Every Single Storied Flameout-New Cooley Song

[glennrwordman]

Hey, Heathens...

One of the immeasurable benefits of Our Faithful Tapers, is getting an early glimpse of new songs. Most often, it's obviously a PH song, and on this last run we've gotten the insanely catchy "Welcome 2 Club XIII", which, unlike a lot of recent DBT songs, despite how well-constructed, is a TOTAL earworm; "The Driver", which has a typically epic, Sabbath-y riff; and "Shake and Pine", which I've not heard a version of, other than the Home Show performances, which, even then marked it as "a tune to watch".

But we've also gotten a new Cooley song, an absolute gem, already one of my favorite songs of his, or anyone's, ever.

I originally described "Every Single Storied Flameout" from the 2/14 Fillmore recording as "A full-on rock song with a million words. REAL good ones." This was before I'd really inhaled the song, and knew for sure what the lyrics were.

TC was kind enough to send me the lyrics, and let me tell you, it's unlike anything Cooley, or many other rock lyricists, has ever written before.

First, the music: It IS indeed a driving, three-guitar attack of a song, with Cooley's typical mis-directions, clever though not fussy arrangement twists, and a super-subtle yet present melody throughout. The best version I've heard is the one from Salt Lake (which this essay is based on), which was an incredible show all-around based on the recording. It already sounds "lived-in". Brad and Matt's parts are both supple and powerful, with wonderful little details and accents. Matt's playing on the outro is particular excellent.

The guitars do that thing DBT does so well, at their best: intermingle without interfering, each part coalescing and pulling off into different directions, without ever steering the song off the rails, but making it feel like it is JUST holding on. Rock 'n roll, indeed.

Then, the lyrics. I do not claim any special inside knowledge, and totally accept the fact that this is MY interpretation, and it could be 100% wrong, but "Every Single Storied Flameout" takes the idea of on the one hand "Sounds Better in the Song, and especially"Eyes Like Glue", and moves it forward by answering the implied question there: "What happens when you DO watch everything I do, then DO it, and then we are both forced to reckon the damage?" And "what if I come to believe my own stories about myself, and find out how untrue they are, and the damage they've done...to people I love?"

It starts off with some excellent wordplay, and what I take as a little bit of self-protecting misdirection:

No matter how many pens a poet drains
how full of shit he is or ain’t
well it ain’t up to him to tell you
So if burning out sounds better
and leaving handsome corpses makes good sense
well then by all means crown the lizard

Jim Morrison? Who knows? Nevertheless, it's sense of admonition deepens as the song goes on, and makes the listener revisit the opening very differently, colored by the rest of the song.

After a verse about love songs that ain't, and the heart's diabolical caprice, we get to the meat of the matter:

Said the man who pissed the river
If it’s owning up you’re after
It’s no mystery how the dam inside you burst
I’d have a lot of nerve to go feigning shock and outrage
If I'd been my example I’d be worse

That part of you that feels alive is wired and can’t be severed
from the damage seeking part of you that runs it
Just don’t embrace it with a vengeance
before you’ve even shaved with a razor
that you bought with your own money...

These, to me, are just heart-breaking verses. It's clear here that this is a father talking to and about a son, from the vantage point of seeing where he's fallen short. ("I’d have a lot of nerve to go feigning shock and outrage/If I'd been my example I’d be worse") And the "razor" imagery is just perfect: an excellent example of the writer's credo of "show, don't tell". I mean, saying "You're too young to get this fucked up" tells the story, too, but this way it sneaks up on you, and is just crushing when it hits.

The chorus reinforces the idea of generational culpability:
Every single storied flameout’s purgatory playlist
skirts the payouts anyone from his loins might collect
His is a legacy in tourist traps, conspiracies that took him out
and tattoos someone else lives to regret

In making my story, I've ignored (for too long), how it's negatively effected yours, and now we both are paying for it: you, in experience, and me, in guilt and regret.

Cooley's vocal in this is also astonishing. Positively Costello-esque (only better), in managing these long, long lines, and maintaining a melody throughout.

