I'm not from the south and I didn't grow up "with racing in my blood" so, like so many other DBT songs, Daddy's Cup opened my eyes to a way of life that I never really knew existed. It's too bad they don't play this one live anymore because those versions from back in the day are just blistering.



Before I could walk, I had a wrench in my hand
I was my Mama's little angel and my Daddy's second chance
He went end over end the first year he went pro
Lost part of his eyesight and he couldn't race no more

But he never lost his touch when he got underneath the hood
He knew how to make them run and he knew one day he would
See his name in victory lane and engraved on that cup
Just like all them other crazy fools with racing in their blood

He would put me on his lap when he'd drive and I'd take the wheel
He'd say "What do you think about that son? How does she feel?
You just wait till them little legs get long enough to reach the gas
Once you put her on the floor one time there ain't no turning back"

Every Saturday, he'd take me out to the garage
He'd take an empty bucket and fill it full of engine parts
He's sit me down and pour em out in front of me on the floor
I'd have to tell him what each one was and what each one was for

We'd jump into the car and go down to the race that night
He'd tell me what each driver was doing wrong and what each one did right
He could always pick the winner before they ever took a curve
#3 might have the car but 43 has got the nerve

Before I turned 18 Daddy said "Now pretty soon
You'll be old enough to drive but I'll leave it up to you
I taught you all about it, taught you everything I know
You gotta have a car to do it and you gotta work and buy your own"

The first one I bought was a Mustang #2
Nobody kept'em any longer than they kept a pair of shoes
They started showing up at every used car lot in town
A V-8 on a go-cart, easy terms, no money down

Me and Daddy and my uncle took her home and tore her down
Checked her out real good, cleaned her up and bored her out
Took out all the seats, pulled the carpet off the floor
Knocked out all the glass and welded up the doors

The first time that I raced my qualifying was a shame
I started out way in the back and came back about the same
I pulled her in the pit, couldn't look my Daddy in the eye
He said "If you quit now son, it's gonna haunt you all your life"

It ain't about the money or even being #1
You gotta know when it's all over you did the best you could've done
Knowing that it's in you and you never let it out
Is worse than blowing any engine or any wreck you'll ever have

Since then I've wrecked a bunch of cars and I've broke a bunch of bones
It's anybody's race out there and I've learned to race my own
I'd shove em in the wall and I'd hit em from behind
I'd let them know that I was there, I'd let them know that track was mine

It's been several years now since my Daddy passed away
But his picture's on my dash every time I go to race
I lost more than I won but I ain't gonna give up
Till they put me in the ground or Daddy's name's on that cup

Racing is in my blood, and this tune reminds me of many night and days in the garage. My dad was always tinkering on cars. He'd yell from under the car, "grab a 7/16" socket and I'd scurry over to the tool box and deliver the tool. It got to the point to where i could just glance at a pile of tools and grab the correct size without seeing the size on the wrench or socket. Those times in the garage shaped me into who I am today.

Great song!

Fantastic song. It's great because while it tells a specific story, it speaks a universal truth.

I didn't grow up in the south. I hate racing. But the song still applies to me.

I'm a designer. It doesn't pay for shit, and if I was single, I wouldn't be able to pay rent doing it. Early in my marriage, we were just scraping by, and while I took some menial jobs to help with the bills, I refused to give up on my career. Sure, we could have had more money and material things if I had quit the theatre business and became a salesman or CPA, but it would have been a hollow life.

Knowing that it's in you and you never let it out
Is worse than blowing any engine or any wreck you'll ever have

That line speaks to me above all

I didn't grow up in the South, nor do I have auto racing in my blood so to speak, but dirt track racing is a big deal all over rural America. I knew a lot of people who do have racing in their blood. When I was a kid, my dad would take us to the dirt track races every sunday night. My brother and I and our friends spent a lot of time racing dirt bikes, 4 wheelers, and beat up old pickups we'd buy from my dad for $150. Spent a lot of time trying to play mechanic, and never really learned a damn thing, but I'll be damned if this song doesn't remind me of the time we built a demo derby car, or used to jump steep bridges with an '84 Chrysler 5th Avenue, pretending we were the Dukes of Hazard.

