American Band lyrics & interpretations

[Smitty]

Because I haven't heard any two people with the same idea about what it means.

[Zip City]

heroin

[brett27295]

Was just discussing this with a friend a few nights ago...heroin

[Duke Silver]

for reference

Bottles fall into the dumpster and a stale smell rises through the sickening summer haze
To the rhythm of a boot heeled hipster cowgirl's clunky sashay of shame
Monday mayhem the last of the AM's gasoline powered release
To the rest of the day in the afternoon's rising relentlessly stifling heat

Up around the corner a B Model Mazda sitting crooked between the lines
Feeling lucky that 27's the hardest thing she'll have to survive
Just don't mix your browns and your whites with your wines and don't sit on your cigarettes
You'll feel like shit soon enough and deserve's got no say in the stories passed

That's what a life feels like
Bored children caught between dog days when night turns them loose
All that's different for girls is the bragging and who it's done to

Everyone claims the times are a changing as theirs pass them by
And everyone's right

Way down beneath all the talk and tequila and reasons, excuses and doubts
Breathing steam from his cup and stink from his fingers he's starting to figure it out
But the old man's world was more doing than thinking and the doing was more cut and dry

Now girls collect trophies as much as the boys and come home just as filthy and fried
Now girls collect trophies as much as the boys and come home just as filthy and fried

[Jonicont]

Was just discussing this with a friend a few nights ago...heroin

Yep

[brett27295]

You'll feel like shit soon enough and deserve...???...stories past

I think it's:

You'll feel like shit soon enough and deserves got no say in the stories past

[heartbreaker1976]

I think it's about Donald Trump being an asshole, just kidding...

I picture and old man sitting, drinking a coffee, smoking a cigarette, taking in the sights of the busy world around him, and realizing that it's a different world now. Women have to work just as hard as men, and aren't necessarily "ladies" like they were in his time.

[Zip City]

I was only joking about heroin.....old 9B joke.

[brett27295]

I was only joking about heroin.....old 9B joke.

I'm not.

[Zip City]

I was only joking about heroin.....old 9B joke.

I'm not.

Now that I look at the lyrics, I see it. Esp. the "brown and white" line

[Clams]

for reference

Up around the corner a B Model Mazda sitting crooked between the lines
Feeling lucky that 27's the hardest thing she'll have to survive
Just don't mix your browns and your whites with your wines and don't sit on your cigarettes
You'll feel like shit soon enough and deserve's got no say in the story's past.

That's what a life feels like
Bored children caught between dog days when night turns them loose
All that's different for girls is the bragging and who it's done to

Couple of edits in bold above.
(The lyrics are pretty clear if you watch the youtube of Cooley's solo show in Philly).

Also, for context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mazda_B-Series

[RolanK]

The line about surviving 27 makes me think it may be related to drugs as sugested by others.

[pearlbeer]

Brown might be a reference to Heroin, but I think it is more about how gender and empowerment is changing. Women are (thankfully) getting closer to a level of equality, but that doesn't just translate to the workplace. Today's young women can party and f*ck just as hard as their male counterparts. Look at today's pop music landscape - it is generally the women who are taking the "bad boy" role: Brittany, Ke$ha, Lindsay, etc. Now the women collect trophies just like the men....and end up just as filthy an fried.

I expect now that Cooley has a teenage boy (I think), he is seeing this play out at home. He was the dirty kid driving to Zip City to get some 30 odd years ago....now he is seeing the girls getting pulled out of the ditch they slid into.....

[Tequila Cowboy]

I was only joking about heroin.....old 9B joke.

It's only taken 8 years and 5 plus albums to actually find a song in which the theory actually fits. Huston be damned.

[Duke Silver]

Brown might be a reference to Heroin, but I think it is more about how gender and empowerment is changing. Women are (thankfully) getting closer to a level of equality, but that doesn't just translate to the workplace. Today's young women can party and f*ck just as hard as their male counterparts. Look at today's pop music landscape - it is generally the women who are taking the "bad boy" role: Brittany, Ke$ha, Lindsay, etc. Now the women collect trophies just like the men....and end up just as filthy an fried.

I expect now that Cooley has a teenage boy (I think), he is seeing this play out at home. He was the dirty kid driving to Zip City to get some 30 odd years ago....now he is seeing the girls getting pulled out of the ditch they slid into.....

beat me to it! was just mentally composing a post in the waiting room at the doctor's office. couldn't have said it better than pearlbeer did.

heroin might be involved, but i don't see this song being "about" that anymore than it's about dumpsters, coffee, or mazdas. it's the morning after a one night stand, only role-reversed, with the dude left feeling used and confused. cooley's take on changing gender politics.

[Clams]

Classic cooley. Fantastic word play that's open to so many interpretations. I think the key is the word "trophies" at the end and that could be a reference to many different things.

[brett27295]

Classic cooley. Fantastic word play that's open to so many interpretations. I think the key is the word "trophies" at the end and that could be a reference to many different things.

My friend mentioned trophies = track marks

[beantownbubba]

Drugs & general debauchery are clearly involved but Cooley gives it to us straight in what for Cooley passes for black and white:

"Everyone claims the times are a changing as theirs pass them by
And everyone's right"

Drugs, gender and sexual politics, old men (who are still watching the young girls reign, though they sure as heck do it differently than they used to), they're all part of the story, but time's the villain (antihero?) in the story.

And just for good measure, "deserve's got no say in the story's past" is the 2016 version of "what ought to be ought not to be so hard." If I weren't such a lazy son of a bitch I might argue that the song is "primer coat" from another point of view.

[Markalanbishop]

Classic cooley. Fantastic word play that's open to so many interpretations. I think the key is the word "trophies" at the end and that could be a reference to many different things.

