Isbell SOTW # 8 - In a Razor Town

[Clams]

...there ain’t no way to fly, with her hanging on your feet...

The first time I really noticed "In a Razor Town" was when I saw the DBT documentary Secret to a Happy Ending. I bet you remember the scene. Near the end of the movie, after all the turmoil within the band had come to a head, we see Jason onstage at one of his first 400 Unit shows mournfully singing “Say your last goodbyes, make it short and sweet,” and then the song plays in the background as he walks off through the woods by himself talking about leaving the Truckers and splitting with Shonna. It’s such a glorious bummer of a moment in the movie, but the song - full of sorrow, blues, melancholy and soul - fits it to a T.

Razor Town is on Jason's 2007 solo debut Sirens of the Ditch. It’s a sad story set in a dead end town about a guy and a girl in a dead end relationship. The song seems to be narrated by a third person who's talking to the guy, or it could be the guy talking to himself. He tells us the girl's had it rough and their relationship seems damaged beyond repair. You can feel the emptiness of the town. But the guy and girl cling to each other because neither has anyone else to turn to or anywhere else to go. The guy knows he should split before the girl and the razor town bleed him dry, but smart choices aren't always made and in the end we don’t know what he does.

Musically the song is spare – Jason plays guitar and dobro and sings while Shonna plays bass and sings backup. They are the only two listed in the credits. Imagine what it must’ve been like for the two of them to record it, to sing those last few verses together, with their separation and the band's situation hanging over them. I'd guess that some of the song has to be about their relationship but I don't really know.

Have a listen:




In concert, the 400 Unit fills the song out nicely with a more jangly guitar sound and some keyboards, and Jason adds some guitar flourishes and really sings the shit out if it. Here’s my favorite version of the song, from the 2010 show that was streamed from Third & Lindsley in Nashville:
http://www.threedimesdown.com/music/04% ... 20Town.mp3
(It's a bummer that this song has disappeared from Jason's post-Southeastern setlists).


In 2012 Jason stirred up a controversy when he tweeted (drunkenly) that country singer Dirks Bentley was a "douchebag" for "ripping off" the Razor Town melody on his hit song “Home.” The ensuing Isbell-Bentley twitter war made headlines and Jason reportedly followed through with a legal claim. According to a 2013 profile of Jason in the NY Times Magazine, Bentley was eventually absolved (legally at least) of plagiarizing the song. Legalities aside though, the question remains whether Dirk stole the song. Decide for yourself:



One final thought: Let's suppose Jason decided to write a sequel to "Razor Town" - about the same guy if he stuck it out in the small town but eventually split with the girl. What would it sound like?
She said, "It's none of my business but it breaks my heart." Dropped a dozen cheap roses in my shopping cart.


Here are the full lyrics to "In a Razor Town":

In a razor town
you take whoever you think you can keep around.
There's an echoed sound
that permeates the sidewalk where she shuffles 'round.
It's a big machine.
It used to be the avenue of changing dreams.
She's a lonely thing,
sweeping up the glitter while she pulls the strings.

Take a long last look
before she turns to stone
At what the last man took
and what was long, long gone.

The way it used to be...
I wasn't there to see it working properly.
Now it seems to me
both of you are suffering.
I've heard her say
that you're the only reason she's alive today.
I just turned away
thinking maybe she was right.

So say your last goodbye.
Make it short and sweet
There ain't no way to fly
with her hanging on your feet.

Let her go out if she wants to.
If she don't, go out yourself.
Don't take sorry for an answer
unless you really want what's left.

'Cause in a razor town
the only thing that matters tends to bring you down.
There's no way around,
but maybe you can barrel through
cause a razor ain't no good for you.

[Tequila Cowboy]

After the first tier, best of the best of Jason's songs like Elephant, Dress Blues, Danko/Manuel, Decoration Day, Outfit and a few others this one fits for me in the group just under that. It's a favorite for sure. With the talk we've had lately about the types of songs Jason writes best this one is a great example. Jason knows small towns and he knows the highs and lows of the heart be it the love of a girl, the search for self or family. His best songs really all come from that IMHO. Years ago I thought about how this song was musical kin to Slobberbone's I'll be Damned. Both look at a relationship taking place in a small town, both deal with a girl who may or may not leave and a protagonist that wants the relationship to end. In the Slobberbone song the relationship ends and the protagonist realizes he's made a terrible mistake. In Jason's song we don't get that far but it probably wouldn't be a mistake.

