Patterson's and Cooley's stories

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Frank
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Patterson's and Cooley's stories

Post by Frank »

One of things for me that can make a live song even more special is one of either Patterson's or Cooley's stories giving more background into it. The extended introduction to "18 Wheels of Love" in the Austin City Limits performance was great, and more recently Cooley's introduction to "Made Up English Oceans" on the It's Great to be Alive album was interesting. With that in mind, and knowing that there are lots of people here who have been to many more shows than I have, and hence would have heard more of them, I would love for people to share their favourite stories, or intros to songs. And in the interests of me putting my money where my mouth is, here is an extended introduction to "The Boys From Alabama", from I believe Richmond, VA on the 23rd of July, 2004;

What we're gonna do now is we're gonna take you down to McNairy county Tennessee,
back in the early 1970's, back in the days when sheriff Buford Pusser ran things around there.
Now the sheriff Buford Pusser was trying to clean up McNairy county Tennessee from all them bootleggers,
who was bringing crime and corruption and illegal liquor into his little dry county, just South of Jackson Tennessee.
And for his troubles he got ambushed and his wife was murdered and his house got blown up,
and they made a movie about him, called Walking Tall. And it wasn't a very good movie,
but it became somewhat of a cultural phenomenon around the part of the country where we grew up.
Walking Tall came to one of the three theaters in my hometown and it stayed there for nine months straight,
with lines around the block. So the local Chevy dealer decided maybe it'd be a good idea to have sheriff Buford Pusser,
all 6 foot 10 of his ass show up at his Chevy dealership with his big Buford stick, and maybe it would sell some cars.
And that summer sheriff Buford Pusser came to Gene Crockett (sp?) Chevrolet in Tuscumbia Alabama,
and thousands of people showed up, the whole goddamn town just shut down.
And for his troubles he was given the keys to a brand new Corvette.
And two weeks later he ran that brand new Corvette into an embankment,
and he died under mysterious circumstances on a straightaway in McNairy county.
So they made a couple of sequels, and they sucked even more.
But in all three of them Walking Tall movies the sheriff Buford Pusser was raging a war against a Southern crime syndicate,
a sort of redneck goodfellas that he referred to as The Boys from Alabama,
who not so coincidently also happened to come from our hometown too.
And so we decided to write this song to tell the other side of the story.
This song is called The Boys from Alabama.

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Smitty
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Re: Patterson's and Cooley's stories

Post by Smitty »

^Gene Crump Chevrolet

Great idea for a thread!



Gah, favorite story intros - White Knuckle, Box of Spiders, Road Cases, Living Bubba, Goode's Field Rd, What It Means...

Recently Cooley gave a great intro to "Gravity's Gone" during the second Tractor Tavern Dimmer Twins show that's a must-hear
E quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle.

jr29
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Location: Jackson, Tennessee

Re: Patterson's and Cooley's stories

Post by jr29 »

Frank wrote:One of things for me that can make a live song even more special is one of either Patterson's or Cooley's stories giving more background into it. The extended introduction to "18 Wheels of Love" in the Austin City Limits performance was great, and more recently Cooley's introduction to "Made Up English Oceans" on the It's Great to be Alive album was interesting. With that in mind, and knowing that there are lots of people here who have been to many more shows than I have, and hence would have heard more of them, I would love for people to share their favourite stories, or intros to songs. And in the interests of me putting my money where my mouth is, here is an extended introduction to "The Boys From Alabama", from I believe Richmond, VA on the 23rd of July, 2004;

What we're gonna do now is we're gonna take you down to McNairy county Tennessee,
back in the early 1970's, back in the days when sheriff Buford Pusser ran things around there.
Now the sheriff Buford Pusser was trying to clean up McNairy county Tennessee from all them bootleggers,
who was bringing crime and corruption and illegal liquor into his little dry county, just South of Jackson Tennessee.
And for his troubles he got ambushed and his wife was murdered and his house got blown up,
and they made a movie about him, called Walking Tall. And it wasn't a very good movie,
but it became somewhat of a cultural phenomenon around the part of the country where we grew up.
Walking Tall came to one of the three theaters in my hometown and it stayed there for nine months straight,
with lines around the block. So the local Chevy dealer decided maybe it'd be a good idea to have sheriff Buford Pusser,
all 6 foot 10 of his ass show up at his Chevy dealership with his big Buford stick, and maybe it would sell some cars.
And that summer sheriff Buford Pusser came to Gene Crockett (sp?) Chevrolet in Tuscumbia Alabama,
and thousands of people showed up, the whole goddamn town just shut down.
And for his troubles he was given the keys to a brand new Corvette.
And two weeks later he ran that brand new Corvette into an embankment,
and he died under mysterious circumstances on a straightaway in McNairy county.
So they made a couple of sequels, and they sucked even more.
But in all three of them Walking Tall movies the sheriff Buford Pusser was raging a war against a Southern crime syndicate,
a sort of redneck goodfellas that he referred to as The Boys from Alabama,
who not so coincidently also happened to come from our hometown too.
And so we decided to write this song to tell the other side of the story.
This song is called The Boys from Alabama.
Walking Tall took extensive artistic liberties with Buford's story. The Boys From Mississippi may have been more accurate. I'm not bitching, I love all of the Buford songs.

Hasn't Cooley told the story behind Panties In Your Purse ? I believe I heard him say somewhere that some lady he didn't know approached him in a Tuscaloosa bar and told him the shit that ended up in the song.

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Re: Patterson's and Cooley's stories

Post by beantownbubba »

Smitty wrote:^Gene Crump Chevrolet

Great idea for a thread!



