Originally compiled: May 23, 1997
Last revised: October 8, 2001
From: Ed Ricardo (edu@edlis.org)
In article (337CD1D7.2E55@online.no)
Subject: Little Sussie Shallow Throat (?)
Date: 22 May 1997 10:00:07 -0400
arbraath@online.no wrote:
: Lee M. Hartle wrote:
: > from the recent Hard to Find (Vol. 1) Tree:
: > Track 21. Little Sussie Shallow Throat - Unknown
: > WHAT THE HECK IS THIS !?!?
: > Anybody know ?
: > Lee
: Written by David Allen Coe.Yes.
: Performed by actor Christopher Guest (Spinal Tap, etc.)
No. Have you listened to Coe's Underground and compared?
Performed by David Allan Coe.
akta@akat.b.eunet.de (thomas achilles at akta) also wrote:
: something done in england, a satireAny evidence for England? I know no English connection to this?
From EDLIS files:
Hard To Find [Volume 1] : 21 Ultra Rare Dylan Tracks Revisited /I first heard of David Allan Coe because of this CD, and I must say he is a tricky subject.
Bob Dylan [and David Allan Coe] [1963-1995]
Effective Mining Records, [no order number], 1995
Bar-code: 4 345388 976651
Total Running Time: 79:4921. Little Sussi Shallow Throat / [David Allan Coe] (2:52) *
(21) Male voice & guitar, no perceptible Dylan content. David Allan Coe from his album Underground (D.A.C. Records, DAC 003, 197?, CDDAC003) track seven: Little Sussie Shallow Throat and is labelled: "Adults only, not recommended for air play". (Some thought this was Christopher Guest, comic actor, writer, and National Lampoon Dylan voice.)"Effective Mining-Records, P.O. Box 1876, Ghost City, s.D. USA, compilation by W.B. Hickock".
A compilation of "hard to find" rare and official tracks, from charity releases, soundtracks, compilation albums, tributes, and the like. It serves to provide the music which collectors buy on a wide range of official discs outside the mainstream released Dylan albums. More of a pirate than a bootleg, but the unreleased Caribbean Wind (14) lets it scrape in under the wire as a boot!
Why is this track on this CD? Who knows? A practical joke by the bootlegger? A practical joke on the bootlegger? Once pressed you could hardly scrap the run...
Would anyone defend its inclusion here? No, no one sane.
Does it do any real harm? Welllll, it is just a song, keep it in perspective. The artist aims to be obscene and shocking, that is his stock in trade. As a service to Dylanology I took it upon myself to listen to the gentleman's work and guide you on any Dylan relevant aspects of it. There are none.
(David Allen Coe is aware of Bob Dylan of course, for example he sings the song Castles In The Sand to "Bobby, cause you're the best there is", on the album Castles In The Sand (Columbia 38535, 1983). That album is also dedicated to B.D. And earlier he mentions Dylan in the song Willie, Waylon And Me -- "... and Dylan would write poetry" -- on the album David Allen Coe Rides Again (Columbia 34310, 1977).) If Mr Coe confined himself to explicit sexuality I would probably find it in my heart to defend him. His view of women, is, shall we say, not the sort that I tend to run across. It appears to be a view which would be unlikely to lead to much contact with women as far as I can judge. He may meet different women to me.
His racism I have far more trouble with. I wish I could say these
extreme standpoints he adopts are a lampoon, a critique, a jibe.
Unless I am missing the boat altogether they are not. If he does not
hold to these views himself, if it is all a stage act cardboard
character, we are still left with wondering to whom his work appeals.
It does not ring out as satire to my mind, correct me if I am wrong. I
have particular trouble with his attitudes to incest and to beating a
woman/motorcycle because "she's hard to get started, she's always so
cold in the mornings...", and similar things.If I even felt an inkling that he was simply satirising redneck cliche appalling behaviour I would react very very differently. His work is banned many places, his advertising implies on sexual grounds. I suspect his sexual explicitness is not the reason, the work may get banned on "incitement to racial hatred" grounds, and then he can use the ban promotionally.
I can see he must be an accomplished bar band, raucous smoke-filled atmosphere shock even the drunks kind of performer. And that is an interesting genre. And he addresses a number of issues of importance which few would touch, especially portraying the viewpoints he does.
I am not saying I did not smile or even laugh, the man has wit. I am not saying my toe did not tap. But the bad apples rot the bushel. His work has no value.
That does not mean I wish to see him censored, I do not. If people want his albums I would make no effort to stop anyone. But if I had a record shop in the UK I would not carry them... (And if I had a record shop in the UK, and if you know me, just think how many 100% illegal albums would be in the racks. But I would not carry this.)
Attitudes to sex and race vary over the world, I know. Just my view from sunny Cambridge, oooops I mean Havana, as a liberal anarchist with little experience of Ohio. Hope I have not offended David Allan Coe fans. Our worlds are miles apart, in ever so many ways. I was pleased to have help in seeing another aspect of American culture not easily visible from here.
[There, David, bet I just sold you a whole heap of albums! :-) ]
If the aim of the person who put it on the glass master was a practical joke to put something as offensive as possible on the album, wellllll, I think they chose the right artist. If anyone knows worse artists in this respect, send them on to Ron, not me! (Even Miss Info had hesitations about Coe's work, and she even accepts Ron's taste!)
Anybody know the year of the album Underground? Any way of discovering it?
I gather he often plays prisons, was on death row himself at one point, for a murder at Ohio State (Pen. not U.), and his foster father joined him there for an unrelated murder he had committed. Capital punishment was abolished there and both had their sentences commuted to life. From the age of nine he spent most of his life in reform schools and prisons. He joined Columbia as a recording artist in the early 1970s. You can read his autobiography, Just For The Record, published in 1978.
Is he big in Madison? :-) Thought not...
Ed edu@edlis.orgI'll point the EDLIS random .sig generator software at David Allan Coe, his imagery can be good and witty, I like that side of him. I'll give you his inoffensive One More Cup Of Coffee, a fresh roasted mama, no mention of her valley below:--
I call my woman coffee
'Cause she grinds so fine.
She's like a percolator
She's ready any time...