Musically this one has one of Jason's best melodies. It has some of what he likes to do now with the up and down through the scales but that never gets sing-songy as some of his recent work has. His vocal on the Sirens version is a fairly straight performance with a touch of sadness but the Live from Alabama version has a plaintiveness the studio cut doesn't have. Jason is nearly pleading at the end

Let her go out if she wants to.
If she don't, go out yourself.
Don't take sorry for an answer
unless you really want what's left

and then more straightforward

'Cause in a razor town
the only thing that matters tends to bring you down.
There's no way around,
but maybe you can barrel through
cause a razor ain't no good for you.

There are no answers here good or bad. The relationship is what it is and while we can guess what the right answer is we aren't told, in contrast with the Slobberbone song where we get lament.

I think I misspoke above when I said this one falls just outside of the top tier of Jason's writing. After going through this one critically here, and listening to both commercially released versions a couple of times, I think it really does belong with his finest work. This is a damn fine song.

[Cole Younger]

Nice job Clams.

This was on of the first Jason songs I ever got hooked by. It seems like I heard this song while Jason was still a Trucker but I'm not sure about that. I liked it so much that learned to play it on guitar right away. I remember playing it one night when a bunch of us were sitting around a fire and a few were taking turns playing songs. I played this one and everybody was going, "wow. Who sings that?" I told them and of course they had no idea who Jason Isbell was.

The part in TSTAHE where it cuts from Jason on stage playing this to a picture of him with the Truckers at the end of a show all taking a bow as he sings, "Say your last goodbye. Make it short and sweet.." is one of the the more heart wrenching parts of the movie.

This is one of my favorites of his and I wish he still played it.

[jbshelton]

Hands down my favorite song of Jason's. Beautifully heartbreaking, and I love the way the protagonist wants to believe that things may work out, but knows deep down it won't. I can't break this song down any better than whoever wrote this did, so I'll just share it here.

The town: The song is set in an uncomfortably common place: the dying small town. Once the backbone of this country, small towns have fallen victim to the economic advantages of cities, which have exploded in growth fueled by small town refugees. Most relevant to this song, those who leave tend to be the skilled, mobile, and economically advantaged, leaving the disadvantaged to fend for themselves. What's left is a community without the economic engine it needs to thrive or even subsist. And so it dies.

Evidence from this permeates the song. It "used to be the avenue of changing dreams," suggesting the town was once a much greater force than it is now. The "big machine" that was the town is now only "echoes" that permeate the town, reinforcing the lost glory of the town and a revealing a forlorn consciousness of that loss by those who remain.

The girl: Jason is a 3rd person narrator describing a relationship between a guy and girl and giving advice to the guy. The girl has a sketchy past who was "saved" by the guy Jason is singing to ("you're the only reason she's alive today"). The guy once had a bright future, and could still escape, but for the time being, he's rooted in a bad town with a bad girl. Their relationship is deteriorating ("and now it seems to me/ both of you are suffering").

The question that juts out is simply this: do you stand with the girl and the dying town out of a sense of duty or obligation, or leave it behind? If you leave, you reawaken your bright future and freedom, but feel guilt for leaving the girl and town behind knowing they both need you to survive. If you stay, you stay knowing the "razor" that is the town will bleed you dry, and further, that the relationship with the girl effectively ends your future ("ain't not way for you to fly/with her hanging on your feet").

So what's the answer? Jason ends with ambivalence. The bluntness of "cause a razor ain't no good for you" is tempered by Jason's poignant advice: you can stay with the girl, but it'll come at great cost to you ("don't take sorry for an answer [forgive her fatal faults], 'less you really want what's left). And while the possibility of "barreling through" is raised, there really is no way around the consequences of staying. Staying lets the girl and town live a little longer, but kills you.

[adiantumpedatum]

Beautiful work.

This song is one of those that's solidly second-tier for me, and I'm puzzling over why. I agree that this is a fine melody, I agree that the arrangement is perfectly spare, I agree that that version from 3rd & Lindsley 2010 is HOLY SHIT a good version. I guess I just don't find myself relating to this song quite as much as some of you, I'm not sure why.

