1 month ago
David Allan Coe, nan state singer-songwriter who helped specify Nashville’s “outlaw” sound of nan 1970s and ’80s, and wrote “Take This Job and Shove It,” nan opus that would go nan anthem of disaffected workers during nan economical upheaval of nan decade, died astatine a infirmary Wednesday, April 29. He was 86.
His decease was announced by his woman to Rolling Stone magazine. A origin and nonstop location of decease were not disclosed. Coe reportedly was hospitalized respective years agone pinch Covid-19 and had mostly retreated from nationalist appearances since then, though it is not known whether Covid played a portion successful his passing.
Along pinch Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Jessi Colter and others, Coe was a awesome portion of nan “outlaw country” activity that swept Nashville successful nan mid-1970s, offering listeners a rougher, rawer, much rebellious back-to-the-roots attack to state than nan slick, string-heavy pop-ish “Nashville Sound,” aliases “Countrypolitan,” that had been ascendant since nan 1960s.
While Coe was a noted state vocalist successful his ain right, pinch hits, written by others, including “You Never Even Call Me by My Name,” “Tennessee Whiskey” and “Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile,” his astir lasting effect was possibly arsenic a songwriter. His “Take This Job and Shove It,” pinch its smack-you-in-the-face opening lyric (“Take this occupation and shove it/I ain’t workin’ present nary more/A female done near and took each nan reasons/I was moving for”) was a monolithic and influential deed for nan vocalist Johnny Paycheck successful 1977.
The opus was truthful celebrated that it inspired a characteristic movie drama of nan aforesaid sanction successful 1981. Directed by Gus Trikonis and starring Robert Hays, Barbara Hershey, Art Carney, and David Keith, nan Take This Job And Shove It formed besides included Coe and Paycheck successful mini roles.
Several years earlier “Take This Job…” became a smash, Coe wrote “Would You Lay With Me (in a Field of Stone),” a opus that became a 1974 deed for a teenaged Tanya Tucker.
Born September 6, 1939, successful Akron, Ohio, Coe did clip successful reformatories during his younker and, from 1963 to 1967 was imprisoned successful Ohio for possession of burglary tools. His first album, 1970’s Penitentiary Blues, features songs he wrote while successful prison. Four years later he recorded nan medium The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy, which he publicized by performing successful a sparkly suit and a mask.
Unlike nan much conservative, clean-cut state stars of nan ’60s, Coe and nan different “outlaws” took connected a biker look – Coe himself had been portion of a biker pack – that included agelong hair, beards, tattoos and cowboy hats. One of his hits, 1976’s “Longhaired Redneck,” summed up nan image successful 1 opus title. The look, arsenic good arsenic nan sounds, would make a lasting effect connected state music.
Throughout his agelong popularity, Coe toured pinch Willie Nelson, Neil Young and moreover Kid Rock. Along nan way, he wrote and recorded albums and songs that pushed boundaries pinch their racy lyrics, peculiarly connected nan 1978 medium Nothing Sacred and 1982’s Underground Album. Sexually explicit, nan songs besides included lyrics that were racist and homophobic, songs he would later regret. In a 2001 Billboard mag interview, he said, “Those were meant to beryllium sung astir nan campfire for bikers, and I still don’t singing those songs successful concert.”
In later years Coe had superior tussles pinch nan IRS, causing debt, bankruptcy and nan mislaid of publishing authorities to moreover his biggest hits. His last album, successful which he collaborated pinch dense metal’s Dimebag Darrell and different erstwhile members of Pantera, was released successful 2006.
Complete accusation connected survivors was not instantly available.
