cooley's earliest lyrical entry into the racial wars that have become one of his two major songwriting focuses over the last 10+ years (racial wars and also songs about family relationships).

Some other notes:
  • I reread this thread last night. Such great insights and so many long gone but great board members. Hard to believe we've been at this for 14 years :shock:
  • Someone mentioned that Rob Malone plays the wahwah guitars in this song but I always assumed it was Cooley. Seems to me he still plays that wahwah sound even today. Maybe one day Patterson will read this and spill the beans.
  • Gotta love Mrs Swamp's video and how she zooms in on Neff playing the pedal steel but then right on queue she moves the camera back to Cooley for "when my face looks like a road map."
  • Also credit to the person who posted "I can't think of anybody in any band who does a better job of creating a mental image of a place or scene as Cooley does." That is spot on and it takes me back to the very first DBT song I heard, Self Destructive Zones, and the mental images of something so disgusting even wild dogs would disregard the bones and the pawn shops full of pointy ugly cheap guitars. Lines like those are what pulled me in.
  • Also a hearty YES to Big Tom connecting One of These Days and Uncle Frank. I agree those two have always had a connection and a similar vibe. Hearing both of them at the Thursday night HHC show last week really helped to elevate that show.
  • Re facebook, I think it's pretty clear that FB has pretty much completely squashed 99% of the message boards that were popular in the 2000's and early 2010's. I think it's also pretty clear that message boards are a superior way of discussing archane topics (such as bands) than are Facebook groups. That said, you can't put the genie back in the bottle. For the sake of the 10 or 11 of us who still check in here each day, I hope 3dd sticks around.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week # 6 - One of These Days

Post by phungi »

If it were Chicago, I can imagine "steam rising" could be a homeless person on a steam grate, but in downtown Birmingham it seems like actual "innards".

Though it is part of his early catalog, the "time travel" within a song, or the "shifting perspective" (see "Filthy and Fried") is a common theme.

Maybe it is my dad turning 89 this week, but damn this song is still kicking my ass.
We got messed up minds for these messed up times...

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Re: DBT Tracks - Week # 6 - One of These Days

Post by beantownbubba »

dime in the gutter wrote:
Wed Feb 28, 2024 1:14 pm
i'm here.
And we appreciate it.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week # 6 - One of These Days

Post by beantownbubba »

phungi wrote:
Wed Feb 28, 2024 4:26 pm
If it were Chicago, I can imagine "steam rising" could be a homeless person on a steam grate, but in downtown Birmingham it seems like actual "innards".

Though it is part of his early catalog, the "time travel" within a song, or the "shifting perspective" (see "Filthy and Fried") is a common theme.

Maybe it is my dad turning 89 this week, but damn this song is still kicking my ass.
I think the "steam rising" line is literal. I don't see how or why it would be anything else. In any case, it sure is ear catching.

File under btb overthinking but I've actually been thinking about this a lot because it seems like shifting time within a book or tv show has become almost de rigueur these days and I'm tired of it (not a comment on the song at all). Anyway, I think the time shifting is not a theme but rather a device used to provide backstory in an intriguing (at least intended to be intriguing) way or an attempt to explain the present by reference to the past which is what i think is happening in both OFTD and "Filthy and Fried." Feel free to ignore.
Clams wrote:
Wed Feb 28, 2024 3:19 pm
I think there's more going on in this song than just the father/son thing. That middle verse tells you that white men wearing ties (politicians, judges, etc) are deeply involved in whatever caused the steam to rise off that man's insides in downtown Birmingham. This would have to be Cooley's earliest lyrical entry into the racial wars that have become one of his two major songwriting focuses over the last 10+ years (racial wars and also songs about family relationships).
An interesting interpretation and historically you're right in terms of Cooley's preoccupations. But I don't see the racial aspect in this particular line/verse. I hear it as more of a class-based commentary on how crime is perceived, i.e. everyone complains about "street crime" but nobody notices where the more significant, societal level crimes are taking place which is in the corrupt circles and doings of rich, white men. Having used the adjective "white" I guess that implicates race, but again, here i think it's used in more of a class/power way than racially. In the context of the characters in this song (the father and son) i think it's a reference to the grinding but hidden effects of the power structure on regular folks.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week # 6 - One of These Days

Post by brettac1 »

Clams wrote:
Wed Feb 28, 2024 3:19 pm
  • Re facebook, I think it's pretty clear that FB has pretty much completely squashed 99% of the message boards that were popular in the 2000's and early 2010's. I think it's also pretty clear that message boards are a superior way of discussing archane topics (such as bands) than are Facebook groups. That said, you can't put the genie back in the bottle. For the sake of the 10 or 11 of us who still check in here each day, I hope 3dd sticks around.
As someone who swore off of FB in July of 2016 and never looked back, I certainly hope so. This is more my speed of social media. Otherwise I do my very small amount of Instagram and have a Twitter almost exclusively for anonymously insulting people who have bad sports takes (imo the only thing it's useful for).
Do you ever get tired of singin' songs
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week # 6 - One of These Days

Post by brettac1 »

phungi wrote:
Wed Feb 28, 2024 4:26 pm
If it were Chicago, I can imagine "steam rising" could be a homeless person on a steam grate, but in downtown Birmingham it seems like actual "innards".