Love this one.

Despite its subject matter, "Daddy's Cup" is not about car racing. That's what makes it a great song.

beantownbubba wrote:Despite its subject matter, "Daddy's Cup" is not about car racing. That's what makes it a great song.

Enlighten us, smartypants.

Clams wrote:

beantownbubba wrote:Despite its subject matter, "Daddy's Cup" is not about car racing. That's what makes it a great song.

Enlighten us, smartypants.

I thought i was fancypants.

It's about fathers, sons, psychological baggage, how we become who we are and all that deep fancy stuff. You know, kind of like "One of These Days" only better It just happens to play out in cars w/ welded doors and no windows.

beantownbubba wrote:

Clams wrote:

beantownbubba wrote:Despite its subject matter, "Daddy's Cup" is not about car racing. That's what makes it a great song.

Enlighten us, smartypants.

I thought i was fancypants.

It's about fathers, sons, psychological baggage, how we become who we are and all that deep fancy stuff. You know, kind of like "One of These Days" only better It just happens to play out in cars w/ welded doors and no windows.

I should love Daddy's Cup more - I grew up in a racing family, the day Dale Earnhardt died was like someone in the family died, but I just don't like it that much - one of my least-fav Cooley songs - although I saw it live and Cooley is hell on the banjo.

Deeming it better than One of These Days is ludicrous

Smitty wrote:
Deeming it better than One of These Days is ludicrous

That would be ludicrouspants to you. Maybe even Mr. ludicrouspants to you. Hell, i hope we're at least we're moving this thread off boring for ya.

beantownbubba wrote:

Smitty wrote:
Deeming it better than One of These Days is ludicrous

That would be ludicrouspants to you. Maybe even Mr. ludicrouspants to you. Hell, i hope we're at least we're moving this thread off boring for ya.

Yeah, some actual discussion other than number-crunching with no end in sight.
(maybe I'd like it better if I didn't fuck it up )

ha ha ....really BTB?

i love this song, it's on all my workout and running playlists...every time i hear that drum, i think Bron Y-Aur Stomp...then ew..NO, better...Stroker Ace.

not specifically car racing, but i was a tomboy and this makes me think of my dad; my brother had his leg amputated when he was 4 and just couldn't hang in athletics..and my dad was a huge athlete, baseball, basketball, football, track coach and somehow i became the son he always wanted. i remember watching that movie Pistol Pete as a kid and then going out to the driveway and working for hours, just doing little dribbling tricks him and i specifically remember him pointing up to the light on the barn and telling me "they've all gone to bed, what are you gonna do?' ..i spent so many hours in my driveway as a kid ....same w/running, if you're tired, run more, if you hit a wall, even better, you got THAT over with.....i mean he's still insane to this day. i am such a daddy's girl...everyone needs a daddy like that.

i also dig NASCAR. Dave Blaney is my driver...but he never finishes near the top...oh well.


PS I think Stevie Ray and (Joe?) i think were requesting that at the Ramble, how cool would that have been? I would have taken that over Zip City.

Me and all the guys in my band grew up in New Jersey. But my guitarist's brothers are all involved in racing. His one brother works for Rousch/Fenway and is on Matt Kenseth's pit crew. For a while the Fabiano Brothers were a big name in the small circuit around here. My guitarist does not race but something rubbed off. He builds all of his amps from scratch.

