Songs to Be Thankful For, Day 1: I Ain't Got No Good Intentions...

For this week, I'm going to highlight songs that I'm thankful exist in this world. I'm plenty thankful for the people in my life, my family, my good fortune. And that good fortune extends to music.

I discovered the Drive-By Truckers when they opened for The Hold Steady in November of 2008, and it was a fast and furious love affair from that first moment. I couldn't believe I had lived this long without this band in my life. They were a HUGE rock sound, HUGE. They went straight down my spine to my gut, then back up to my heart, and this song was one of the primary reasons. I remember it live, not knowing much about them at all, but this song stood out in a major way. The next album I bought, purely by chance, contained this track. I listened to it obsessively, bought more albums, but kept coming back to this song. Cooley may be one of the greatest American songwriters of this, or any, generation. His turn of phrase, his characters, the way he makes these people and lyrics real; it's stunning. The last verse of this song hearkens back, faintly, to "Racing in the Street" from the Boss himself, but the situation is Cooley's own.

It's melacholy, and a little more than cynical, but this song fills me with joy, simply because it exists.

Zip City - The Drive-by Truckers

MP3 File