Though it is part of his early catalog, the "time travel" within a song, or the "shifting perspective" (see "Filthy and Fried") is a common theme.

Maybe it is my dad turning 89 this week, but damn this song is still kicking my ass.
Yeah IMO the steam is just rising off a dead guy. I never really considered any alternative to that.
Do you ever get tired of singin' songs
Like all your pain is just another fuckin' sing along?

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Re: DBT Tracks - Week # 6 - One of These Days

Post by dime in the gutter »

Image

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Re: DBT Tracks - Week # 6 - One of These Days

Post by cortez the killer »

dime in the gutter wrote:
Wed Feb 28, 2024 1:14 pm
i'm here.
Image
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week # 6 - One of These Days

Post by glennrwordman »

brettac1 wrote:
Mon Feb 26, 2024 2:55 pm
phungi wrote:
Sat Feb 24, 2024 12:35 pm
after hearing this 3 nights in a row at HHC 2024, this song has been in my head, and after sharing it with my 21-year-old son (who happens to live in Chicago), I got to thinking (I know, dangerous stuff), which led me back to this thread, and I am revisiting this song and trying to unpack it

First verse: (if I had a dime for...)
the narrator is in the present and is exactly like his old man ("I wouldn't be like my old man today")

Second verse: (dropped out of school)
back-story of his old man

Third verse: (I remember him saying)
back in the present, reflecting.. clearly the old man got out of town and saw Chicago

Fourth verse (once a country boy):
assuming this is the old man that "saw the steam rise"

Last verse: (One of these days... look at me and run)
This has to be the narrator/son because he is looking into the future

So, the question for me is:
Taking the stance that this is written from the viewpoint of the narrator/son, is this a statement regarding why someone buys/carries a gun? and, why is the gun left in the car... because one day his face has the "road map" look of a man who has seen shit and no one is going to mess with him and he won't need the protection? for the first time, I am thinking this is a deep-dive into the psyche of someone who carries a gun?
I don't know that it's necessarily a deep dive into the psyche of someone who carries a gun as much as it is that the narrator is (or will be, one of these days) a guy who instills fear into people he encounters and doesn't need to carry a gun when he goes out walking on the west side after dark anymore. I think if/when that day comes, he will no longer be like his old man because he didn't get scared and go back to where he came from. It's aspirational. At least that's my read on it.

IMO this is a Mt Rushmore Cooley song. Even moreso after losing my dad last year. I was thrilled that it got played three nights in a row and it really got to me the first night.
Absolutely for me a "Mt. Rushmore" Cooley song. And there are echoes of this one in "Every Single Storied Flameout" as well.

He'd "dropped" it for a time between ' 17 and '19, but I can only hazard a guess that some of his own experiences reflected in ESSF made this one more front and center in his mind. A good thing, as there are more startling images in these 4 or so minutes than most songwriters come up with in a lifetime.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week # 6 - One of These Days

Post by Willie Shotwell »

beantownbubba wrote:
Thu Feb 29, 2024 11:05 am

An interesting interpretation and historically you're right in terms of Cooley's preoccupations. But I don't see the racial aspect in this particular line/verse. I hear it as more of a class-based commentary on how crime is perceived, i.e. everyone complains about "street crime" but nobody notices where the more significant, societal level crimes are taking place which is in the corrupt circles and doings of rich, white men. Having used the adjective "white" I guess that implicates race, but again, here i think it's used in more of a class/power way than racially. In the context of the characters in this song (the father and son) i think it's a reference to the grinding but hidden effects of the power structure on regular folks.
Having grown up in Alabama and having spent plenty of time in Birmingham, I don't think it's possible to separate questions of power structure from racial politics.

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Re: DBT Tracks - Week # 6 - One of These Days

Post by beantownbubba »

Willie Shotwell wrote:
Tue Mar 05, 2024 12:10 pm
beantownbubba wrote:
Thu Feb 29, 2024 11:05 am

An interesting interpretation and historically you're right in terms of Cooley's preoccupations. But I don't see the racial aspect in this particular line/verse. I hear it as more of a class-based commentary on how crime is perceived, i.e. everyone complains about "street crime" but nobody notices where the more significant, societal level crimes are taking place which is in the corrupt circles and doings of rich, white men. Having used the adjective "white" I guess that implicates race, but again, here i think it's used in more of a class/power way than racially. In the context of the characters in this song (the father and son) i think it's a reference to the grinding but hidden effects of the power structure on regular folks.
Having grown up in Alabama and having spent plenty of time in Birmingham, I don't think it's possible to separate questions of power structure from racial politics.
Phrased that way, your point is inarguable.

