Track of the Week #51: Shut Up and Get on the Plane
Posted: Mon May 09, 2011 9:28 pm
Well your wishes and your feelings
Your bad dreams and intuitions
Are about as much good to me right now as a brand new set of golf clubs
We've been this close to death before, we were just too drunk to know it
Guess the price of being sobers being scared out of your mind
When it comes your time to go, ain't no good way to go about it
Ain't no use in thinking bout it
You'll just drive yourself insane
There comes a time for everything
And the time has come for you to shut your mouth and get your ass on the plane
Ain't nothing I'd rather do right now than just go on home and lay around
But that ain't never an option for a working man like me
How much is enough you ask
I'll ask the man when I get a chance
All I know right now, there's somewhere else I'm suppose to be
Screaming engines, shooting flames
Dirty needles and cheap cocaine
Some gal's old man with a gun
To me it's all the same
Dead is dead and it ain't no different than walking around if you ain't living
Living in fear's just another way of dying before your time
When Clams approached me about Track of the Week, I could not believe that this song was still on the list.
To me, Shut Up and Get on the Plane is a near perfect distillation of everything the Truckers are into 3:41. Southern boogie; greasy blues progression; punk energy; reckless soloing. It's snarling, defiant poetry at its finest. Cooley absolutely nails the ethos of working hard and living hard. Going balls to the walls with no fear of the end.
I discovered the Truckers at an interesting point in life. I had just finished undergard, and knew I was going to apply to law school, but I needed a year off. My folks were going through a nasty divorce (divorce with grown children is really, really weird). Something about the music just caught me and never let go. I'd never seen a band be so damn honest, and at the end of the day so fiercely proud of who they were warts and all. This really made sense to me. I know I'm flawed, but damn it, I'm proud of who I am and where I've come from. This song was just 1 in a number of their songs that bowled me over. Every fucking line of the song felt like something I could embrace. The line "the price of being sober's being scared out of your mind" reminded me of a couple buddies who were in that "I don't know what to do with myself so I'm drinking myself stupid" phase of life. The whole spirit of the song seemed to sum up where I (we) were in life: living hard and halfway aware of the consequences; yet still stubborn and proud of who we were and what lay in front of us. Living in fear IS dying before your time. Rather than run from things, we tried to brace them head on. Giving it hell every day. It isn't a sustainable way to go about things. The Truckers have realized that. I've realized that (hell, I knew it at the time). But the message is still the same. Growing up isn't living scared; its just living smart.
At the end of the day, like so many other Trucker songs, this one moved me in ways that I can't describe (and truthfully don't want to be able to describe). It encapsules everything that is right with rock and roll, and in a way, life.
That being said, I'm going to shut my mouth and get my ass on the plane.
Your bad dreams and intuitions
Are about as much good to me right now as a brand new set of golf clubs
We've been this close to death before, we were just too drunk to know it
Guess the price of being sobers being scared out of your mind
When it comes your time to go, ain't no good way to go about it
Ain't no use in thinking bout it
You'll just drive yourself insane
There comes a time for everything
And the time has come for you to shut your mouth and get your ass on the plane
Ain't nothing I'd rather do right now than just go on home and lay around
But that ain't never an option for a working man like me
How much is enough you ask
I'll ask the man when I get a chance
All I know right now, there's somewhere else I'm suppose to be
Screaming engines, shooting flames
Dirty needles and cheap cocaine
Some gal's old man with a gun
To me it's all the same
Dead is dead and it ain't no different than walking around if you ain't living
Living in fear's just another way of dying before your time
When Clams approached me about Track of the Week, I could not believe that this song was still on the list.
To me, Shut Up and Get on the Plane is a near perfect distillation of everything the Truckers are into 3:41. Southern boogie; greasy blues progression; punk energy; reckless soloing. It's snarling, defiant poetry at its finest. Cooley absolutely nails the ethos of working hard and living hard. Going balls to the walls with no fear of the end.
I discovered the Truckers at an interesting point in life. I had just finished undergard, and knew I was going to apply to law school, but I needed a year off. My folks were going through a nasty divorce (divorce with grown children is really, really weird). Something about the music just caught me and never let go. I'd never seen a band be so damn honest, and at the end of the day so fiercely proud of who they were warts and all. This really made sense to me. I know I'm flawed, but damn it, I'm proud of who I am and where I've come from. This song was just 1 in a number of their songs that bowled me over. Every fucking line of the song felt like something I could embrace. The line "the price of being sober's being scared out of your mind" reminded me of a couple buddies who were in that "I don't know what to do with myself so I'm drinking myself stupid" phase of life. The whole spirit of the song seemed to sum up where I (we) were in life: living hard and halfway aware of the consequences; yet still stubborn and proud of who we were and what lay in front of us. Living in fear IS dying before your time. Rather than run from things, we tried to brace them head on. Giving it hell every day. It isn't a sustainable way to go about things. The Truckers have realized that. I've realized that (hell, I knew it at the time). But the message is still the same. Growing up isn't living scared; its just living smart.
At the end of the day, like so many other Trucker songs, this one moved me in ways that I can't describe (and truthfully don't want to be able to describe). It encapsules everything that is right with rock and roll, and in a way, life.
That being said, I'm going to shut my mouth and get my ass on the plane.