>>>Passing of Steve Goodman
Giles W McNamee
would appreciate knowing.
For the record, wasn't the song "You never even called me by my name"
written by David Allen Coe, and the last verse ("I was drunk the day my ma
got out of prison...") was an addenda added by Steve Goodman?
Thanks...
gw...@world.std.com (@well.sf.ca.us, @applelink, and other points west...)
John Schuster
> So, what did Steve Goodman die of anyway? I know this is ignorant, but I
>would appreciate knowing.
Steve died of Luchemia.
>For the record, wasn't the song "You never even called me by my name"
>written by David Allen Coe, and the last verse ("I was drunk the day my ma
>got out of prison...") was an addenda added by Steve Goodman?
Nope! This was written by Steve Goodman. In DAC's recording of it, he
mentions that, being dissappointed by the lacking references in the song, he
called Steve and Steve then wrote the final verse. I have an LP with Steve
doing the song himself. By the way, one of my favorite SG songs (I lived in
Chicago when it was written, so it made sense to me and may not to those who
live elsewhere) is a song called Lincoln Park Pirate. This is about a towing
company that will (according to Steve) tow away anything that ain't nailed
down.
Regards to all netters,
--
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Jim Gilliland
> So, what did Steve Goodman die of anyway? I know this is ignorant, but I
>would appreciate knowing.
He died of Leukemia.
[Should we include "A Dying Cub Fan's Last Request" in the thread here about
songs that tell a "true" story?]
>For the record, wasn't the song "You never even called me by my name"
>written by David Allen Coe, and the last verse ("I was drunk the day my ma
>got out of prison...") was an addenda added by Steve Goodman?
No, Coe did not write any of it, though Goodman did tack the last verse on as
something of a joke after the song was written.
Jimmie Wilson, WRUW
ghost
> So, what did Steve Goodman die of anyway? I know this is ignorant, but I
>would appreciate knowing.
>
>For the record, wasn't the song "You never even called me by my name"
>written by David Allen Coe, and the last verse ("I was drunk the day my ma
>got out of prison...") was an addenda added by Steve Goodman?
He died of the complications of a bone-marrow transplant for leukemia
which didn't take, at least that's what we heard here.
There was a good interview with him (in I believe the Real Paper
here) in Boston during a tour he did in the year previous to his death.
He had had leukemia, often in remission, for many years,
had undergone many rounds of chemotherapy treatments,
& had arranged not to tour during times when he was obviously suffering
from tell-tale side effects, like no hair, til the last bout.
I believe his last album was titled "Available Hair" or something like
that, when the news was officially out of the bag.
Close friends (some of them club owners on the circuit he toured)
did know before then.
And I used to wonder about him til I learned all that
"why doesn't such a good songwriter write more good depressing songs"
which at the time I thought were the best songs there can be, and
a goal all should seek to attain (still do, on some level).
The only depressing Goodman song I know is "Looking For Trouble".
The story Goodman told about "Never Even Called Me By My Name"
was that he'd written the 1st set of verses (was John Prine in on this?),
sent them to David Allen Coe (for some reason) as the ultimate country song,
and got them back with the message
"this is not a country song; there's nothing about
Mother
Booze
Prison
Dogs
Guns
Rain
Trucks
Trains
Death"
Inspire by this, Goodman wrote (something like)
"I got drunk the day my Ma got out of prison
took my dog and went to fetch her in the rain
but before I could pick her up
in my trusty pickup truck
she went and got run over by a (damned old) train"
It should be obvious I am remembering wrong (again) because there
aren't any guns in this version; perhaps thats what he takes in line 2,
in which case the dog gets into the truck somewhere in line 4.
And the rest is history.
ghost
>In <CBz09...@world.std.com> gw...@world.std.com (Giles W McNamee) writes:
>
>doing the song himself. By the way, one of my favorite SG songs (I lived in
>Chicago when it was written, so it made sense to me and may not to those who
>live elsewhere) is a song called Lincoln Park Pirate. This is about a towing
>company that will (according to Steve) tow away anything that ain't nailed
>down.