Perhaps I was making a distinction without a difference but I think there's still something to be said for poorer whites not understanding how the rich white power structure takes advantage of them (white v. white, non-racially motivated), with the racial aspect being more about dividing and conquering groups of people who have more in common than they think but are kept from realizing it.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week # 6 - One of These Days

Post by Cole Younger »

Agree with bubba that the song is about fathers and sons more than anything else. This song reminds me of my old man a lot. He never went to Chicago. He went to Las Vegas. And he went to Vietnam twice. The line about a country boy seeing steam rising reminds me a lot of him and my own experience overseas. This is one of my favorite songs.

I sure hope Facebook doesn’t kill this place. I haven’t had a Facebook account in years and it’s odd to me that so many people maintain an account. There were too many reason to leave to me and so much about it that isn’t good.

I dont drop by here that much. Couple times a month. And I always say I’m gonna start participating more again but always end up feeling like the place is barely still going. Even so I hope it continues. Lots to like about it.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week # 6 - One of These Days

Post by beantownbubba »

Cole Younger wrote:
Wed Mar 13, 2024 2:20 pm
Agree with bubba that the song is about fathers and sons more than anything else. This song reminds me of my old man a lot. He never went to Chicago. He went to Las Vegas. And he went to Vietnam twice. The line about a country boy seeing steam rising reminds me a lot of him and my own experience overseas. This is one of my favorite songs.

I sure hope Facebook doesn’t kill this place. I haven’t had a Facebook account in years and it’s odd to me that so many people maintain an account. There were too many reason to leave to me and so much about it that isn’t good.

I dont drop by here that much. Couple times a month. And I always say I’m gonna start participating more again but always end up feeling like the place is barely still going. Even so I hope it continues. Lots to like about it.
As always good to see ya CY. Two tours. Wow. I'm sure he saw quite a bit.

It's fair comment to say that this place is barely still going but that's largely because people stop by and say "gee, this place is barely still going." If everyone who said/did that posted something even half the time they came by it would be a lot more lively. Speaking of which anybody seen zip and/or Iowan? They've been mainstays through good times and bad but I don't think i've seen either one in a while.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week # 6 - One of These Days

Post by Cole Younger »

Well this will make my third post in two days so I’m definitely doing better. lol.

As for my dad, yeah, saw a lot. He’s pretty heavily featured in a documentary about Vietnam.

I’ve heard Every Single Stories Flame Out described as the guy in Zip City years later. I think that could be said about this song too.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week # 6 - One of These Days

Post by phungi »

Always good to see your name and posts pop up in the 3DD feed, Cole!
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week # 6 - One of These Days

Post by beantownbubba »

Cole Younger wrote:
Thu Mar 14, 2024 8:56 am
I’ve heard Every Single Stories Flame Out described as the guy in Zip City years later. I think that could be said about this song too.
Sorry I missed this until now but yeah, I think that's accurate. But one could say that about a number of Cooley's songs. "Primer Coat" is one that comes immediately to mind. For a guy whose public persona is remoteness or cool reserve, Cooley sure wears his heart on his sleeve or at least puts it out there for those who are listening.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week # 6 - One of These Days

Post by Cole Younger »

phungi wrote:
Sun Mar 17, 2024 10:28 am
Always good to see your name and posts pop up in the 3DD feed, Cole!
Hey, man, thanks. I’m trying to do better about being around. My daughter spent the night off last night and my wife and I were sitting out back listening to some music and I played Road Cases which has always been one of her favorites. She said, “I haven’t heard this in so long. We need to get back to Athens to see them play.” So hopefully I’ll see y’all at Homecoming next year.
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Re: DBT Tracks - Week # 6 - One of These Days

Post by Cole Younger »

beantownbubba wrote:
Sun Mar 17, 2024 10:48 am
Cole Younger wrote:
Thu Mar 14, 2024 8:56 am
I’ve heard Every Single Stories Flame Out described as the guy in Zip City years later. I think that could be said about this song too.
Sorry I missed this until now but yeah, I think that's accurate. But one could say that about a number of Cooley's songs. "Primer Coat" is one that comes immediately to mind. For a guy whose public persona is remoteness or cool reserve, Cooley sure wears his heart on his sleeve or at least puts it out there for those who are listening.
I think that’s part of why Cooley keeps his distance a lotmof the time. The fact that he is that way.
A single shot rifle and a one eyed dog.

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