Once They Banned Imagine

[Dose Amigo]

I don't post a lot but this song has really grabbed me lately and it prompted me to stop in. I did a search for a thread on the song but just got pages of set lists so sorry if I'm duplicating.

I ain't gonna wax political but with all that's going on today...even literally today, Cooley just knocks it out of the park.

Since the big one ended we'd been mostly pretending
We'd have had the same gumption and grit
As the greatest among us when harm came upon us
We wouldn't hesitate to defend
But with or against something's been out to get us
And it looked like something finally did
No nobler cause in our lifetime for setting our sails to the wind

I don't know how much I really want to know about the song though you know? It's so rich with imagery, sometimes there's something lost by figuring out the puzzle. That said, the opening lines confuse me and I wonder if someone can tell me what "grabby" refers to.

[beantownbubba]

There was a lot of discussion about this song at the time of the album's release but I don't remember if there was a specific thread about the song (a la the "song of the week" series) or whether it was part of a longer thread on the album. Given the overlapping nature of the most likely search words, I'm not sure how to best find it. Perhaps one of the better searchers on the board can weigh in.

IIRC the "grabby" reference got a lot of attention at the time. There were several suggested interpretations but I think the one that was most widely accepted was that it is a reference to George W. Bush. There were at least a couple of different explanations of why that was so but I don't remember them. In any case, even though this seemed to be the most popular interpretation I don't think it was ever definitively settled.

[Dose Amigo]

Thanks bubba~

...again, the best songs are the ones you can't quite pin down. I'll never figure out just what happened to her mama in Bulldozers & Dirt.

[305 Engine]

I always think a good writer manages to get his personality into his work.

There's a likeable laidback quality to Cooley's songwriting which, I guess, reflects who he is but also leads to him being underrated imo. He writes fun, often funny songs. But they're full of fantastic lines that you almost miss, because half the time you just feel like he's playing for laughs.

If more obviously moody, thoughtful singer songwriters wrote lines like "Making sure sin city still shines brighter than creations dark" they'd be called poets.

[Dose Amigo]

I always think a good writer manages to get his personality into his work.

There's a likeable laidback quality to Cooley's songwriting which, I guess, reflects who he is but also leads to him being underrated imo. He writes fun, often funny songs. But they're full of fantastic lines that you almost miss, because half the time you just feel like he's playing for laughs.

If more obviously moody, thoughtful singer songwriters wrote lines like "Making sure sin city still shines brighter than creations dark" they'd be called poets.

I've never met a Cooley song I didn't like and so many of his lines run through my head all the time. The best songs have some ambiguity from any songwriter and that's why I've always hated music videos because they take away that individual interpretation and replace it with imagery which robs the listener in some ways.

[Unitedtattoo]

https://genius.com/Drive-by-truckers-on ... ine-lyrics

The genius App is a pretty cool source of info . I learned about the clear Channel memorandum of songs listed after the 9/11 attacks. It’s an interesting read.

[Yaz Rock]

This page of the American Band thread is more about the song Imagine than about Once They Banned Imagine, but I still think there is another page/thread you are thinking of. It linked to the episode of WKRP in Cincinatti that discusses the banning of Imagine, but that link is dead - try this one instead.

[artood2]

I wasn't a huge fan of this song when it first came out, in fact I kinda disliked it. This from a guy with a big Cooley Bird on his calf. but I caught Cooley's Seattle show and I though this song came off great. the lyrics seemed to have new meaning. In fact new takes on old songs would be what I would call this little solo swing he's on. A friend who was also there in Ballard and had seen one of the recent Dimmer Twins PNW shows commented it was like seeing two different artists. I love me a ROCK SHOW! but I loves me a solo acoustic show too.

[Gaetzi]

Yep. I had sort of forgotten about this song until Saturday night at the Larimer Lounge. It's fantastic.

[Zip City]

Whenever I hear this song, I picture Cooley sitting at a giant, white grand piano, and I can't un-see it

[Clams]