Gah, favorite story intros - White Knuckle, Box of Spiders, Road Cases, Living Bubba, Goode's Field Rd, What It Means...

Recently Cooley gave a great intro to "Gravity's Gone" during the second Tractor Tavern Dimmer Twins show that's a must-hear
x2
What used to be is gone and what ought to be ought not to be so hard

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Clams
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Re: Patterson's and Cooley's stories

Post by Clams »

I always loved this story before Dead Drunk & Naked from Homecoming 2014. It's a dedication to Patterson's friend Amanda who had passed away unexpectedly that week. Apparently back in the day Patterson, Amanda and Brandon (the glue sniffing dude in DD&N) all worked together at a bad Italian restaurant in Athens. It's heartfelt, funny and tells you everything you need to know about the song. The story actually comes at the end of Zip City on the Archive recording (thank you Sloan Simpson!) and from there it goes right into DD&N.


Zip City: https://archive.org/details/drivebytruc ... 13t22.flac

DD&N: https://archive.org/details/drivebytruc ... 13t23.flac



PS- I believe this is the same version of DD&N that was recorded and released (without the intro/story and without the smashing beer bottles) on the Black Ice version of English Oceans
Everyone needs a friend, everyone needs a fuck

Frank
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Joined: Thu Oct 14, 2010 2:13 pm

Re: Patterson's and Cooley's stories

Post by Frank »

Smitty wrote:^Gene Crump Chevrolet

Great idea for a thread!

Gah, favorite story intros - White Knuckle, Box of Spiders, Road Cases, Living Bubba, Goode's Field Rd, What It Means...

Recently Cooley gave a great intro to "Gravity's Gone" during the second Tractor Tavern Dimmer Twins show that's a must-hear
Thank you, the audio was not super clear and Google didn't help me track it down.

I had forgotten about the introduction to The Living Bubba, even though it's on the 40 Watt live DVD. I think i have heard it a few different times, but it's special on the DVD and so i'll quote it here;

Once upon a time in Atlanta Georgia there was a man named Gregory Dean Smalley.
He was part of a scene that's pretty fractured now and almost non existent,
but it was going on there back before anybody really noticed or gave a damn,
it was called the redneck underground.
And he played in a band called The Denvers, and he backed up Kelly Hogan,
and he backed up Scott Miller way before The V-Roys.
But mostly he backed up himself. That was a full-time job in its own right.
He was a belligerent little bastard who wrote these really catchy great pop songs,
and then rednecked them up really a bunch, and he turned always up really as loud as he could possibly play,
and sometimes it didn't sound all that in tune.
But like so many, like so many rockers do, like so many people do, Greg got really, really sick.
Greg got AIDS and he died.
But the last year Greg was alive, he played over a hundred shows, cuz he was a badass motherfucker.
And he thought maybe, just maybe if he kept doing the thing that made him happiest,
the thing that kept him going, the thing that kept him alive as a fucked up teenager,
maybe it would keep him alive a little bit longer as a sick adult.
And i worked at The High Hat Music club up on Clayton Street back then,
and i had the honour and the privilege of running sound for eight of those shows that last year.
And i'd come into work a little bit early all those days and make sure everything was just perfect
so he wouldn't have to wait for my tardy ass.
And i'd always bring a joint for him to smoke cuz it seemed to cheer him up.
And some nights he was so sick he could barely stand up and he'd put a bar stool behind him to lean on during the slow parts,
but he never actually sat down and he stayed on his feet.
And the last time i ever played with Greg, and the last time i ever saw Greg was three weeks before he died.
And we opened for him at a little place called Doddies and he was so sick he was blowing verses cuz of his coughing.
And at one point after a Waylon Jennings cover he walked up to the microphone and he gave it a kind of a Fuck You look
and he said "Sorry about that second verse but i didn't wear a rubber".
And the next week we were magically invited to play Bubbapulooza which was his little festival at The Star Bar
in Little Five Points that he put on every year.
And so i called Greg to thank him because i knew he was behind it, and his wife answered the phone
and she said that Greg was in the hospital, and Greg wasn't coming home this time.
And i went and walked my dog and i wrote this song.
It's called The Living Bubba.


There is another, shorter version they did at AthFest in 2007, which can be heard at the end of this song here (thank you as ever Sloan);

https://archive.org/details/dbt2007-06- ... d1t07.flac

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bovine knievel
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Re: Patterson's and Cooley's stories

Post by bovine knievel »

These audio tracks need to be compiled like Todd Snider’s Tales From Moondawg’s Tavern.

Great idea for a thread.

Does it have to be only stories about the songs or could it be just a story? I have a funny one from Patterson about Roger Daltrey needing to leave his shirt on. “Bless his heart” :lol:

This is well worth your 6 minutes of time.
“Excited people get on daddy’s nerves.” - M. Cooley

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Rocky
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Re: Patterson's and Cooley's stories

Post by Rocky »

Thank you for this. Shout out to Mattador!
By the time you drop them I'll be gone
And you'll be right where they fall the rest of your life

John A Arkansawyer
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Re: Patterson's and Cooley's stories

Post by John A Arkansawyer »

bovine knievel wrote:These audio tracks need to be compiled like Todd Snider’s Tales From Moondawg’s Tavern.

Great idea for a thread.

Does it have to be only stories about the songs or could it be just a story? I have a funny one from Patterson about Roger Daltrey needing to leave his shirt on. “Bless his heart” :lol:

This is well worth your 6 minutes of time.
God, that was an awesome night! Patterson was exactly the right amount of tipsy. "She probably thought that song was about her." I mean, come on!
The sooner we put those assholes in the grave&piss on the dirt above it, the better off we'll be

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