At first I was going to point to gender matters, but I'm in love with some pretty macho Isbell songs. Deco Day, GDLL, Speed Trap, hell, even Super 8. There's nothing specifically male about the crush of a dead-end, settling-for-seconds relationship in a small town.

What I think it is, for me, is the absence of real concrete details. Smells, sounds, colors. I need to know how she sat on a bar stool (cross-legged?) or some detail about how this girl looked (eyes as big as stars?) I love "sweeping up the glitter while she pulls the strings," but I don't quite know what it means. I feel like I know this type of girl-- sort of. There isn't quite enough detail for me to be totally sure I know what he's talking about, other than the details about the town. Is she broken from drugs? Abuse? Bad self esteem? All three?

For some reason I'd never associated "used to be the avenue of changing dreams" as being about the town, so thanks, JBShelton, for that. Great line.

We all have our preferences for how much exposition a song gives us. I love Live Oak and Elephant for the richness of the details he chooses-- and Razor Town just seems a little light in that way. Still a damn fine song.

[Clams]

What I think it is, for me, is the absence of real concrete details. Smells, sounds, colors. I need to know how she sat on a bar stool (cross-legged?) or some detail about how this girl looked (eyes as big as stars?) I love "sweeping up the glitter while she pulls the strings," but I don't quite know what it means. I feel like I know this type of girl-- sort of. There isn't quite enough detail for me to be totally sure I know what he's talking about, other than the details about the town. Is she broken from drugs? Abuse? Bad self esteem? All three?

One person's lack of details allows another to fill them in. This is a song where the lyrics paint around the edges and the listener comes up with his/her version of the rest. There's more than enough there to let you know exactly what's going on, then your imagination fills in the rest. And so does the music. I'm not saying that Jason's wearing any influences on his sleeve here, but in this way the song is more Cooley than Patterson. Less details more color.

[adiantumpedatum]

Less details more color.

That's perfect. That's exactly how is songwriting is lately-- all the right details, but a little short on color. Used to be a much more colorful writer.

[Tequila Cowboy]

I'm not saying that Jason's wearing any influences on his sleeve here, but in this way the song is more Cooley than Patterson. Less details more color.

Absolutely Clams. Well done. Jason has always fallen somewhere between the two in terms of his writing some veering more towards Patterson (Decoration Day, Elephant) with more alliteration and others (Codeine, Live Oak and this song) more towards Cooley. I think the very skill of being able to do both at various times is a large part of why Jason is such a gifted songwriter.

[lotusamerica]

Love this song, too. In my rankings,for some reason it stayed as a triple instead of a home run and I don't know why, because I've always considered it one of his best. Maybe it undersells itself enough that when ranking it didn't make it over the top for some reason. Have to reconsider that.

I'll try to avoid TMI, but I relate to a lot of Jason's songs for good and not-so-good reasons. Although he's quite a bit younger than me, it seems like he's gone through some similar patterns a bit ahead of me and so when his songs have been released, they've often hit at just the right moment for me. One of those patterns is his love life. Goddamn Lonely Love hit around the time my marriage was hitting the rocks, when I would often spend nights up alone drinking and thinking about what love might be and what it actually was in my life. Daylight when I was deciding to move on, and maybe for that reason alone I liked it a lot more than most people around here seemed to, as it was a bit of a call to action. Razor Town came along when there was a chance of reconciliation that felt comforting but ultimately almost assuredly would have led back to the same unresolved and probably unresolvable problems. And that one line probably shaped my life. There were a lot of "sorrys" on both our parts. But the question wouldn't leave my mind if I really wanted what was left.

It's kind of ridiculous in a way that a rock song like this, or like the many that touch us, should have such an outsized impact. It's a few simple chords, a little melody and some rhyming thoughts, formed and half-formed. And of course it's not just Jason - in the Truckers catalogue alone, there are many Patterson and Cooley songs that ring so true as to be almost scary - if not always the exact details, then the sentiment at least. It's nearly impossible to explain to people who hear music as background filler, or radio familiarity or just fun singalong or make you move tunes.