Much has been made about Cooley's stonecutting; how long it takes him to compose and release a song, especially after the relative abundance of English Oceans and American Band. But, when the result is as magnificent as this song, man, give me one of these every blue moon or so, and I will be very, very happy, and try to tamp down my own greed for wanting more.

This MAY not be autobiographical at all. But, if it is, this one seems to come from someplace deep, a place of profound self-examination and assessment, and one of the most powerful lyrics he's ever done. In the last weeks since the recording went on to Archive, and I downloaded it, I've listened to the song probably five or six times a day, and wake up with it in my head. I tend to be relatively obsessive with things I fall for, and this, man, I've fallen for, hard.

It's a brave and brilliant piece of songwriting.

[dime in the gutter]

nice post.

[glennrwordman]

Thank you. This song has really affected me.

[beantownbubba]

Thanks, Glenn. Very well done and very helpful. It's my first "listening" to the complete lyric so I'm not going to say too much too fast but it does seem obvious that the lizard is a reference to J. Morrison. If not, well, I'll eat a lizard.

Also, compare and contrast a very different approach to intergenerational mysteries and regrets by the former (and perhaps current? I can't keep up) Cat Stevens in "Father & Son." Even at first glance, Cooley's approach is far more nuanced and layered, delves far more deeply into the father's perspective and doesn't let the father off nearly so easily. Or perhaps it's more accurate to say not that Stevens lets the father off so easily, he just doesn't understand the father's POV as well as Cooley does so approaches that POV more simply. And hell no, Cooley ain't happy but I think maybe he gets a little closer every day.

It's not time to make a change
Just relax, take it easy
You're still young, that's your fault
There's so much you have to know
Find a girl, settle down
If you want you can marry
Look at me, I am old, but I'm happy

I was once like you are now
And I know that it's not easy
To be calm when you've found
Something going on
But take your time, think a lot
Think of everything you've got
For you will still be here tomorrow
But your dreams may not

How can I try to explain?
When I do he turns away again
It's always been the same, same old story
From the moment I could talk
I was ordered to listen
Now there's a way
And I know that I have to go away
I know I have to go

It's not time to make a change
Just relax, take it slowly
You're still young, that's your fault
There's so much you have to go through
Find a girl, settle down
If you want you can marry
Look at me, I am old, but I'm happy

All the times that I've cried
Keeping all the things I knew inside
It's hard, but it's harder to ignore it
If they were right I'd agree
But it's them they know, not me
Now there's a way
And I know that I have to go away
I know I have to go

[glennrwordman]

Thank you. This song has really affected me.

This was meant for Dime in the Gutter...

[Mundane Mayhem]

This here? This is that good shit.

Thanks for taking the time to write it, Glenn.

[gepman]

Nice work Glenn, very well stated.
Is the 2/14 show available somewhere? I never saw it...?

[cortez the killer]

Thanks, Glenn. Very well done and very helpful. It's my first "listening" to the complete lyric so I'm not going to say too much too fast but it does seem obvious that the lizard is a reference to J. Morrison. If not, well, I'll eat a lizard.

Which reminds me of a great episode of This American Life I listened to on NPR last weekend.

175: Babysitting
Act One: What Big Teeth You Have

Hillary Frank: The Perrys grew up in rural Idaho. When their parents went out, the oldest son, Doug, was left in charge of his four younger siblings. Doug was the kind of guy who ruled the last three rows of the school bus through a combination of force and psychological pressure.

He told other kids that the bus driver signed an agreement, putting him in charge of the back of the bus. He wore a bomber jacket. He rode a motorcycle. Still, his parents thought he seemed responsible enough when it came to his brothers and sister. There was a lot they didn't know.

Doug Perry: If I had to be there tending to these dang kids, I was going to make it fun for me too, you know.

Hillary Frank: Doug often subjected his three little brothers to what he calls bravery tests. He would do things like stuff them in a sleeping bag and tie them to a tree limb, or snap huge rubber bands at their skin until they stopped flinching.

Doug Perry: I really hesitate to tell this, because it could have been-- I mean, it's just-- well, anyway, we had this iguana, OK, this big lizard, about-- it was about three feet long. It died. Well, I was so attached to this thing that I, of course, didn't want to take it out and bury it.

