Every Single Storied Flameout-New Cooley Song

[305 Engine]

Its a gem.

[John A Arkansawyer]

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...

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

I've counted syllables and beat time and still can't explain how he slows down those last three lines so much. It's where he puts the vocal spaces.

[beantownbubba]

Cooley's vocal in this is also astonishing. Positively Costello-esque (only better), in managing these long, long lines, and maintaining a melody throughout.
I've counted syllables and beat time and still can't explain how he slows down those last three lines so much. It's where he puts the vocal spaces.

I would call Cooley's phrasing a natural wonder except he probably works pretty hard to make it sound so easy and so right. It's always been exceptional and is a big part of what he brings to his songs beyond the writing. He's in pretty select company, too. When one talks phrasing, Dylan almost always leads the conversation. Costello is usually in there. Maybe Joni Mitchell. Then you pretty much get to jazz and standards singers like Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald. I'm sure I'm leaving a few out but it's pretty elite company no matter how you look at it.

[litdimly]

I just had my first listen on Tidal and the enthusiasm in this thread is completely justified. The phrasing - yes, brilliant, reminiscent of Tom T. Hall to me.

Cooley and Glenn don't have to worry about me trying to sing along. More words in three minutes than I say in most hours.

[Iowan]

I’m on a drive just cranking this and Club 13 back and forth. Between the energized performances here and the excellent Freed artwork it feels like a euphoric return to form.

Which feels weird to say because I thought AB and The Unraveling were really good albums.

But I feel good after listening to these songs.

[schlanky]

I'm digging Wes Freed's artwork for the video. Same stretch of road from the SRO cover with Eleanor perched on what's left of the old tree. Horn players in the foreground foreshadow the sounds in the song. The car crash in the back makes me think of Days of Graduation.

This song paired with The Driver makes an interesting combo. It wasn't so scary when you were young and too inexperienced to realize that you were one belt loop away, or maybe you were just too drunk to know. But it all changes when you're older and can see that some of those close calls were closer than you realized at the time. And now you see your kid growing up navigating all that in even more dangerous times---but it's hard to know the line after you consider all the crazy, fucked up shit you lived through.

[Cole Younger]

I'm digging Wes Freed's artwork for the video. Same stretch of road from the SRO cover with Eleanor perched on what's left of the old tree. Horn players in the foreground foreshadow the sounds in the song. The car crash in the back makes me think of Days of Graduation.

This song paired with The Driver makes an interesting combo. It wasn't so scary when you were young and too inexperienced to realize that you were one belt loop away, or maybe you were just too drunk to know. But it all changes when you're older and can see that some of those close calls were closer than you realized at the time. And now you see your kid growing up navigating all that in even more dangerous times---but it's hard to know the line after you consider all the crazy, fucked up shit you lived through.

Man that’s some pretty good insight right there. When my daughter was little, I’m talking about three or four, he seemed so dang overprotective to me. I would roll my eyes and he would say, “I know. It when you get my age you see all the possible danger in a way that you don’t when you’re younger.” I was too dumb to realize at the time that I was reacting to the same thing but in a different way. When she was born I became a much less patient person and suddenly had a much shorter fuse. Not with her. With other people. The world suddenly seemed a lot scarier than it had been before I had this sweet little girl to take care of.

She’s nine now and sweet as ever but now I see different kinds of danger. She’s not into boys yet but it’s coming. She talks about some boy at school who hit a walk off home run in his baseball game and told everybody it was for her. She said she didn’t want it to be for her but she talks about him enough that I see through it.

Cooley got personal on this one and all of us who are parents can surely get where he’s coming from.

[beantownbubba]

Was at a small Mother's Day gathering yesterday including several members of my family through my son's marriage (i.e. related to his wife) none of whom are DBT fans. Out of the blue, the conversation turns to a dad talking about how his own misspent youth is affecting his ability to advise/deal with his teenage son. The convo could have been the lyrics to ESSF. I piped up w/ "Cooley of Drive By Truckers just wrote a great song about that!" which led to one of those embarrassing pregnant pauses that are followed by the conversation totally ignoring the previous comment Nonetheless, while this experience is not quite universal it's pretty close and Cooley absolutely nails it.

[glennrwordman]

It wasn't so scary when you were young and too inexperienced to realize that you were one belt loop away, or maybe you were just too drunk to know. But it all changes when you're older and can see that some of those close calls were closer than you realized at the time. And now you see your kid growing up navigating all that in even more dangerous times---but it's hard to know the line after you consider all the crazy, fucked up shit you lived through.

I think the longer you live, the more you find that some people don't live through it. And the thought of someone you care for more than anything in the world being one of them has to bring a person up short.