RIP David Allen Coe

[Inky_Wretch]

Honestly, I'd forgotten he was still alive.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/30/...e_code=1.e1A.pKwF.ST9upzsoj7WZ&smid=url-share

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

Bout time he gets called by his name

 

[da man]

He hung around as long as we let him.

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

what's the cause of death? Getting run over by a damned old train?

 

[Huggy]

what's the cause of death? Getting run over by a damned old train?

Well, he was drunk the day his mom got out of prison

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

Looks like Jesus had his final judgement day.

 

[Batman]

He hung around as long as we let him.

... let him, let him ...

 

[BitterYoungMatador2]

Jokes aside, he wrote the song that should be the official fight song of this industry - Take This Job and Shove It.

 

[Driftwood]

The fish were biting today.

 

[Driftwood]

In all seriousness, if I actually sat down and wrote a list of my favorite songs, The Ride would certainly be on it somewhere.

 

[dixiehack]

Surprised we have gotten this far without mentioning the underground albums that were considered shockingly racist a half-century ago, much less now. His flimsy excuses of satire hold up even worse in the light of the present day.

He was associated with some of the cornerstone songs of country music but I find it hard to pick the corn from the turd.

 

[Slacker]

It was mentioned in the obit, along with Coe backpedaling ...

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, Mr. Coe released two albums — “Nothing Sacred” and “Underground Album" — that were later reissued as a compilation called “18 X-Rated Hits.” In 2000, the music writer Neil Strauss of The New York Times described the material as “among the most racist, misogynist, homophobic and obscene songs recorded by a popular songwriter.”

For years, Mr. Coe distanced himself from those songs. “Anyone that would look at me and say I was a racist would have to be out of their mind,” he insisted in a 2004 interview with the site Swampland.

 

[Driftwood]

Linda Lovelace agrees

 

[SixToe]

Heard “The Ride” driving through Nashville today, a wee coincidence. Fantastic song.

Drunk screaming “GOT RUNNED OVER BY A DAMNED OL’ TRAIN” with friends and strangers at 2ish or later in a bar (or three) is a forever memory that might kill me today but I’m glad I have it.

 

[Driftwood]

Heard “The Ride” driving through Nashville today, a wee coincidence. Fantastic song.

Drunk screaming “GOT RUNNED OVER BY A DAMNED OL’ TRAIN” with friends and strangers at 2ish or later in a bar (or three) is a forever memory that might kill me today but I’m glad I have it.

Been there, done that. More than once. Doubt it was 2, though.

 

[No. 2]

Wild, yet not in the least bit surprising, story about efforts from those in his universe to cash in on his death:

David Allan Coe’s New Posthumous Album Comes with Serious...

For what it's worth, I doubt the album will be any good. He is rough on the Moonshine Bandit's cover of "Take This Job and Shove It" that was recorded and produced by the same people around the same time this album was recorded. I saw him live a few years before that in 2015. I was on a work trip and saw that he was playing a local bar, so decided to go on a whim. The experience made for a fun story, but he was not good on stage either.

 

[wicked]

I find it hard to pick the corn from the turd.

You got a way with words, man. This will live rent-free in my head for the rest of the afternoon.

 

[HanSenSE]

Jokes aside, he wrote the song that should be the official fight song of this industry - Take This Job and Shove It.

 

[dixiehack]

You got a way with words, man. This will live rent-free in my head for the rest of the afternoon.

Ain’t my original, but thanks.

 

[X-Hack]

I remember being kind of surprised to learn that he wasn't actually a Texan -- he was from Akron.

Underground albums aside, he could get pretty bigoted in his mainstream stuff too -- for example, busting out the hard "r' in "If That Ain't Country" (though you now have to look pretty hard to find that original version). Still, "The Ride" is one of my favorite songs, and at our rehearsal dinner, my wife's college roommates from UNC all sang a version of "You Never Even Called Me By My Name" that they rewrote to be about her. It was kind of unlistenable and made me cringe but it's an entertaining memory.