So I put it in the freezer and kept it. Well, this is a fun thing for all of us boys to take out of the freezer, and thaw out, and play with it, you know. And then we got tired of playing with it. And then we'd put it back in the freezer, you know, and we'd freeze it again.

And after about a year and a half of this, we decided we needed a new bravery test. So we thought what can we do, hmm. I think we should boil and eat-- boil and eat the iguana. That would be the ultimate bravery test.

Well, we put it in a pot. We brought the biggest pot my mom had, and we stuffed it in there, and boiled it, you know. Well, well, it's been boiling about five minutes, probably done by now. And we got the thing out, and honest to goodness, we ate some of that lizard.

Hillary Frank: Oh, my god.

[LAUGHTER]

Doug Perry: I even ate some.

Hillary Frank: Really?

Doug Perry: And they even ate some.

Hillary Frank: What did it taste like?

Doug Perry: You know, at that point, it actually tasted kind of like sawdust.

[glennrwordman]

Nice work Glenn, very well stated.
Is the 2/14 show available somewhere? I never saw it...?

It was not on the Internet Archive; my email is glennraucher AT gmail. I can share it with you...

[glennrwordman]

This here? This is that good shit.

Thanks for taking the time to write it, Glenn.

Thank you. When so moved, I can move.

[cortez the killer]

Excellent breakdown and write-up, Glenn. However, this song is clearly about heroin.

[Clams]

Excellent breakdown and write-up, Glenn. However, this song is clearly about heroin.

either that or bridges

[RolanK]

Wow!

[305 Engine]

Hey, Heathens...

One of the immeasurable benefits of Our Faithful Tapers, is getting an early glimpse of new songs. Most often, it's obviously a PH song, and on this last run we've gotten the insanely catchy "Welcome 2 Club XIII", which, unlike a lot of recent DBT songs, despite how well-constructed, is a TOTAL earworm; "The Driver", which has a typically epic, Sabbath-y riff; and "Shake and Pine", which I've not heard a version of, other than the Home Show performances, which, even then marked it as "a tune to watch".

But we've also gotten a new Cooley song, an absolute gem, already one of my favorite songs of his, or anyone's, ever.

I originally described "Every Single Storied Flameout" from the 2/14 Fillmore recording as "A full-on rock song with a million words. REAL good ones." This was before I'd really inhaled the song, and knew for sure what the lyrics were.

TC was kind enough to send me the lyrics, and let me tell you, it's unlike anything Cooley, or many other rock lyricists, has ever written before.

First, the music: It IS indeed a driving, three-guitar attack of a song, with Cooley's typical mis-directions, clever though not fussy arrangement twists, and a super-subtle yet present melody throughout. The best version I've heard is the one from Salt Lake (which this essay is based on), which was an incredible show all-around based on the recording. It already sounds "lived-in". Brad and Matt's parts are both supple and powerful, with wonderful little details and accents. Matt's playing on the outro is particular excellent.

The guitars do that thing DBT does so well, at their best: intermingle without interfering, each part coalescing and pulling off into different directions, without ever steering the song off the rails, but making it feel like it is JUST holding on. Rock 'n roll, indeed.

Then, the lyrics. I do not claim any special inside knowledge, and totally accept the fact that this is MY interpretation, and it could be 100% wrong, but "Every Single Storied Flameout" takes the idea of on the one hand "Sounds Better in the Song, and especially"Eyes Like Glue", and moves it forward by answering the implied question there: "What happens when you DO watch everything I do, then DO it, and then we are both forced to reckon the damage?" And "what if I come to believe my own stories about myself, and find out how untrue they are, and the damage they've done...to people I love?"

It starts off with some excellent wordplay, and what I take as a little bit of self-protecting misdirection:

No matter how many pens a poet drains
how full of shit he is or ain’t
well it ain’t up to him to tell you
So if burning out sounds better
and leaving handsome corpses makes good sense
well then by all means crown the lizard

Jim Morrison? Who knows? Nevertheless, it's sense of admonition deepens as the song goes on, and makes the listener revisit the opening very differently, colored by the rest of the song.

