David Allan Coe Research Papers

David Allan Coe was born out of Akron, Ohio on September 6, 1939. Coe was an outlaw country singer who wrote his own songs and some for others as well. Coe’s favorite singer as a child was a man called Johnny Ace. At the age of nine, Coe was sent to the Starr Commonwealth for Boys reform school. Much of Coe’s younger years were spent in correctional facilities, including three years at a penitentiary in Ohio. According to Coe’s publicity handout, he spent time on Death Row after murdering a fellow inmate who demanded oral sex. When Rolling Stone magazine questioned this, Coe responded with a song, “I’d Like To Kick The Shit Out Of You”. Whatever the truth of the matter was, Coe was paroled in 1967 and took his songs about his life in prison to Shelby Singleton who released two albums on his SSS label. A man known as “Screamin’ Jay Hawkins” whom Coe spent much time with in prison coerced Coe to become a song writer. After a prison term ending in

Coe was accused of plagiarizing one of Jimmy Buffet’s melodies but Buffet refused to sue Coe for the simple fact that “Jimmy Buffet didn’t want to give David Allan Coe the satisfaction of being publicized and having his name printed in the paper.” Coe appears unable to separate the good from the ridiculous and his albums are erratic. At Coe’s best, he is a sensitive, intelligent writer. Similarly, his stage performances with his Tennessee Hat Band are wildly dissimilar in length and quality: sometimes there is non-stop music, sometimes they features conjuring tricks. Coe’s main trick; however, is to remain successful, as country music fans grow exasperated with his over-the-top publicity. Coe may still be an outlaw but as Waylon Jennings remarks in ‘Living Legends’; that only means double-parking on Music