For me, it's gone on a bit with Jason. Self-titled matched a dark period that encompassed and followed my divorce. Nothing from Here We Rest hit me in the same kind of way, though I liked many of the songs. My relationship to Southeastern is complicated, and maybe the most telling is how much I hated Relatively Easy when the record first came out and how much I've reconciled myself with it and come to believe in it since. I didn't need to go all the way to sobriety the way Jason did, but I needed to remove the angst and rumination from my days and nights and find peace again, and have done so, knock on wood, for the most part. And I found someone who makes every day better - so while I miss the sturm and drang in Jason's earlier work, I relate to where it seems he's at now and am happy to go down this path and see where it leads. It seems crazy that I'm not sure if things would have gone this way if it weren't for that line from Razor Town that wouldn't stop echoing around in my head during those moments where things could have gone one way or another, but I really don't know if they would have, and that seems like a testament to the power a song can have, and this one in particular happened to have for me.

[Cole Younger]

Love this song, too. In my rankings,for some reason it stayed as a triple instead of a home run and I don't know why, because I've always considered it one of his best. Maybe it undersells itself enough that when ranking it didn't make it over the top for some reason. Have to reconsider that.

I'll try to avoid TMI, but I relate to a lot of Jason's songs for good and not-so-good reasons. Although he's quite a bit younger than me, it seems like he's gone through some similar patterns a bit ahead of me and so when his songs have been released, they've often hit at just the right moment for me. One of those patterns is his love life. Goddamn Lonely Love hit around the time my marriage was hitting the rocks, when I would often spend nights up alone drinking and thinking about what love might be and what it actually was in my life. Daylight when I was deciding to move on, and maybe for that reason alone I liked it a lot more than most people around here seemed to, as it was a bit of a call to action. Razor Town came along when there was a chance of reconciliation that felt comforting but ultimately almost assuredly would have led back to the same unresolved and probably unresolvable problems. And that one line probably shaped my life. There were a lot of "sorrys" on both our parts. But the question wouldn't leave my mind if I really wanted what was left.

It's kind of ridiculous in a way that a rock song like this, or like the many that touch us, should have such an outsized impact. It's a few simple chords, a little melody and some rhyming thoughts, formed and half-formed. And of course it's not just Jason - in the Truckers catalogue alone, there are many Patterson and Cooley songs that ring so true as to be almost scary - if not always the exact details, then the sentiment at least. It's nearly impossible to explain to people who hear music as background filler, or radio familiarity or just fun singalong or make you move tunes.

For me, it's gone on a bit with Jason. Self-titled matched a dark period that encompassed and followed my divorce. Nothing from Here We Rest hit me in the same kind of way, though I liked many of the songs. My relationship to Southeastern is complicated, and maybe the most telling is how much I hated Relatively Easy when the record first came out and how much I've reconciled myself with it and come to believe in it since. I didn't need to go all the way to sobriety the way Jason did, but I needed to remove the angst and rumination from my days and nights and find peace again, and have done so, knock on wood, for the most part. And I found someone who makes every day better - so while I miss the sturm and drang in Jason's earlier work, I relate to where it seems he's at now and am happy to go down this path and see where it leads. It seems crazy that I'm not sure if things would have gone this way if it weren't for that line from Razor Town that wouldn't stop echoing around in my head during those moments where things could have gone one way or another, but I really don't know if they would have, and that seems like a testament to the power a song can have, and this one in particular happened to have for me.

I appreciate you sharing that. I feel the same way about these songs and I think most here do as well.

I started to include something in my original post in this thread and decided against it because, honestly I feel like I do this sort of thing too often around here. I don't want to be one of those people who has a story for every dang thing. And I share a lot more personal stuff here than I do in my day to day life with really anybody. I'm not sure what that says but it's the truth.

Anyway, In a Razor Town is all too close to home for me too. Literally and figuratively. Almost exactly ten years ago I began what ended up a realationship exactly like the one described in this song. I had recently gotten out of the Marine Corps and recently gotten divorced. I was navigating a really dark period in my life. I've told the story here before and won't rehash it. Anyone who doesn't know that and cares for more details need only read the write up I did for Killers and Stars.