We had a garage in Cambridge back then, the Ellery Street Garage,
which ran over & killed a man with his own car; they were towing it,
and he was trying to stop them. Song got a real good response here.
ghost
>>In <CBz09...@world.std.com> gw...@world.std.com (Giles W McNamee) writes:
>>
>>doing the song himself. By the way, one of my favorite SG songs (I lived in
>>Chicago when it was written, so it made sense to me and may not to those who
>>live elsewhere) is a song called Lincoln Park Pirate. This is about a towing
>>company that will (according to Steve) tow away anything that ain't nailed
>>down.
>We had a garage in Cambridge back then, the Ellery Street Garage,
>which ran over & killed a man with his own car; they were towing it,
>and he was trying to stop them. Song got a real good response here.
Perhaps I should explain:
In some other parts of the world the towee has perhaps done something
deliberately wrong, something worse than oversleeping;
but there are laws in Cambridge & Somerville that forbid parking
on one side during street cleaning day.
In Somerville they hold street-cleaning day twice as often, complete with
tickets, and though they threaten to tow, usually don't get around to it.
In Cambridge they ticket, then they tow via hired henchmen.
If you haven't moved your car by 8am, tough luck. In most places there
are no driveways at all. Its crowded up here.
And the towing company doesn't get its money if it doesn't actually
tow your car, so...
(Hey, a whole bunch of towns around here won't let you park on-street
overnight at all. You mean you can't afford to rent a drivway??
But they're very posh, & won't tow til you collect enough tickets.)
M. Jonas
> The story Goodman told about "Never Even Called Me By My Name"
> was that he'd written the 1st set of verses (was John Prine in on this?),
> sent them to David Allen Coe (for some reason) as the ultimate country song,
> and got them back with the message
>
> "this is not a country song; there's nothing about
>
> Mother
> Booze
> Prison
> Dogs
> Guns
> Rain
> Trucks
> Trains
> Death"
>
> Inspire by this, Goodman wrote (something like)
>
> "I got drunk the day my Ma got out of prison
> took my dog and went to fetch her in the rain
> but before I could pick her up
> in my trusty pickup truck
> she went and got run over by a (damned old) train"
Reminds me of "A Country Song" that Eric Bogle performed in concert
around '79. A great parody of about all there is in country with verses
about: heartbreak, orphans, cripples and dying. I think it was written by
an Australian named T. Myers or something like that. Does anybody know
of any recordings of that song (I'm not sure if Bogle officially recorded
it, I taped it off a live radio show).
Martin
BOB!!
>was that he'd written the 1st set of verses (was John Prine in on this?),
>sent them to David Allen Coe (for some reason) as the ultimate country song,
>and got them back with the message
>
>"this is not a country song; there's nothing about
>
> Mother
> Booze
> Prison
> Dogs
> Guns
> Rain
> Trucks
> Trains
> Death"
>
>Inspire by this, Goodman wrote (something like)
>
>"I got drunk the day my Ma got out of prison
> took my dog and went to fetch her in the rain
> but before I could pick her up
> in my trusty pickup truck
> she went and got run over by a (damned old) train"
>
> It should be obvious I am remembering wrong (again) because there
> aren't any guns in this version; perhaps thats what he takes in line 2,
> in which case the dog gets into the truck somewhere in line 4.
Ever since the dog got drunk and died,
and momma went to prison,
why nothin round this old farm has been the same.
And God, you know when mom broke out last Christmas,
she drove that old getaway laundry truck right into a train.
Bob Williams rj...@midway.uchicago.edu
Fil Feit
>In <CBz09...@world.std.com> gw...@world.std.com (Giles W McNamee) writes:
>
> By the way, one of my favorite SG songs (I lived in
>Chicago when it was written, so it made sense to me and may not to those who
>live elsewhere) is a song called Lincoln Park Pirate. This is about a towing
>company that will (according to Steve) tow away anything that ain't nailed
>down.
In all of the Goodman concerts I'd been to over the years, he NEVER did
this song once. He's done others on request, but he always seemed to
ignore LPP. Anybody either (a) heard him do it live, or (b) know why?
