“I was thrown out of college for cheating on the metaphysics exam. I looked into the soul of the boy next to me."
- Woody Allen
A Substack article caught my eye this week. It referenced and rightfully took issue with a recent New York Times article entitled “The 30 Greatest Living American Songwriters.”
Now, I don't consider the New York Times to be a serious publication and on my own I'd have never seen this column. But, I was interested. I wanted to see what the self-anointed arbiters of culture had to say about a subject important to me.
It turns out my long-held opinion of the Times was confirmed. The intro said that “More than 250 music insiders and six New York Times critics weighed in.” If you care about this, go online and have a look for yourself at who they came up with. You'll either have a hearty laugh or you'll become apoplectic. I was somewhere in between. Some of their picks are legit, maybe a third, others are ludicrous .
If they'd have asked 250 random Walmart shoppers and six dog-walkers they'd have gotten a better result.
Now on to some words from songwriters not on the silly list: What do you have?
*** Normally, I've been doing these lyrics spotlights on Fridays, but something mildly freaky occurred. I wrote this piece out yesterday for posting on Friday. I woke up this morning to the news that one of my long time favorite songwriters, singers and all around authentic dudes, David Allan Coe had died. Huh. His lyrics are the last ones I had already listed below. Cue the Twilight Zone music, I guess. Anyway, I go back 50 years with him and he deserves his own tribute column, which I'll get to down the road.
Flatter than a table top
Makes you wonder why they stopped here
Wagon must of lost a wheel or they lacked ambition one
Separated from the rest, on the great migration west
Though they might have tried their best, they never caught the sun
So they sunk some roots down in the dirt, to keep from blowin' off the earth
Built a town around here, and when the dust had all but cleared
They called it Levelland
- James McMurtry/Levelland
Please come to Denver with the snowfall
We'll move up into the mountains so far that we can't be found
And throw “I love you” echoes down the canyon
And then lie awake at night 'til they come back around
Please come to Denver
- Dave Loggins/Please Come to Boston
He drank Pearl from a can and Jack Daniels Black
Chewed tobacco from a mail pouch sack
Had an old dog that was trained to attack…sometimes
- David Allan Coe/If That Ain't Country