Drive-By Truckers

[PopTodd]

I'd give my left nut to be able to write like Jason.

 

You want to grow up to paint houses like me, a trailer in my yard till you're 23

You want to be old after 42 years, keep dropping the hammer and grinding the gears

 

Well, I used to go out in a Mustang, a 302 Mach One in green.

Me and your Mama made you in the back and I sold it to buy her a ring.

And I learned not to say much of nothing and I figured you already know

but in case you don

[poppydawn]

My favorite:

 

Dropped acid, Blue Oyster Cult concert, fourteen years old,

And I thought them lasers were a spider chasing me.

On my way home, got pulled over in Rogersville Alabama, with a half-ounce of weed and a case of Sterling Big Mouth.

My buddy Gene was driving, he just barely turned sixteen.

And I'd like to say, "I'm sorry", but we lived to tell about it

And we lived to do a whole lot more crazy, stupid, shit.

 

And I never saw Lynyrd Skynyrd but I sure saw Molly Hatchet

With 38 Special and the Johnny Van Zant Band.

 

One night when I was seventeen, I drank a fifth of vodka, on an empty stomach, then drove over to a friend's house. And I backed my car between his parent's Cadillacs without a scratch.

Then crawled to the back door and slithered threw the key hole, and sneaked up the stairs

And puked in the toilet.

I passed out and nearly drowned but his sister, DD, pulled me out.

 

And I never saw Lynyrd Skynyrd but I sure saw Molly Hatchet

And the band that I was in played "The Boy's are Back in Town".

 

Skynyrd was set to play Huntsville, Alabama, in the spring of 77, I had a ticket but it got cancelled.

So, the show, it was rescheduled for the "Street Survivors Tour".

And the rest, as they say, is history.

 

So I never saw Lynyrd Skynyrd but I sure saw Ozzy Osbourne with Randy Rhoads in '82

Right before that plane crash.

And I never saw Lynyrd Skynyrd but I sure saw AC/DC

With Bon Scott singing, "Let There Be Rock Tour".

 

With Bon Scott singing, LET THERE BE ROCK!

[Mrs. Peel]

'Outfit' is my favorite Isbell song. Too bad Jason's out of the band. I see that as a huge mistake on their part. The Truckers before Jason were great. The Truckers with Jason were freaking amazing. I hope he gets the recognition that he deserves on his own. 'Dress Blues' is an absolutely incredible song. Most people can only wish to write one thing in their entire careers that touches almost every Jason Isbell lyric.

I just saw Jason with his new band last week and when he broke into 'Outfit' as his second song of the night I was overjoyed.

 

Dress Blues

 

What can you see from your window?

I can't see anything from mine.

Flags on the side of the highway

and scripture on grocery store signs.

Maybe eighteen was too early.

Maybe thirty or forty is too.

Did you get your chance to make peace with the man

before he sent down his angels for you?

 

Mamas and grandmamas love you

'cause that's all they know how to do.

You never planned on the bombs in the sand

or sleeping in your dress blues.

 

Your wife said this all would be funny

when you came back home in a week.

You'd turn twenty-two and we'd celebrate you

in a bar or a tent by the creek.

Your baby would just about be here.

Your very last tour would be up

but you won't be back. They're all dressing in black

drinking sweet tea in styrofoam cups.

 

Mamas and grandmamas love you.

American boys hate to lose.

You never planned on the bombs in the sand

or sleeping in your dress blues.

 

Now the high school gymnasium's ready,

full of flowers and old legionnaires.

Nobody showed up to protest,

just sniffle and stare.

But there's red, white, and blue in the rafters

and there's silent old men from the corps.

What did they say when they shipped you away

to fight somebody's Hollywood war?

 

Nobody here could forget you.

You showed us what we had to lose.

You never planned on the bombs in the sand

or sleeping in your dress blues.

 

No, no you never planned on the bombs in the sand

or sleeping in your dress blues.

[PopTodd]

'Outfit' is my favorite Isbell song. Too bad Jason's out of the band. I see that as a huge mistake on their part. The Truckers before Jason were great. The Truckers with Jason were freaking amazing. I hope he gets the recognition that he deserves on his own. 'Dress Blues' is an absolutely incredible song. Most people can only wish to write one thing in their entire careers that touches almost every Jason Isbell lyric.

I just saw Jason with his new band last week and when he broke into 'Outfit' as his second song of the night I was overjoyed.

 

Dress Blues

 

What can you see from your window?

I can't see anything from mine.

Flags on the side of the highway

and scripture on grocery store signs.

Maybe eighteen was too early.

Maybe thirty or forty is too.

Did you get your chance to make peace with the man

before he sent down his angels for you?

 

Mamas and grandmamas love you

'cause that's all they know how to do.

You never planned on the bombs in the sand

or sleeping in your dress blues.

 

Your wife said this all would be funny

when you came back home in a week.

You'd turn twenty-two and we'd celebrate you

in a bar or a tent by the creek.

Your baby would just about be here.

Your very last tour would be up

but you won't be back. They're all dressing in black

drinking sweet tea in styrofoam cups.

 

Mamas and grandmamas love you.

American boys hate to lose.

You never planned on the bombs in the sand

or sleeping in your dress blues.

 

Now the high school gymnasium's ready,

full of flowers and old legionnaires.

Nobody showed up to protest,

just sniffle and stare.

But there's red, white, and blue in the rafters

and there's silent old men from the corps.

What did they say when they shipped you away

to fight somebody's Hollywood war?

 

Nobody here could forget you.

You showed us what we had to lose.

You never planned on the bombs in the sand

or sleeping in your dress blues.

 

No, no you never planned on the bombs in the sand

or sleeping in your dress blues.

 

That song completely messes me up every time I hear it.

May be the best song I've heard in the last 10 years (from a strict, songwriting point of view).

[Mrs. Peel]

The recorded version is a little lackluster in my opinion, but I can't hear the live version without tearing up, even after the thousandth time.

[bsr8j]

The recorded version is a little lackluster in my opinion, but I can't hear the live version without tearing up, even after the thousandth time.

 

Of the three versions of the song (Jason solo/acoustic, Jason solo/electric, Jason with band on album), the solo/electric combo really does it for me. I like the other versions, but I love

version. It's just beautiful. On a related note, I'm not sure if I'm a bigger fan of the "somebody else's" vs. "Hollywood" war lyric. Either way it's an incredible song.