After a verse about love songs that ain't, and the heart's diabolical caprice, we get to the meat of the matter:

Said the man who pissed the river
If it’s owning up you’re after
It’s no mystery how the dam inside you burst
I’d have a lot of nerve to go feigning shock and outrage
If I'd been my example I’d be worse

That part of you that feels alive is wired and can’t be severed
from the damage seeking part of you that runs it
Just don’t embrace it with a vengeance
before you’ve even shaved with a razor
that you bought with your own money...

These, to me, are just heart-breaking verses. It's clear here that this is a father talking to and about a son, from the vantage point of seeing where he's fallen short. ("I’d have a lot of nerve to go feigning shock and outrage/If I'd been my example I’d be worse") And the "razor" imagery is just perfect: an excellent example of the writer's credo of "show, don't tell". I mean, saying "You're too young to get this fucked up" tells the story, too, but this way it sneaks up on you, and is just crushing when it hits.

The chorus reinforces the idea of generational culpability:
Every single storied flameout’s purgatory playlist
skirts the payouts anyone from his loins might collect
His is a legacy in tourist traps, conspiracies that took him out
and tattoos someone else lives to regret

In making my story, I've ignored (for too long), how it's negatively effected yours, and now we both are paying for it: you, in experience, and me, in guilt and regret.

Cooley's vocal in this is also astonishing. Positively Costello-esque (only better), in managing these long, long lines, and maintaining a melody throughout.

Much has been made about Cooley's stonecutting; how long it takes him to compose and release a song, especially after the relative abundance of English Oceans and American Band. But, when the result is as magnificent as this song, man, give me one of these every blue moon or so, and I will be very, very happy, and try to tamp down my own greed for wanting more.

This MAY not be autobiographical at all. But, if it is, this one seems to come from someplace deep, a place of profound self-examination and assessment, and one of the most powerful lyrics he's ever done. In the last weeks since the recording went on to Archive, and I downloaded it, I've listened to the song probably five or six times a day, and wake up with it in my head. I tend to be relatively obsessive with things I fall for, and this, man, I've fallen for, hard.

It's a brave and brilliant piece of songwriting.

Thank you for getting me excited about new DBT music.

[glennrwordman]

Hey, Heathens...

One of the immeasurable benefits of Our Faithful Tapers, is getting an early glimpse of new songs. Most often, it's obviously a PH song, and on this last run we've gotten the insanely catchy "Welcome 2 Club XIII", which, unlike a lot of recent DBT songs, despite how well-constructed, is a TOTAL earworm; "The Driver", which has a typically epic, Sabbath-y riff; and "Shake and Pine", which I've not heard a version of, other than the Home Show performances, which, even then marked it as "a tune to watch".

But we've also gotten a new Cooley song, an absolute gem, already one of my favorite songs of his, or anyone's, ever.

I originally described "Every Single Storied Flameout" from the 2/14 Fillmore recording as "A full-on rock song with a million words. REAL good ones." This was before I'd really inhaled the song, and knew for sure what the lyrics were.

TC was kind enough to send me the lyrics, and let me tell you, it's unlike anything Cooley, or many other rock lyricists, has ever written before.

First, the music: It IS indeed a driving, three-guitar attack of a song, with Cooley's typical mis-directions, clever though not fussy arrangement twists, and a super-subtle yet present melody throughout. The best version I've heard is the one from Salt Lake (which this essay is based on), which was an incredible show all-around based on the recording. It already sounds "lived-in". Brad and Matt's parts are both supple and powerful, with wonderful little details and accents. Matt's playing on the outro is particular excellent.

The guitars do that thing DBT does so well, at their best: intermingle without interfering, each part coalescing and pulling off into different directions, without ever steering the song off the rails, but making it feel like it is JUST holding on. Rock 'n roll, indeed.

Then, the lyrics. I do not claim any special inside knowledge, and totally accept the fact that this is MY interpretation, and it could be 100% wrong, but "Every Single Storied Flameout" takes the idea of on the one hand "Sounds Better in the Song, and especially"Eyes Like Glue", and moves it forward by answering the implied question there: "What happens when you DO watch everything I do, then DO it, and then we are both forced to reckon the damage?" And "what if I come to believe my own stories about myself, and find out how untrue they are, and the damage they've done...to people I love?"

