A Song of Pain

I see that Hank Williams Jr. has a new song.  He'll do well with it; but many will say he is an unreconstructed outlaw because of it.

Perhaps it's worth taking a moment to remember what those outlaws stood for.  Here is a song by one of them, a man who knew how to be brutal, and who couldn't quite remember why he wasn't so entirely.  It's worth a few minutes of your time.

5 comments:

raven said...

Real country music.

Thanks, I almost forgot what country music was, what with the cliche ridden, pickup drivin' flag wavin' hard drinkin' cowboy hat wearing pop star crap coming from the "New Country" stations. Sorry, had to vent- "new Country" has done for country music what disco did for rock.......

Joseph W. said...

I didn't know anything about him, so once I got home from work, I poked around on YouTube to listen to some of his other work.

That was very...educational, Grim.

Grim said...

I imagine it was!

D.A.C. is someone who ought to be quoted very selectively. Still, he did do a few songs that are real classics (in addition to a number of songs that are doubtless best forgotten).

Raven,

Oddly enough, in his day D.A.C. had a big problem with people who said he "wasn't country." He wrote at least a couple of songs complaining about that.

Mark said...

All Coe wrote was a complaint.

Grim said...

You could say the same thing about any blues musician you care to name. It proves to be the case that a great deal of beauty comes from pain: indeed, the creation of beauty may be the reason for our capacity to experience pain so deeply.