History Music / DavidAllanCoe

[[BleachedUnderpants Controversially]], Coe recorded a pair of X-rated country albums called ''Underground Album'' and ''Nothing Sacred''. His legacy has been cemented by influencing the GrooveMetal band Music/{{Pantera}}[[note]](notably, he did a collaboration with three of that band's members entitled Rebel Meets Rebel, which was released after guitarist Dimebag Darrell's murder)[[/note]], rapper and singer Music/KidRock and eclectic artist Music/HankWilliamsIII.

* BleachedUnderpants: Shel Silverstein served as "the devil on Coe's shoulder" inspiring Coe to record some [[BawdySong X-rated country songs]]. The albums were basically a joke and didn't make him much money. They were sold through ads in biker magazines, and now through his website.

Much of his mystique centers on the fact that the "outlaw" part of his being an outlaw country performer was quite literal. Beginning at age 9, he spent 20 years in and out of various correctional facilities before beginning his music career in 1968, as a {{Blues}} singer.[[note]]He mainly did prison time for robbery and grand theft auto, but he loves exaggerating his criminal exploits to the extent that for a while he said he killed a fellow prisoner and received the death sentence for it, before music journalists refuted the claim, to Coe's annoyance.[[/note]] ''Penitentiary Blues'' is about Coe's experiences in prison. He began recording CountryMusic in the early '70s. His music anticipated the "fuck you" attitude of PunkRock, and proved influential on alt-country, especially the bands that attempted to fuse punk and country. Coe's music and attitude was not only formed from Country, but from blues and early rock and roll.

Much of his mystique centers on the fact that the "outlaw" part of his being an outlaw country performer was quite literal. Beginning at age 9, he spent 20 years in and out of various correctional facilities before beginning his music career in 1968, as a {{Blues}} singer.[[note]]He mainly did prison time for robbery and grand theft auto, but he loves exaggerating his criminal exploits to the extent that for a while he claimed to have killed a fellow prisoner and was sentenced to death for it, before music journalists refuted the claim, to Coe's annoyance.[[/note]] ''Penitentiary Blues'' is about Coe's experiences in prison. He began recording CountryMusic in the early '70s. His music anticipated the "fuck you" attitude of PunkRock, and proved influential on alt-country, especially the bands that attempted to fuse punk and country. Coe's music and attitude was not only formed from Country, but from blues and early rock and roll.

Beginning at age 9, he spent 20 years in and out of various correctional facilities before beginning his music career in 1968, as a {{Blues}} singer. ''Penitentiary Blues'' is about Coe's experiences in prison. He began recording CountryMusic in the early '70s. His music anticipated the "fuck you" attitude of PunkRock, and proved influential on alt-country, especially the bands that attempted to fuse punk and country. Coe's music and attitude was not only formed from Country, but from blues and early rock and roll.

** Just as controversial was the song he wrote for Johnny Paycheck, "Take This Job and Shove It" ... essentially a big "fuck you" (although the F-word indeed appears nowhere in the lyrics) to corporate hierarchy and the poor working conditions, verbal abuse, etc. the average working man has to endure on a daily basis; and while those workers have to work hard for low pay, the big boss man gets to sit in his cushy office enjoying the high life and looking down upon whom he essentially views as peons and cretins, if not other names for low-life forms. Even in 1978, the year the song became a big hit for Paycheck, radio hosts such as Bob Kingsley (of ''Radio/AmericanCountryCountdown'') were calling "... Shove It" a "political statement" that stood up for the blue-collar working man. (Incidentally, years later Coe accused Paycheck of ripping off his song and calling him a "has been" in his (Coe's) re-recording of "... Shove It," despite the fact Paycheck and his recording label Epic Records had always correctly credited Coe as the song's sole composer.)

* HeavyMeta: "You Never Even Called Me By My Name" is a parody of the notion that [[DeadUnicornTrope Country songs are all trucks, trains and getting drunk]].

* SomethingCompletelyDifferent: Coe often recorded outlaw country, but once in awhile did ballads. The most famous of those was "Mona Lisa Lost Her Smile," which became his biggest chart hit ever, reaching No. 2 on the country charts in the late spring of 1984. Only Alabama's "When We Make Love" and Eddy Raven's "I Got Mexico" stopped him from having what would have been his only No. 1 hit as a performer.

[[BleachedUnderpants Controversially]], Coe recorded a pair of X-rated country albums called ''Underground Album'' and ''Nothing Sacred''. His legacy has been cemented by influencing the GrooveMetal band Music/{{Pantera}}[[note]](notably, he did a collaboration with three of that band's members entitled Rebel Meets Rebel, which was released after guitarist Dimebag Darrell's murder)[[/note]], rapper and singer Music/KidRock and NeoClassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly artist Music/HankWilliamsIII.

* NeoClassicalPunkZydecoRockabilly: Recorded the album ''Rebel Meets Rebel'', which is essentially Coe fronting Music/{{Pantera}}. Read more on Coe's style in general [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Allan_Coe#Style here]].

David Allan Coe (born September 6, 1939) is one of the predominant figures of Outlaw CountryMusic, and one of the first names people think of when they think of this subgenre. While largely underground, he has had some success as a songwriter, penning several songs that were crossover pop hits CoveredUp by other artists, including "Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone)," made famous by Music/TanyaTucker; and "Take This Job and Shove It," popularized by Johnny Paycheck (also covered by Music/DeadKennedys, as well as being the main sample in "Shove This Jay-Oh-Bee", a song by rappers Canibus and Biz Markie appearing in the movie ''Film/OfficeSpace'').

!! David Allan Coe provides examples of the following tropes:

Coe's son, Tyler Mahan Coe, has also made a name for himself, but not as a musician; He's the host of the critically acclaimed country music journalism podcast ''[[https://cocaineandrhinestones.com/ Cocaine & Rhinestones]]''. As of 2018, Tyler has yet to cover his father in an episode, in part because he feels too close to that story to report on it objectively.

Coe's son, Tyler Mahan Coe, has also made a name for himself, but not as a musician; He's the host of the critically acclaimed country music journalism podcast ''[[https://cocaineandrhinestones.com/ Cocaine & Rhinestones]]''. As of 2018, Tyler has yet to cover his father in an episode, in part, because he feels [[https://www.rollingstone.com/country/features/cocaine-and-rhinestones-host-tyler-mahan-coe-on-hit-podcast-w518748 too close to that story]] to report on it objectively.

Coe's son, Tyler Mahan Coe, has also made a name for himself, but not as a musician; He's the host of the critically acclaimed country music journalism podcast ''[[https://cocaineandrhinestones.com/ Cocaine & Rhinestones]]''. As of 2018, Tyler has yet to cover his father in an episode.

Coe's son Tyler Mahan Coe has also made a name for himself, but not as a musician; He's the host of the critically acclaimed country music journalism podcast ''[[https://cocaineandrhinestones.com/ Cocaine & Rhinestones]]''. As of 2018, Tyler has yet to cover his father in an episode.

David Allan Coe (born September 6, 1939) is one of the predominant figures of Outlaw CountryMusic, and one of the first names people think of when they think of this subgenre. While largely underground, he has had some success as a songwriter, penning several songs that were crossover pop hits CoveredUp by other artists, including "Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone)," made famous by Tanya Tucker; and "Take This Job and Shove It," popularized by Johnny Paycheck (also covered by Music/DeadKennedys, as well as being the main sample in "Shove This Jay-Oh-Bee", a song by rappers Canibus and Biz Markie appearing in the movie ''Film/OfficeSpace'').