Copperhead Road-Steve Earle 1988
By: Hunter60
The title track to Copperhead Road, released in 1988 on the MCA label, is perhaps the only song by outlaw troubadour Steve Earle that is familiar to most rock and roll fans. It is a staple of classic rock radio and one that many fans have tossed on the pile known as ‘one hit wonders’. And like so many bands that have been banished to that slush pile, that one song, although catchy in a strangled drawl with visceral images, is not the best one on the album.
That song seemed to be playing everywhere that summer and then it went away quickly, reappearing occasionally to the heartfelt cries of ‘Ah man, I love that song’ with the requisite clinking of beer bottles. And like other fickle fans of the genre, I had essentially forgotten about the song and Earle for a long time. At least until a few years ago when I happened on a copy of the CD in a bargain bin at a Sam Goody’s. I bought it along with a few others and when I got home, threw it on the player and just let it play. What I heard was amazing.
Earle has been hamstrung in his career by being ‘Too rock and roll for country and too country for rock and roll’ and has existed in the fringes of both genres, belonging completely to neither one. The disc seems to bounce all over from the rockabilly-Texas stomp of ‘Snake Oil’ to a cowboy gunslinger anthem in ‘The Devils Right Hand’. A paean to a World War Two fighter pilot in ‘Johnny Come Lately’ (which is backed, curiously, by the Pogues) weaves images that appear in black and white in the mind. The remainder of the disc shows Earle in a folksier, reflective sense with ballads that are played simply and with a heartfelt earnestness that pushes the emotions of the songs right into the soul.
His music seems to be reflective of his life, a wild, complicated ride filled with soaring heights and devastating lows. Having been a successful Nashville songwriter at a young age, Earle seemed to be on the road to grand life only to be derailed by an almost Rasputin-esque substance addiction and a series of failed marriages. He disappeared into a sort of exile of the almost-celebrities after the release of ‘Copperhead Road’ only to return a few years ago, an older, wiser and more mature songwriter who is fighting his way back into the Game.
Steve Earle may not be the most complex guitar player or the most philosophical of the singer/songwriters, but he knows who he is; belonging to no real genre, he is comfortable in that no mans land somewhere in-between. ‘Copperhead Road’ is a disc that seems to fit perfectly with a Jack and Coke, a good steak on the barbecue and an evening under a canopy of stars on a clear and warm summer night. It’s worth a listen.
[FONT=Tahoma]"All I can do is be me ... whoever that is". Bob Dylan [/FONT]