It starts off with some excellent wordplay, and what I take as a little bit of self-protecting misdirection:

No matter how many pens a poet drains
how full of shit he is or ain’t
well it ain’t up to him to tell you
So if burning out sounds better
and leaving handsome corpses makes good sense
well then by all means crown the lizard

Jim Morrison? Who knows? Nevertheless, it's sense of admonition deepens as the song goes on, and makes the listener revisit the opening very differently, colored by the rest of the song.

After a verse about love songs that ain't, and the heart's diabolical caprice, we get to the meat of the matter:

Said the man who pissed the river
If it’s owning up you’re after
It’s no mystery how the dam inside you burst
I’d have a lot of nerve to go feigning shock and outrage
If I'd been my example I’d be worse

That part of you that feels alive is wired and can’t be severed
from the damage seeking part of you that runs it
Just don’t embrace it with a vengeance
before you’ve even shaved with a razor
that you bought with your own money...

These, to me, are just heart-breaking verses. It's clear here that this is a father talking to and about a son, from the vantage point of seeing where he's fallen short. ("I’d have a lot of nerve to go feigning shock and outrage/If I'd been my example I’d be worse") And the "razor" imagery is just perfect: an excellent example of the writer's credo of "show, don't tell". I mean, saying "You're too young to get this fucked up" tells the story, too, but this way it sneaks up on you, and is just crushing when it hits.

The chorus reinforces the idea of generational culpability:
Every single storied flameout’s purgatory playlist
skirts the payouts anyone from his loins might collect
His is a legacy in tourist traps, conspiracies that took him out
and tattoos someone else lives to regret

In making my story, I've ignored (for too long), how it's negatively effected yours, and now we both are paying for it: you, in experience, and me, in guilt and regret.

Cooley's vocal in this is also astonishing. Positively Costello-esque (only better), in managing these long, long lines, and maintaining a melody throughout.

Much has been made about Cooley's stonecutting; how long it takes him to compose and release a song, especially after the relative abundance of English Oceans and American Band. But, when the result is as magnificent as this song, man, give me one of these every blue moon or so, and I will be very, very happy, and try to tamp down my own greed for wanting more.

This MAY not be autobiographical at all. But, if it is, this one seems to come from someplace deep, a place of profound self-examination and assessment, and one of the most powerful lyrics he's ever done. In the last weeks since the recording went on to Archive, and I downloaded it, I've listened to the song probably five or six times a day, and wake up with it in my head. I tend to be relatively obsessive with things I fall for, and this, man, I've fallen for, hard.

It's a brave and brilliant piece of songwriting.

Thank you for getting me excited about new DBT music.

Oh, my pleasure! The five songs I've heard: Shake & Pine (a live version from Seattle is now up on archive.org), We Will Never Wake You Up in the Morning, Welcome 2 Club XIII, The Driver, and this song bode really, really well for a deep, brilliant record.

I am sure, if the remaining material is along these lines, that some will speak of a divergence from the "political", but it would, I believe, be an oversimplification of both the new material and the last few records. Regardless, these are some of the best LYRICS either of the guys have ever written, and 10+ years down with this lineup, they sound like they are dwelling inside each other's heads, musically.

I am really excited, too.

[Mundane Mayhem]

On my drive to work the other day, I was struck by the resonance this song has with one of Patterson's new ones, "We Will Never Wake You Up in the Morning."

We know, based on the timing of that song's emergence and some things Patterson has said in introducing it, that it was inspired by the tragic death of Justin Townes Earle. If you know much about JTE, you probably know that he famously began using hard drugs very young, and you also know about the sometimes strained relationship he seemed to have with his famous father (who had a history of drug abuse and recovery himself).