Penny Lane wrote:ha ha ....really BTB?

i love this song, it's on all my workout and running playlists...every time i hear that drum, i think Bron Y-Aur Stomp...then ew..NO, better...Stroker Ace.

not specifically car racing, but i was a tomboy and this makes me think of my dad; my brother had his leg amputated when he was 4 and just couldn't hang in athletics..and my dad was a huge athlete, baseball, basketball, football, track coach and somehow i became the son he always wanted. i remember watching that movie Pistol Pete as a kid and then going out to the driveway and working for hours, just doing little dribbling tricks him and i specifically remember him pointing up to the light on the barn and telling me "they've all gone to bed, what are you gonna do?' ..i spent so many hours in my driveway as a kid ....same w/running, if you're tired, run more, if you hit a wall, even better, you got THAT over with.....i mean he's still insane to this day. i am such a daddy's girl...everyone needs a daddy like that.

i also dig NASCAR. Dave Blaney is my driver...but he never finishes near the top...oh well.


PS I think Stevie Ray and (Joe?) i think were requesting that at the Ramble, how cool would that have been? I would have taken that over Zip City.

really what, penny?

beantownbubba wrote:

Penny Lane wrote:ha ha ....really BTB?

i love this song, it's on all my workout and running playlists...every time i hear that drum, i think Bron Y-Aur Stomp...then ew..NO, better...Stroker Ace.

not specifically car racing, but i was a tomboy and this makes me think of my dad; my brother had his leg amputated when he was 4 and just couldn't hang in athletics..and my dad was a huge athlete, baseball, basketball, football, track coach and somehow i became the son he always wanted. i remember watching that movie Pistol Pete as a kid and then going out to the driveway and working for hours, just doing little dribbling tricks him and i specifically remember him pointing up to the light on the barn and telling me "they've all gone to bed, what are you gonna do?' ..i spent so many hours in my driveway as a kid ....same w/running, if you're tired, run more, if you hit a wall, even better, you got THAT over with.....i mean he's still insane to this day. i am such a daddy's girl...everyone needs a daddy like that.

i also dig NASCAR. Dave Blaney is my driver...but he never finishes near the top...oh well.


PS I think Stevie Ray and (Joe?) i think were requesting that at the Ramble, how cool would that have been? I would have taken that over Zip City.

really what, penny?

really to your statement that it wasn't about racing. but i started writing my little story before you answered it.

Penny Lane wrote:
really to your statement that it wasn't about racing. but i started writing my little story before you answered it.

Oh. Then yes, really. Like Moby Dick is not about a whale. You know, plot v. theme and all that fancy high school English class stuff.

beantownbubba wrote:

Penny Lane wrote:
really to your statement that it wasn't about racing. but i started writing my little story before you answered it.

Oh. Then yes, really. Like Moby Dick is not about a whale. You know, plot v. theme and all that fancy high school English class stuff.

It's also about a whale. Just sayin.

Hate to say it, but this is absolutely one of my least favorites. I just never feel it when it comes on. Doesn't catch me. And there's an extremely short list in the DBT canon that I don't care too much for. I do recognize the excellent lyrical content and the kickass that is Mike Cooley, but for whatever reason, this one just doesn't connect with me right now.

the guitar on this song is sick....lots of cool shit going on.

cooley being cooley lyric after lyric....damn near every line he has ever recorded is quote worthy. redneck savant, i tell you.

ezb.





i'm sorry..i didn't look at ya.

Penny Lane wrote:

beantownbubba wrote:

Penny Lane wrote:
really to your statement that it wasn't about racing. but i started writing my little story before you answered it.

Oh. Then yes, really. Like Moby Dick is not about a whale. You know, plot v. theme and all that fancy high school English class stuff.

It's also about a whale. Just sayin.

I liked that.

Cooley tells a great story about how they would be driving all over seeing these guys pulling racecars and he would go "Shit, wonder why they keep doing that all the time", till he realised they were doing what he was doing and for the same reason..... "knowing it was in you and you never let it out"

To me it is about who you are, where you come from. How your daddy with his own gentle way puts part of him in you. How your dad can share himself with you, with just doing the little everyday things with you. I too was a tom boy, played a lot of baseball, soccer and catch with dad. He taught me how to shoot pool, sitting on his lap out on the Pacific, fishing, camping and hunting with him.