Suffice it to say, things weren't going great and I wasn't going about handling that in the best way. I was lonely, angry, uncertain about my future, and drinking way too much. Then I met a girl and things seemed like maybe they were starting to look up. She pushed all my buttons in terms of physical attraction in a serious way and she was fun. But it was evident almost immediately she had her own problems. I was NOT the right guy for her and I knew it and I knew she wasn't right for me. But in the short term she didn't seem to want anything other than kind of being friends with benefits. That of course began to change. I had some pretty thick walls up after coming home from the Corps and getting divorced on top of that. But I was conflicted because I did enjoy her company, I wasn't alone anymore, and yes, I enjoyed the benefits. What complicated matters even more was the fact that she had a five year old son who really liked me and I liked him a lot as well. But at the time, I wasn't a great influence even though I tried to be on my best behavior around him.

Time went by and she was beginning to let me know she wanted something more serious with me. I remember going out with her and a group of friends the night of her birthday. Her mama kept her son over night. We went out drinking, we went back to her place. She dropped me off at my truck the next morning and we sat there and talked for awhile. During that conversation she told me, "I can't keep my heart out of this and I want more with you but I feel like we both know this will never be more than it is right now." And she was right. Part of me felt the same way but mostly, while I liked her, I knew I wasn't ready for anything serious, was NOT ready for a child, my own or hers. And I didn't want to just settle right back down. She lived in a town about forty miles from my hometown. And while my hometown ain't Athens or any of the places a lot of y'all live, it ain't where she was from and living either. Ashburn, Ga is a Razor a Town if there has ever been one. I knew I couldn't continue on course. And I knew it was going to be tough to end it because I would miss her in a lot of ways, I would miss her son, but mostly because it would mean I would be alone again. As selfish as that was, it's the truth.

We had an argument one day a couple months later and I just came right out and told her that I wasn't what she was looking for. I wasn't very nice about it because, like I said, I wasn't the best person at that point in my life. I've come a long way since then. But I had to get out of that relationship and I knew if I waited any longer I might not be able to do it. It was a dead end. In a dead end town.

I ended it. We talked a few more times and I even started wondering if I had made the wrong decision. I did apologize for the way I had treated her at the end and thank God for that.

Fast forward to around this time last year. I had long since come out of that dark period of my life. I had made a lot of positive changes and everything was going great. Still is. But I ran into someone with who, she and I had shared a mutual friendship. Had not seen this person in nearly ten years. I asked about her. Turns out she stayed in that razor town. She had met someone else and gotten married. She had two more sons with her new husband. But she had gotten sick. Cervical cancer this mutual friend told me. And before I could ask anything else, I was given the news she had died.

I really don't know how to tie this story up because that's just kind of the end. It floor boarded me. It still does when I think about it. I feel terrible that happened to her. And I feel bad that I feel a sense of reliefe that I made the decision to end our relationship and didn't have to go through what I would have had to go through.

Cause a razor ain't no good for you.

[Clams]

Incredible how these songs (Isbell, DBT and so many others) touch us all so deeply. I guess that's what keeps us coming back for so long.

[Beebs]

Anyone have any insight about the title?

Is "razor town" a term anyone is familiar with outside of this song? Cause I've never come across it and don't really understand it.

I recall an exchange years back when Smitty realized some of us had never heard the term "deeper in" and schooled us up. Just wondering if this is one of those situations.

[Cole Younger]

Anyone have any insight about the title?

Is "razor town" a term anyone is familiar with outside of this song? Cause I've never come across it and don't really understand it.

I recall an exchange years back when Smitty realized some of us had never heard the term "deeper in" and schooled us up. Just wondering if this is one of those situations.

I had never heard it before either. Just a place that bleeds you dry is what I'm thinking. Not the cleanest metaphor but it works.

[lotusamerica]

Thanks for sharing all that, Cole. I know it can sometimes leave an unsettled feeling to bare your soul online and then hear crickets, so just wanted to say thanks.

[Cole Younger]

Thanks for sharing all that, Cole. I know it can sometimes leave an unsettled feeling to bare your soul online and then hear crickets, so just wanted to say thanks.

I really appreciate that. I know it's probably one of those deals where people just don't really know what to say. I can understand that but both you and Clams have had some nice things to say and I appreciate it.

[dbtfan4life]

Always been one of my favorites