Editing David Allan Coe (section)

=== Outlaw years (1976–1982) ===

By 1976, the outlaw country movement was in full swing as artists such as [[Waylon Jennings]] and [[Willie Nelson]] were finally enjoying massive commercial success after years of fighting to record their music their own way. Coe, however, was still somewhat an outsider, almost too outlaw for the outlaws, a predicament summed up well by AllMusic:

{{blockquote|His wild, long hair; multiple earrings; flashy, glitzy rhinestone suits; Harley Davidson biker boots; and football-sized belt buckles had become obstacles to getting people to take him seriously as a recording artist. Other singers continued to record and succeed with his material, but he, himself – who was as good a singer as almost anyone and better than most – languished in obscurity. Rather than tone it down, Coe characteristically shoved the stereotypes in their faces. He retired the Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy persona and billed his new album as 'David Allan Coe Rides Again as the Longhaired Redneck', something equally off-putting to institution types.<ref name=Allmusic>{{cite web |url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/the-mysterious-rhinestone-cowboy-r637930/review |title=The Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy – David Allan Coe |author=Thom Jurek |website=Allmusic |access-date=September 6, 2011}}</ref>}}

''Longhaired Redneck'' was Coe's third album for Columbia in three years, and the first where he wrote or co-wrote all the songs; the outlaw country zeitgeist was summed up well in the title track, which recounts playing in a dive "where bikers stare at cowboys who are laughing at the hippies who are praying they'll get out of here alive".  The song features Coe impersonating the vocal styles of [[Ernest Tubb]], [[Bill Anderson (singer)|Bill Anderson]], and [[Merle Haggard]].  About the term "Longhaired Redneck", Coe later said, "It was terminology that I'd made up at the time. I was trying to tell people that not everybody with long hair was a hippie. Not everyone was the kind of person that thought you could punch them out, take their money, and that they'd say, 'I won't do nothin' about it'."<ref name="review-mag">{{cite web|url=https://www.review-mag.com/archive/570-579/577/Ncoeinterview.htm|title=An Exclusive Interview with David Allan Coe|last=Engelhardt|first=Kristofer|date=January 2003|work=Review|access-date=January 14, 2020|archive-date=October 2, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221002211023/https://www.review-mag.com/archive/570-579/577/Ncoeinterview.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref>

By 1977, the outlaw movement was nearing its apex, having seen the release of Willie Nelson's blockbuster album ''[[Red Headed Stranger]]'' and country music's first platinum-selling album, ''[[Wanted! The Outlaws]]''. Coe considered himself as integral as anyone in the evolution of the outlaw country genre, and began saying so in his music. As noted in [[AllMusic]]'s review of the album, "On ''[[Rides Again (David Allen Coe album)|Rides Again]]'', by trying to make a conscious outlaw record and aligning himself with the movement's two progenitors on the opening track, "Willie, Waylon, and Me"...Coe already set up self-parody unintentionally – something that continued to curse him."<ref name="Allmusic" /> The songs on ''Rides Again'' cross-fade without the usual silences between tracks, which was unusual for country music, and feature Coe's heavily [[Phaser (effect)|phased]] guitar. Coe was also permitted to use his own band on several tracks, a major concession for Columbia at the time. However, some of his peers resented Coe placing himself in such exalted company, and felt he was exploiting his relationship with his fellow outlaws.<ref name=streiss>{{Cite book|title = Outlaw: Waylon, Willie, Kris, and the Renegades of Nashville |first=Michael |last=Streissguth |year= 2013 |publisher=HarperCollins |isbn=978-0062038180 |pages=155–157}}</ref> Jennings' drummer Richie Albright called Coe "a great, great songwriter. A great singer. But he could not tell the truth if it was better than a lie he'd made up. Waylon didn't make him comfortable enough to hang around. But Willie did. I was around Willie quite a bit and David Allan was with him eighty percent of the time.  Willie allowed him to hang around."<ref name=streiss/> Coe managed to maintain friendships with both Jennings and Nelson, despite the former's cool treatment of him at times. In his autobiography, Jennings mentions Coe once (in a chapter titled "The Outlaw Shit"), calling him "the most sincere of the bunch"<ref name=jenni>{{cite book|last1=Jennings |first1= Waylon|last2=Kaye |first2= Lenny|year=1996|title=Waylon: An Autobiography|publisher=Warner Brooks|isbn=978-0-446-51865-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/waylonautobiogra00jenn |pages=231–233}}</ref> of bandwagon jumpers, but contends, "when it came to being an Outlaw, the worst thing he ever did was double-parking on Music Row",<ref name=jenni/> adding:

{{blockquote|He wrote a song called "Waylon, Willie, and Me" at the same time he started taking pot shots at us in interviews, saying that Willie [Nelson] and Kris [Kristofferson] had sold out, that I was running around wearing white buck shoes, and none of us was really an Outlaw. He was the only Outlaw in [[Nashville]]...I saw him in Fort Worth and I put my finger right up to his chest. 'You gotta knock that shit off', I told him. 'I ain't never done anything to you.' He protested, 'They just set us up...you know I love you, Waylon."...he could drive me crazy, but there was something about David that pulled at my heartstrings.<ref name=jenni/>}}

Throughout the rest of the decade, Coe released a string of strong recordings, some of which, such as ''Human Emotions'' (1978) and ''[[Spectrum VII]]'' (1979), were concept albums with each side of the discs given its own theme. 1978's ''[[Family Album (David Allan Coe album)|Family Album]]'' contains Coe's rendition of "Take This Job and Shove It", a song he composed, and which had been released by [[Johnny Paycheck]] in October 1977, becoming a monumental success. The song is a first person account of a man who has worked for 15 years with no apparent reward, and it struck a chord with the public, even inspiring a 1981 film of the same name. Although Coe's name was credited, the assumption by many was that Paycheck, an acclaimed songwriter himself, composed the tune; this would feed into Coe's growing bitterness with the industry as another one of his peers exploded in popularity. Coe was further disenchanted when pop star [[Jimmy Buffett]] accused him of plagiarising his hit "[[Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes]]" for Coe's "Divers Do It Deeper". (Coe had been incorporating Caribbean sounds into his music, as is evident on his 1979 album ''[[Compass Point (David Allan Coe album)|Compass Point]]''.) By 1980, Coe and producer [[Billy Sherrill]] set out to reach a wider audience and bring Coe back to the charts by inviting other singers and musicians to take part in the sessions for what would become ''I've Got Something to Say'', which boasted contributions from [[Guy Clark]], [[Bill Anderson (singer)|Bill Anderson]], [[Dickey Betts]] (from [[The Allman Brothers Band]]), [[Kris Kristofferson]], [[Larry Jon Wilson]], and [[George Jones]]. This process was continued the following year on ''Invictus (Means) Unconquered'', with Sherrill couching the songs in tasteful instrumentation that put the spotlight squarely on Coe's voice. (In his [[AllMusic]] review, Thom Jurek labelled it 'arguably the finest album of his career')<ref name="Allmusic" />

By 1981, the outlaw country movement waned as the slicker "urban cowboy" era took hold in country music, typified by the [[Johnny Lee (singer)|Johnny Lee]] hit "Lookin' for Love", which critic Kurt Wolff panned as an example of "watered-down cowboy music".<ref>Wolff, Kurt, "Country Music: The Rough Guide," Rough Guides Ltd., London; Penguin Putnam, New York, distributor. p. 424 ({{ISBN|1-85828-534-8}})</ref> Coe was an important figure in the outlaw country genre, but judging by the sound of his recordings from this period, he had no interest in the trendy urban cowboy phase. Refusing to give into the flavor-of-the-month generic country "talent", Coe stuck to what he knew and sharpened the edges.<ref name="Allmusic" /> However, while scoring some moderate hits, mainstream success remained elusive. Coe's highest-charting single during this period was "Get a Little Dirt on Your Hands", a duet with Bill Anderson, which peaked at number 45. As if aware of the compromises he had been making, Coe chose to close out his 1982 album ''[[D.A.C.]]'' with a suite of three songs that contained a short prologue:

{{blockquote|Makin' records is, uh, somethin' that's kind of hard for me to do because I'm an entertainer. So I made my mind up a few albums ago that I was gonna do so many songs for the record company and so many for myself...we've turned the lights down low in the studio and the musicians have thrown away their little cheat sheets. So this is for all you David Allan Coe fans that's been with me for a long time who  didn't really care if I got played on the radio or not.}}