Whether this song is deeply personal to Cooley, written in character, or (likely) a combination of the two, it's not too difficult to imagine these lyrics from the perspective of Steve Earle when Justin was a young kid doing some things young kids oughtn't do. The fact that Justin's long struggle ended the way it did only raises the stakes of "Every Single Storied Flameout," which in turn lends a sense of history and depth that deepens the tragedy of the Hood tune. These crushing losses are made all the sadder by the fact that in so many cases, friends and loved ones are forced to reckon with the possibility of getting "the call" over the course of years and decades. Periods of despair punctuated by glimmers of hope and periods of hope interrupted by devastating setbacks.

The other obvious connection here: Rock 'n roll means well, but it can't help telling young boys lies. It takes on a more sinister tinge in this context.

Those little connections between songs are a DBT hallmark going back decades at this point. I just happened to see one here. Maybe these two songs will be sequenced back-to-back to tease out that connection. Maybe I'm totally full of shit. Either way, very excited for this new album and new era of DBT.

[beantownbubba]

I just happened to see one here. Maybe these two songs will be sequenced back-to-back to tease out that connection. Maybe I'm totally full of shit.

Ah, the duality of the DBT fan thing.

I have no idea if you're right (among other things I'm not familiar w/ the PH song) but you are surely right that one of the delights of the DBT song catalog are the number of "same subject, different perspectives" pairings there are. If this is another one it can only be a good thing.

[glennrwordman]

On my drive to work the other day, I was struck by the resonance this song has with one of Patterson's new ones, "We Will Never Wake You Up in the Morning."

We know, based on the timing of that song's emergence and some things Patterson has said in introducing it, that it was inspired by the tragic death of Justin Townes Earle. If you know much about JTE, you probably know that he famously began using hard drugs very young, and you also know about the sometimes strained relationship he seemed to have with his famous father (who had a history of drug abuse and recovery himself).

Whether this song is deeply personal to Cooley, written in character, or (likely) a combination of the two, it's not too difficult to imagine these lyrics from the perspective of Steve Earle when Justin was a young kid doing some things young kids oughtn't do. The fact that Justin's long struggle ended the way it did only raises the stakes of "Every Single Storied Flameout," which in turn lends a sense of history and depth that deepens the tragedy of the Hood tune. These crushing losses are made all the sadder by the fact that in so many cases, friends and loved ones are forced to reckon with the possibility of getting "the call" over the course of years and decades. Periods of despair punctuated by glimmers of hope and periods of hope interrupted by devastating setbacks.

The other obvious connection here: Rock 'n roll means well, but it can't help telling young boys lies. It takes on a more sinister tinge in this context.

Those little connections between songs are a DBT hallmark going back decades at this point. I just happened to see one here. Maybe these two songs will be sequenced back-to-back to tease out that connection. Maybe I'm totally full of shit. Either way, very excited for this new album and new era of DBT.

I love this, MM. Thank you for writing it.

[Mundane Mayhem]

On my drive to work the other day, I was struck by the resonance this song has with one of Patterson's new ones, "We Will Never Wake You Up in the Morning."

We know, based on the timing of that song's emergence and some things Patterson has said in introducing it, that it was inspired by the tragic death of Justin Townes Earle. If you know much about JTE, you probably know that he famously began using hard drugs very young, and you also know about the sometimes strained relationship he seemed to have with his famous father (who had a history of drug abuse and recovery himself).

Whether this song is deeply personal to Cooley, written in character, or (likely) a combination of the two, it's not too difficult to imagine these lyrics from the perspective of Steve Earle when Justin was a young kid doing some things young kids oughtn't do. The fact that Justin's long struggle ended the way it did only raises the stakes of "Every Single Storied Flameout," which in turn lends a sense of history and depth that deepens the tragedy of the Hood tune. These crushing losses are made all the sadder by the fact that in so many cases, friends and loved ones are forced to reckon with the possibility of getting "the call" over the course of years and decades. Periods of despair punctuated by glimmers of hope and periods of hope interrupted by devastating setbacks.

The other obvious connection here: Rock 'n roll means well, but it can't help telling young boys lies. It takes on a more sinister tinge in this context.

Those little connections between songs are a DBT hallmark going back decades at this point. I just happened to see one here. Maybe these two songs will be sequenced back-to-back to tease out that connection. Maybe I'm totally full of shit. Either way, very excited for this new album and new era of DBT.

I love this, MM. Thank you for writing it.