Wow to have one of those camping trips again up in the Cascade Mountains.

I like this song a lot. It's one of the most detailed lyrics Cooley's ever written, and paints a great picture. I also agree that it's less about racing than it is about fathers and sons. That's also why, despite liking it, that I can't listen to it all that often. My father passed away nearly 30 years ago and I didn't really have a relationship with him at all. He didn't teach me anything, he didn't pass down his aspirations to me and he didn't take me to ballgames, races, etc. Don't get me wrong, my father was not a bad guy, he just didn't know how to deal with kids. He got better with my brother who was nine years younger, but it didn't change our relationship. My point is that because of all this sometimes this song is painful for me because it's talking about things I never had but wish I did. Sorry if this was too personal.

Tequila Cowboy wrote:I like this song a lot. It's one of the most detailed lyrics Cooley's ever written, and paints a great picture. I also agree that it's less about racing than it is about fathers and sons. That's also why, despite liking it, that I can't listen to it all that often. My father passed away nearly 30 years ago and I didn't really have a relationship with him at all. He didn't teach me anything, he didn't pass down his aspirations to me and he didn't take me to ballgames, races, etc. Don't get me wrong, my father was not a bad guy, he just didn't know how to deal with kids. He got better with my brother who was nine years younger, but it didn't change our relationship. My point is that because of all this sometimes this song is painful for me because it's talking about things I never had but wish I did. Sorry if this was too personal.

You are talking to family here

Wow, Penny, Dave Blaney,lol.

Racing isnt necessarily a southern thing, but is big in the south. Some of the most diehard racing fans I know are about as yankee as they get. Some of the best dirt tracks and some of the biggest races outside of Indy/Nascar happen in the northeast and midwest.

Dale Earnhardt dying was like if Micheal Jordan, Wayne Gretzky, Joe Montana or Cal Ripken all died on the field/court/ice at the top of there game at the same time. Earnhardt was huge. It was a big deal for us too. My wife(gf at the time) missed school for a week, grown men were calling into the radio station crying, was a huge deal. We were at the next race in Rockingham and it was just a strange feeling. The race got rained out, but not before Dale Jr. wrecked a few laps in. But the next day it was beautiful and the sun was shining and Steve Park in an Earnhardt car won barely over my driver, Bobby Labonte. I think everybody in that place was covered in goose bumps, and quite a few people were tearing up. We named our first beagle after Dale Earnhardt, and he is ornery as they come. Racing is a great sport. Heard a recording of a show when this first came out and he dedicated this song to Dale Jr.

This is a great song, one of my favorite Cooley songs. Love it when he brings out the banjo for this one.

Daddy's Cup is one of my favorites. I grew up laying under a car on a gravel driveway holding a flashlight. Later I raced outboards and when it came to motors you can be darn sure I had to "know what each one was and what each one was for".

When we get together for Sunday dinner we like to watch a little NASCAR before getting called to the table.

This is a good one.

Figured out exactly what bothers me about this song:

Number 3 might have the car but 43 has got the nerve

I realize the narrator isn't necessarily at a NASCAR track, but he didn't just randomly choose those two numbers, and in that case he's got it backwards.

"Figured out exactly what bothers me about this song:

Number 3 might have the car but 43 has got the nerve

I realize the narrator isn't necessarily at a NASCAR track, but he didn't just randomly choose those two numbers, and in that case he's got it backwards."

Smitty is dead on. This line always bugged me as well. Cooley definitely got it backwards on this...

cooely/narrator is old school. dale may have a better car, but petty is a better driver.

cooley/narrator is correct.

always loved that line.

long live the king.



morons.

For someone who doesn't know shit about NASCAR, the line always seemed right to me.* In the general mythology of the sport wasn't Petty the mean sumbitch who should still be delivering 'shine thru the backwoods w/ the cops on his tail? Wasn't Earnhardt the glamor boy?

* Hell, I was proud that i simply knew what he was talking about