You heard The Big To-Do‘s “This Fucking Job.” The next blue-collar vignette from Drive-By Truckers’ eighth album has a happier title, but “Birthday Boy” involves a prostitute “working for the money like [she's] got eight hands / flat on [her] back under a mean old man, / just thinking happy thoughts, breathing deep,” her life outside those situations, and the sweaty-handed dudes paying for her services.
The Big To-Do is out 3/15 via ATO.
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Thanks. Great song! Classic.
Stunning lead vocal. Great harmonies. Tight like The Outlaws. Listened 10 times already.
How to the Truckers remain so consistent in their songwriting without ever becoming boring?
I don’t know how Cooley does it. Seriously! The lyrics in this song give Bob Dylan a run for his money! Just take a look for yourself below… the part that I’ve lined off just kills me.
I would love to ask Mike Cooley what inspired this song. He’s either a master of putting himself in other people’s shoes, or has known a girl in the profession… either way, he’s a lyrical genius. And the music itself… that’s a whole other can of worms. Brilliance.
Now, play the song and read along…. and be blown away!
Birthday Boy – Drive-By Truckers
Which one’s the birthday boy?
She said, “I ain’t got all night”
What’d your momma name you?
You can call me what you like.
Every skin is a mystery
gotta make it hard somehow.
Sit your narrow ass down hotshot
I’ll solve yours right now.
*musical break*
Got a girlfriend don’t you boy?
Nervous hands can’t lie.
Married men don’t ask how much
Single ones ain’t buyin’
One day you’ve got everything.
Next day it’s all broke.
Lat Miss Trixie sit up front.
Let her wipe your nose.
*musical break*
Working for the money like you got eight hands,
flat on your back under a mean old man,
just thinking happy thoughts, and breathing deep.
Between your momma’s drive and daddy’s belt
It don’t take smarts to learn how to tune out what hurts more than helps.
__________________________________
Pretty girls from the smallest towns
Get remembered like storms and droughts
That old men talk about for years to come
Guess that’s why they give us names
So a few old men can say they saw us rain when we were young
————————————————————
“Which one’s the birthday boy?”
She said, “I ain’t got all night”
“What’d your momma name you?
You can call me what you like.”