I don't believe he does; his seventies output would likely be recognized as being on the same level as his more respectable peers if it wasn't for his narcissism. I'm not even sure his "underground" records hurt him as much as him overstating his relationships with more established artists (re:Johnny Cash & Waylon Jennings' respective autobiographies). There's certainly some irony in the fact that despite being perhaps the only authentic "outlaw" operating on Music Row at the time, he was rejected by the most prominent faces of the (capital O)"Outlaw" movement.Swamp wrote:Oh and why does David Allen Coe get a pass?
If you consider that, it makes his XXX/racist records seem less of a misstep. If you look at his post-early 80's career, he's got by on his biker bar-centric base, which is more likely to consider the repulsive Nothing Sacred shit as a net positive rather than some kind of regretful fuckup. I think this is further proof that despite DAC repeatedly trying to explain those records as being satirical or even outright disavowing them in print and in song ("Song for the Year 2000"), he still has them for sale on his website (or at least did until a couple years back).
So yeah, IMO he doesn't get a "pass"; he just unwittingly traded in critical respect and mainstream acceptance for a permanent spot in the biker bar/southern rock circuit (or "ghetto", if you will). I also think "Willie, Waylon & Me" hurt him more than "N***** Fucker", which you can draw from that what you will. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
All the above is unfortunate because on their own merits those seventies records are killer and in addition to Coe's superb originals, he was also unsurpassed in his time when it came to choosing great but relatively obscure (particularly at that time) songwriters (Jerry Jeff, Guy Clark, Mickey Newbury, John Prine, etc).