Song of the Week #120: Ray's Automatic Weapon

[Tyler]

So I'm handling SotW the next two weeks, and here's the first of the pair.


I got to tell you
You got to take that gun back
Cuz these things that I been shooting at are getting all too real
Don't want to hurt nobody, but I keep on aiming closer
Don't think that I can keep it feeling like I feel
Ray I know I told you
That I'd keep it for you
I know I said I trusted me with it more than you
But something happened last night that made me reconsider
I need you to drive out here and relieve me of it too
I figured after forty years, I wouldn't still be having nightmares
You'd think that now that we're older, that war would finally be over
Ray, I'm in my sixties and the nights ain't getting shorter
Only my patience and checkbook and fuse
Ray I got to tell you
You got to come take that gun back
Cuz these things that I been shooting at are getting all too real


I have to say I really dig this song. It's a great character sketch that is all the more captivating because it really reveals so little. Said (by Patterson) to be inspired by a story told to him by a veteran while touring out west.

[Clams]

Love Neff's slide guitar and the tension in the lyrics. This one's a slow burner and I think it works great as a show opener.

Thanks for stepping up the next few weeks, Tyler. If anyone else wants to do so, let me know.

[dime in the gutter]

low end piano booms are stellar. neff abuses it with class.


only my patience and checkbook and fuse.

[Penny Lane]

I love hearing the full story behind this one--I think my favorite version is from one of the Caledonia residency shows? (not sure which one..the first?)

Great intro..

[davidkulligan]

Random lyrics image is always random. Love the tension in lyrics.

[BigTom]

Love this song. To me it sounds like it should be a song on Murdering Oscar. Sounds like it came from the same mold as Screwtopia, Heavy and Hanging, and Murdering Oscar which are my three favorites off of Murdering Oscar.

[Mr. B]

Here is a link to the episode of Sound Opinions in which PH describes how he came to write this one:

http://www.soundopinions.org/shownotes/2011/042211/shownotes.html

[rlipps]

Thought about this song the other day when I was in my friend's pawn shop that he owns. A guy came in to buy a gun and he had recently been discharged from the armed forces because he was injured in Afghanistan. I was sitting behind the counter to the side of him, and I noticed when he finalized the purchase and started to put the gun in the holster, his hands were trembling so bad that it literally took him 15 or 20 seconds to finally get it in the holster. I can only imagine what kind of horrors and atrocities he saw over there and I really hope he doesn't ever need to use the gun he purchased.