Accompanying Spotify Playlist:
https://open.spotify.com/user/nembonjwa/playlist/38gXlrqycRmci3Su9Qy9yw
Coe was born in Akron, Ohio, on September 6, 1939. His favorite singer as a child was Johnny Ace. After being sent to the Starr Commonwealth For Boys reform school at the age of 9, he spent much of the next 20 years in correctional facilities, including three years at the Ohio Penitentiary. Coe received encouragement to begin writing songs from Screamin' Jay Hawkins, with whom he had spent time in prison. Hawkins was a big influence on Coe's first two albums.
Recommended Listening Part 1: Penitentiary Blues (1970) - Tracks 1-9 of Spotify Playlist
https://open.spotify.com/user/nembonjwa/playlist/38gXlrqycRmci3Su9Qy9yw
Coe was born in Akron, Ohio, on September 6, 1939. His favorite singer as a child was Johnny Ace. After being sent to the Starr Commonwealth For Boys reform school at the age of 9, he spent much of the next 20 years in correctional facilities, including three years at the Ohio Penitentiary. Coe received encouragement to begin writing songs from Screamin' Jay Hawkins, with whom he had spent time in prison. Hawkins was a big influence on Coe's first two albums.
Recommended Listening Part 1: Penitentiary Blues (1970) - Tracks 1-9 of Spotify Playlist
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| 2288 Briner Ave, Akron, OH Coe's Boyhood Home |
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| Lima State Hospital for the Criminally Insane |
Recommended Listening Part 2: Requiem for a Harlequin (Recorded 1970)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K8LBJ0TQ44
Recommend Section 0:00-4:53
Skip the rest
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| Self-Described by Coe as "The First Rap Album" lol |
COE GOES COUNTRY
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| The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy |
Coe gets into Country & Western songwriting and invents a masked alternate persona, "The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy", playing in Nashville Honky-Tonks promoting his music.
In December 1973, he hits the big-time as a songwriter when 16-year old country star Tanya Tucker topped the country charts with Coe's "Would You Lay with Me (In a Field of Stone)", a song Coe claims that he originally wrote for his brother's wedding vows.
The success of this song landed Coe a deal with Columbia Records, with whom he would record for the next 14 years.
Recommended Listening Part 3: "Would You Lay with Me (In a Field of Stone)"
Tanya Tucker (1973), David Allan Coe (1978, not the original cut, but his most well-known)
Tracks 10-11 of Spotify Playlist
COE's COLUMBIA OUTLAW COUNTRY HITS
Coe becomes part of the outlaw country movement with Willie Nelson and others
Puts out a handful of the greatest country records of all-time in his first few years
Recommended Listening Part 4: Selected tracks from Coe's first 5 Columbia Albums
Tracks 12-26 of Spotify Playlist
Another Pretty Country Song - Ronnie Van Zant's (Lynyrd Skynyrd) favorite song, played at his funeral in '77
You Never Even Called Me by My Name - AKA "The Perfect Country & Western Song"
The most famous of his recordings and the song most associated with Coe.
Not written by Coe, but by legendary songwriters Steve Goodman and John Prine
Longhaired Redneck - Another of Coe's most well-known songs.
From his new Mid-70's Texas-style persona, "The Longhaired Redneck".
Spotlight - Good fucking country song
Dakota the Dancing Bear, Pt. II - Good fucking country song about a dancing bear
If That Ain't Country - Another famous song, Coe gives some personal anecdotes to back-up his "real country" status, with a few low-key instrumental allusions to the founders of the genre
Tattoo (Album) - Often overlooked, but possibly my favorite Coe album
Solid, fucking country & western music
On-point fiddle + pedal steel + piano accompaniments
Well-produced album, could listen to it a thousand times, may have already
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