My pleasure. Because I can, I attempted a transcription of "We Will Never Wake You Up in the Morning." It's a great piece of writing that deserves its own thread. I have a recording of Patterson doing it acoustic, which is the source of these lyrics. DM if you want it (having iMessage would probably help).

Well the times they do get rough and you thought you had enough
When the stall of your freefall decides to call your bluff
When all of your resolve might dissolve into your cups
We will never wake you up
We will never wake you up

The season of our discontent has given way to torment
The streets that you were born in disappeared without a warning
When simple evolution isn’t working as a solution
We will never wake you up in the morning

Metaphorically inclined towards crossing over state lines
You drifted down upon your destinations, you were inclined
Until you lost all sight of your place in the design
Your alarm clock is ringing at your bedside

You drift into narcotic splendor of your never-ending bender
Eyes glazed, but somehow smiling, like a haze across the skyline
You down another glass then drift off from our grasp
We will never wake you up in the morning
We will never wake you up in the morning

And the heaven that awaits you is a bar that never closes
And a line across the toilet tank for everybody’s noses
With a tab that’s as open as the arms of your hostess
As she gives a brief salvation upon you
Gives a brief salvation upon you

Buenas noches, sweet prince, behind the 8 ball and your rent
Eviction notice at your door and all your money spent
I was broken by your actions, but you had the best intentions
There were bottles in the bedroom, nothing in the kitchen

And the last time we ever saw you, you were clinging to the barroom
Days on end we tried to call you
Bells were ringing, tears were falling
And the door was opened by the cops, but you were up above the treetops
We will never wake you up in the morning
We will never wake you up in the morning
We will never wake you up in the morning

[Mundane Mayhem]

Hey, Heathens...

One of the immeasurable benefits of Our Faithful Tapers, is getting an early glimpse of new songs. Most often, it's obviously a PH song, and on this last run we've gotten the insanely catchy "Welcome 2 Club XIII", which, unlike a lot of recent DBT songs, despite how well-constructed, is a TOTAL earworm; "The Driver", which has a typically epic, Sabbath-y riff; and "Shake and Pine", which I've not heard a version of, other than the Home Show performances, which, even then marked it as "a tune to watch".

But we've also gotten a new Cooley song, an absolute gem, already one of my favorite songs of his, or anyone's, ever.

I originally described "Every Single Storied Flameout" from the 2/14 Fillmore recording as "A full-on rock song with a million words. REAL good ones." This was before I'd really inhaled the song, and knew for sure what the lyrics were.

TC was kind enough to send me the lyrics, and let me tell you, it's unlike anything Cooley, or many other rock lyricists, has ever written before.

First, the music: It IS indeed a driving, three-guitar attack of a song, with Cooley's typical mis-directions, clever though not fussy arrangement twists, and a super-subtle yet present melody throughout. The best version I've heard is the one from Salt Lake (which this essay is based on), which was an incredible show all-around based on the recording. It already sounds "lived-in". Brad and Matt's parts are both supple and powerful, with wonderful little details and accents. Matt's playing on the outro is particular excellent.

The guitars do that thing DBT does so well, at their best: intermingle without interfering, each part coalescing and pulling off into different directions, without ever steering the song off the rails, but making it feel like it is JUST holding on. Rock 'n roll, indeed.

Then, the lyrics. I do not claim any special inside knowledge, and totally accept the fact that this is MY interpretation, and it could be 100% wrong, but "Every Single Storied Flameout" takes the idea of on the one hand "Sounds Better in the Song, and especially"Eyes Like Glue", and moves it forward by answering the implied question there: "What happens when you DO watch everything I do, then DO it, and then we are both forced to reckon the damage?" And "what if I come to believe my own stories about myself, and find out how untrue they are, and the damage they've done...to people I love?"

It starts off with some excellent wordplay, and what I take as a little bit of self-protecting misdirection:

No matter how many pens a poet drains
how full of shit he is or ain’t
well it ain’t up to him to tell you
So if burning out sounds better
and leaving handsome corpses makes good sense
well then by all means crown the lizard

Jim Morrison? Who knows? Nevertheless, it's sense of admonition deepens as the song goes on, and makes the listener revisit the opening very differently, colored by the rest of the song.