Trophy tail wives

[Clams]

Classic cooley. Fantastic word play that's open to so many interpretations. I think the key is the word "trophies" at the end and that could be a reference to many different things.

My friend mentioned trophies = track marks

I have a friend who mentioned that too. But I googled those words and some related ones pretty hard and came up with nothing. Perhaps a Cooleyism?

Drugs & general debauchery are clearly involved but Cooley gives it to us straight in what for Cooley passes for black and white:

"Everyone claims the times are a changing as theirs pass them by
And everyone's right"

Drugs, gender and sexual politics, old men (who are still watching the young girls reign, though they sure as heck do it differently than they used to), they're all part of the story, but time's the villain (antihero?) in the story.

And just for good measure, "deserve's got no say in the story's past" is the 2016 version of "what ought to be ought not to be so hard." If I weren't such a lazy son of a bitch I might argue that the song is "primer coat" from another point of view.

I thought of Primer Coat too (great minds...), except that it clearly takes place with different people doing different things in a very different part of town. But you still have the old man who's losing his daughter (in a much worse way here).

[beantownbubba]

except that it clearly takes place with different people doing different things in a very different part of town. But you still have the old man who's losing his daughter (in a much worse way here).

No, no, definitely not the same people but some of the same big picture themes (time and what it does to us) and the same dynamic of life experiences filtered through the lens of different generations - looking back, forwards and right now (including what you said about the old man/daughter).

[Smitty]

I'm not convinced it's "story's past". "Stories passed" makes more sense imo and ties in with the "bragging on who it's done to" line and they would both sound exactly the same coming from a southern tongue.

I don't think browns is a reference to heroin either, or else it would be singular - 60 mg morphines are sometimes called browns though. Whites could be Norco, methadone, percs, xanax or a variety of different pharmaceuticals.

[jr29]

I'm not convinced it's "story's past". "Stories passed" makes more sense imo and ties in with the "bragging on who it's done to" line and they would both sound exactly the same coming from a southern tongue.

I don't think browns is a reference to heroin either, or else it would be singular - 60 mg morphines are sometimes called browns though. Whites could be Norco, methadone, percs, xanax or a variety of different pharmaceuticals.

I would think the browns and whites line would be a reference to pills too.
"don't mix your browns and your whites with your wines"= "alcohol and pills, it's a crying shame"................
My .02

[Smitty]

I've never heard track marks referred to as trophies either and that doesn't make sense to me anyway as there's hasn't been a real gender gap in opiate users in my lifetime anyway. I actually think females have been more likely to abuse opiates for at least a couple decades.

[Clams]

I'm not convinced it's "story's past". "Stories passed" makes more sense imo and ties in with the "bragging on who it's done to" line and they would both sound exactly the same coming from a southern tongue.

I don't think browns is a reference to heroin either, or else it would be singular - 60 mg morphines are sometimes called browns though. Whites could be Norco, methadone, percs, xanax or a variety of different pharmaceuticals.

I would think the browns and whites line would be a reference to pills too.
"don't mix your browns and your whites with your wines"= "alcohol and pills, it's a crying shame"................
My .02

Me and you, we liked our pills and our whiskey...

[Smitty]

I'm not convinced it's "story's past". "Stories passed" makes more sense imo and ties in with the "bragging on who it's done to" line and they would both sound exactly the same coming from a southern tongue.

I don't think browns is a reference to heroin either, or else it would be singular - 60 mg morphines are sometimes called browns though. Whites could be Norco, methadone, percs, xanax or a variety of different pharmaceuticals.

I would think the browns and whites line would be a reference to pills too.
"don't mix your browns and your whites with your wines"= "alcohol and pills, it's a crying shame"................
My .02

Trust me, it's not a good idea.

[Cole Younger]

I've got my own opinions as to what it's about which is really not important.

I played this song on my acoustic and sang it for my niece at her graduation party. She freaked out. Came up, gave me a big hug, thanked me, and asked me who sang it. I told her and until that moment Driveby Truckers was just something she saw on some of my tee shirts. She's a fan now.

[Cole Younger]

Drugs & general debauchery are clearly involved but Cooley gives it to us straight in what for Cooley passes for black and white:

"Everyone claims the times are a changing as theirs pass them by
And everyone's right"

Drugs, gender and sexual politics, old men (who are still watching the young girls reign, though they sure as heck do it differently than they used to), they're all part of the story, but time's the villain (antihero?) in the story.

And just for good measure, "deserve's got no say in the story's past" is the 2016 version of "what ought to be ought not to be so hard." If I weren't such a lazy son of a bitch I might argue that the song is "primer coat" from another point of view.

Exactly. This covers similar territory as Primer Coat I think.

[Smitty]

I just wrote a huge ass post detailing the story in the song as it appeared to me, but then I googled b-model Mazda and that negated almost everything I wrote. I ignorantly assumed the Mazda was the girl's and she was stumbling towards it and the old man wasn't necessarily her father, just a guy witnessing the scene from the highway. Now that I've actually seen a b-model Mazda, I recognize it as the Official Vehicle for Working Class Dads Picking Up Their Daughters at Odd Hours in Unlikely Locations™. Seriously, Cooley could not have nailed that any more perfectly. Just the fact that the old man drives that truck makes me tons more sympathetic to him than before. It changes the entire meaning of the song to me.

I thought trophies=conquests, but I'm not sure anymore. I still don't think it's track marks unless it is a Cooleyism (which I doubt as the final lines seem to be the old man's thoughts and not the narrator's)

[Smitty]

I also think this is stronger evidence that it's "deserves got no say in the stories passed", as he's telling her that whether she deserves it or not has nothing to do with what people with say about her.