London Homesick Blues - David Allan Coe

London Homesick Blues - David Allan Coe

3:00

Invictus (Means) Unconquered, 1981

Written by Gary P. Nunn, 1973

This country singalong, about a Texan getting pretty sick of London's chill and reserve, was made famous by Jerry Jeff Walker, but his version is live and nearly eight minutes.  Coe's version is easier to get down and keeps the easygoing swing and the catchy chorus ("I want to go home with the armadilla / Good country music from Amarilla and Abilene").  Nunn's lyric is witty and full of fun internal rhyme: "And I’ll substantiate the rumor that the English sense of humor / Is drier than the Texas sand." Coe leans into the humor without overdoing it, his drawl half-complaining, half-charmed.  My favorite line is a quietly clever one: "And where in the world is that English girl / I promised I would meet on the third floor?" It reveals a Texan lost in translation, counting floors American-style and winding up one level off.  It's a small joke, but a perfect one: homesickness rendered as cultural confusion.

Rock & Roll Holiday - David Allan Coe

Rock & Roll Holiday - David Allan Coe

2:07

Longhaired Redneck, 1976

Written by David Allan Coe

A self-referential song about playing country when your spirit is rock and roll.  "My friends are dying to make rock and roll stand / While we've been living in a country rock band."  But their genre is not too dissimilar: "Tune up the fiddle, rosin the bow / We could be the only country band / On a rock and roll show."  The song mentions departed giants like Marilyn Monroe, James Dean, Hendrix and Joplin; Coe urges us (and himself) to slow down and not meet the fates of those who died too young, even while reminding his band, "We've got to get up, no time to hit up / There's another crowd waiting for the music to play."