Drive-By Truckers: The Big To-Do
The Big-To Do is a deceptive. The title refers to the arena rock world of the late 70s, the circus of frontman Patterson Hood’s generation. Every couple of months, larger than life giants would pass through town. Hood has written about this before, in “Road Cases” and “Let There Be Rock.” The Ozzy Osbourne, Molly Hatchet and AC/DC shows had such an effect on young Hood that he decided to join the circus himself.
The curtain rises to the sound of mountainous riffs. Hood and lead guitarist Mike Cooley let the bombast flow. Their guitars play in tandem, squealing at the end of each bar. On a musical level, “Daddy Learned to Fly” is a great piece of Car Rock. The power chords sound wonderful at top volume with the top down. However, there is a darkness beneath the crackling Les Pauls. “Daddy Learned to Fly” is not a carefree expression of freedom, but a tale of death from a kid’s point of view. Hood avoids the easy traps of sentimentality. The child doesn’t understand what is going on, so he explains it the best way he knows how. As the story unfolds, the joyous guitar riff makes sense. The kid hasn’t grasped that his dad is truly gone, so his world remains sunny.
The most astonishing thing about The Drive-By Truckers is their ability to take familiar archetypes and turn them on their head. “Fourth Night of My Drinking” sounds like a drinking song. When I read the title, I thought I had it all figured out. The protagonist would have a good time on his first night of his drinking, and then things would begin to fall apart. Hood doesn’t have time for a prologue. The first night of drinking brings skinned knees and a broken finger. The second night brings a warning from the police. On the third night, he is stalking his lover and begging the bartender for one more shot. On the fourth night of drinking, his friends have finally left him and he is forced to drink alone. Despite everything he has lost, he has yet to reach bottom, acknowledging “She’ll be through with me before I’m through with it.”
The centerpiece of the album is “The Wig He Made Her Wear,” which combines two of the Truckers’ favorite subjects, murder and the hypocrisy of religion. The song is tells the true story of a preacher who was gunned down by his wife. He was a pillar of his community, but it was revealed that he abused his wife and children. The wife was eventually charged with manslaughter. It would be easy to take sides, but Hood acts as a reporter. The music is appropriately subdued, with a skittering guitar riff and shuffling drums.
So where does arena rock fit into this landscape of death, alcoholism and murder? The band never addresses it directly, but elements of that genre run through the record. Perhaps The Big To-Do doesn’t refer to the rock show, but life itself. Life is such a big to-do that you need an artificial one to take your mind off it. As Patterson Hood once said, “We are a dark band, but our live shows are a whole lot of fun.”
I think it’s time to dust off Blizzard of Ozz.