After a verse about love songs that ain't, and the heart's diabolical caprice, we get to the meat of the matter:

Said the man who pissed the river
If it’s owning up you’re after
It’s no mystery how the dam inside you burst
I’d have a lot of nerve to go feigning shock and outrage
If I'd been my example I’d be worse

That part of you that feels alive is wired and can’t be severed
from the damage seeking part of you that runs it
Just don’t embrace it with a vengeance
before you’ve even shaved with a razor
that you bought with your own money...

These, to me, are just heart-breaking verses. It's clear here that this is a father talking to and about a son, from the vantage point of seeing where he's fallen short. ("I’d have a lot of nerve to go feigning shock and outrage/If I'd been my example I’d be worse") And the "razor" imagery is just perfect: an excellent example of the writer's credo of "show, don't tell". I mean, saying "You're too young to get this fucked up" tells the story, too, but this way it sneaks up on you, and is just crushing when it hits.

The chorus reinforces the idea of generational culpability:
Every single storied flameout’s purgatory playlist
skirts the payouts anyone from his loins might collect
His is a legacy in tourist traps, conspiracies that took him out
and tattoos someone else lives to regret

In making my story, I've ignored (for too long), how it's negatively effected yours, and now we both are paying for it: you, in experience, and me, in guilt and regret.

Cooley's vocal in this is also astonishing. Positively Costello-esque (only better), in managing these long, long lines, and maintaining a melody throughout.

Much has been made about Cooley's stonecutting; how long it takes him to compose and release a song, especially after the relative abundance of English Oceans and American Band. But, when the result is as magnificent as this song, man, give me one of these every blue moon or so, and I will be very, very happy, and try to tamp down my own greed for wanting more.

This MAY not be autobiographical at all. But, if it is, this one seems to come from someplace deep, a place of profound self-examination and assessment, and one of the most powerful lyrics he's ever done. In the last weeks since the recording went on to Archive, and I downloaded it, I've listened to the song probably five or six times a day, and wake up with it in my head. I tend to be relatively obsessive with things I fall for, and this, man, I've fallen for, hard.

It's a brave and brilliant piece of songwriting.

Thank you for getting me excited about new DBT music.

Oh, my pleasure! The five songs I've heard: Shake & Pine (a live version from Seattle is now up on archive.org), We Will Never Wake You Up in the Morning, Welcome 2 Club XIII, The Driver, and this song bode really, really well for a deep, brilliant record.

I am sure, if the remaining material is along these lines, that some will speak of a divergence from the "political", but it would, I believe, be an oversimplification of both the new material and the last few records. Regardless, these are some of the best LYRICS either of the guys have ever written, and 10+ years down with this lineup, they sound like they are dwelling inside each other's heads, musically.

I am really excited, too.

When I was looking for the video of “We Will Never…” to transcribe, I happened upon my recording of “Last Hope” and was reminded of how great that one is. One of Patterson’s rare but always excellent power-pop songs. As others discussed here at the time, it’s also reminiscent of Craig Finn in some ways. I don’t know if that song is intended for this record or some other project, but I hope we get to hear it again soon.

[beantownbubba]

Thanks, MM. Your enthusiasm for the "Wake You Up" lyrics is completely justified.

[Clams]

[beantownbubba]

Hell yeah!

[Mundane Mayhem]

Drove to work today repeating the song on YouTube because it hasn't landed on the streaming services yet. The Perils of Fanboyhood.

[Clams]

Drove to work today repeating the song on YouTube because it hasn't landed on the streaming services yet. The Perils of Fanboyhood.

the struggle is real

[John A Arkansawyer]

That's a hell of a bass line, too.

[Mundane Mayhem]

Drove to work today repeating the song on YouTube because it hasn't landed on the streaming services yet. The Perils of Fanboyhood.

the struggle is real

And now I begin my drive home and it still isn't on Tidal!

[Iowan]

That fucking rips

[Iowan]

NM

[Drop D]

EZB sycopating on the cymbal bells to stand out from the wall of sound horns, brilliant!