sign of impending apocalypse #62

KGSR played “You Never Even Called Me By My Name” this morning. I think you have to live in Austin to understand just how bizarre that is.
See, this is why I like living here and have never wanted to leave.
I am not a big David Allan Coe fan myself, but somehow I get a kick out of that song. I might or might not have been singing along this morning. If you don’t know the song (I think all Texans are required by law to listen to it at least once, although we don’t have to like it), many people consider it the ultimate country music song. Many other people consider it lame, dumb, and even dreadful, and no, they don’t kick you out of Texas for thinking that.
Weirdly enough, that song reminds me of my paternal grandmother, even though I don’t think she ever set foot in Texas … well, of her funeral anyway. I can explain. I rode to her funeral with my baby brother in his car. The child is incapable of driving 10 feet without putting in a CD and cranking up the volume, even on the way to a funeral.
And which CD did he inexplicably decide to play as we drove down West Metairie Road? “You Never Even Called Me By My Name.” And of course we had to sing along. You can’t not sing along. The CD was loud, we were louder. There should have been nothing appropriate about it but somehow we felt better. In fact, I think we might have played it twice.
See, not only do I love this town, but I think I’m too weird to live anywhere else.