--f2
---------------------------
"The night nurse is gone,
and the sexy one's here,
and she'll tell us such beautiful lies."
Karen Johnson Morgan
ghost <j...@endor.harvard.edu> wrote:
>In article <CBz09...@world.std.com> gw...@world.std.com (Giles W McNamee) writes:
>
>The story Goodman told about "Never Even Called Me By My Name"
>was that he'd written the 1st set of verses (was John Prine in on this?),
My husband grew up in and around Peoria, Ill., and he swears he
heard John Prine tell a story about how HE wrote that song when
he was drunk and GAVE it to Steve! Has anybody else ever heard
that version? Will we ever know the truth? ;-)
Karen
--
Karen J. Morgan -- U Texas Ctr for Space Research, Austin, Tex
ph: (512) 471-5573 fax: (512) 471-3570
email: ka...@louise.ae.utexas.edu alternate: joh...@emx.utexas.edu
John Lupton
Karen says:
=>In article <1993Aug18....@das.harvard.edu>,
=>ghost <j...@endor.harvard.edu> wrote:
=>>In article <CBz09...@world.std.com> gw...@world.std.com (Giles W
=>McNamee) writes:
>
=>>The story Goodman told about "Never Even Called Me By My Name"
=>>was that he'd written the 1st set of verses (was John Prine in on this?),
==>My husband grew up in and around Peoria, Ill., and he swears he
==>heard John Prine tell a story about how HE wrote that song when
==>he was drunk and GAVE it to Steve! Has anybody else ever heard
==>that version? Will we ever know the truth? ;-)
I haven't heard that story, but along the same lines of who wrote what
with Goodman, John Denver claims to have co-written "City of New Orleans"
with Goodman in a hotel one night. He (Denver) said this on stage when I
saw him back around '73 or '74 in Austin; he also recorded it (not a bad
version) and claimed co-writer credit on his album "Aerie". I've had to
show several people the album cover to get them to believe this.
_____________________________________________________________________________
John Lupton, LAN Specialist |Part-Time Country/Bluegrass/Old-Time DJ
SAS Communications & Networking |"Rural Free Delivery"
University of Pennsylvania |WVUD-FM 91.3 University of Delaware
jlu...@mail.sas.upenn.edu |Listener-Supported, Non-Commercial Radio
_________________________________|___________________________________________
Mark Spittal
I heard him play Lincoln Park Pirates sevral times in Chicago,in clubs,
and once in San Diego, but not any other times.
Mark
Eileen Noel
>around '79. A great parody of about all there is in country with verses
Robert Earl Keene, Jr. wrote and performed a song on his "Live" CD
that is made up of titles of a bunch of classic bluegrass tunes.
It's great.
Eileen
raymond.d.smith
>>The story Goodman told about "Never Even Called Me By My Name"
>>was that he'd written the 1st set of verses (was John Prine in on this?),
>
>My husband grew up in and around Peoria, Ill., and he swears he
>heard John Prine tell a story about how HE wrote that song when
>he was drunk and GAVE it to Steve! Has anybody else ever heard
>that version? Will we ever know the truth? ;-)
>
I have a tape of a Steve Goodman radio tribute on WXRT in Chicago that
includes John Prine telling a story of how he and Steve Goodman traveled
together to New York when they were both first signed by their record
companies. Apparently John came in one night and Steve was there in the room
writing a new song with lyrics that John thought were SOOOO mournful and
depressing:
It was all I could do to keep from crying,
Sometimes it seems so useless to remain.
John started making fun of the song as being too dreary and
depressing and together they turned it into "You Never Even Call Me By My
Name". He thought that was the end of it, until David Allen Coe picked up on
it about six months later and had a country hit with it.
As someone pointed out, the last set of lyrics about grandma and the
train was added later - I think for the Coe version of the song.
Over the years in concert, Steve would cram in more country music idioms
into the final verse.
By the way, if anyone has Steve Goodman tapes (audio, video, radio, live,
or whatever) they would like to trade, I would be MOST interested!
Ray Smith
rd...@iwtgp.att.com
Naperville, Il.