Noteworthy for their three guitars lineup, the 'Truckers' are often associated with the Southern rock movement of the 70s and "jam" bands but are too cerebral and irreverent to sit squarely in either genre. Their lyrics often revolve around the working class trying to survive in economically-depressed small towns of the South.
Co-founded by Patterson Hood (son of bassist David Hood of the legendary Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section) and longtime friend and musical partner Mike Cooley in Athens, Georgia, in 1996. The two men had played in various other bands including Adam's House Cat which was chosen as a top ten Best Unsigned Band by a Musician contest in the late 1980s.
Together with a revolving group of musicians, Drive-By Truckers put out their first two albums, Gangstabilly (1998) and Pizza Deliverance (1999). Following their second release, the band embarked on a nationwide tour, resulting in a live album called Alabama Ass Whuppin' (released in 2000 by Second Heaven Records, re-released in 2002 by Terminus Records). They had an entertaining and informational website long before most bands had begun taking advantage of the internet as a promotional tool, and together with constant touring, they quickly developed a large and dedicated fan base both on and off-line.
After three years on the road a tight-knit group of musicians emerged and they began work on 2001's Southern Rock Opera. Southern Rock Opera is a double album executed as a song cycle. The album loosely uses the rise and literal fall of Lynyrd Skynyrd as a metaphor for the culture of the American South.
Self released on their own Soul Dump Records on September 12, 2001, Southern Rock Opera, quickly accumulated praise from fans and critics alike, including a four-star review in Rolling Stone. To take advantage of the positive reception, Southern Rock Opera was re-issued by Mercury and Lost Highway Records in July 2002. Soon after, Drive-By Truckers were named Band of the Year by No Depression.
Before they could record a follow-up to Southern Rock Opera, guitarist Rob Malone left and was replaced guitarist and songwriter, Jason Isbell. Originally from Greenhill, Alabama, during his five years with Drive-By Truckers, Isbell contributed a number of significant songs to the albums he worked on.
Due to changes at Lost Highway, the Truckers were released from their contract and signed with Austin-based record label New West, for the follow-up to Southern Rock Opera, 2003's Decoration Day. Like its predecessor, the album received broad praise from fans and critics alike. Although it isn't a concept album, the songs of Decoration Day explore a common theme of hard decisions in the context of marriage, incest, break-ups, revenge, murder, and suicide are major themes.
After years of producing and playing with Drive-By Truckers, bassist Earl Hicks left the band on December 22, 2003. Hicks was immediately replaced by studio bassist Shonna Tucker, then wife of guitarist Jason Isbell. Tucker had previously guested on Decoration Day playing upright bass on the Cooley-penned track, "Sounds Better in the Song".
In 2004, Drive-By Truckers released The Dirty South. Like Southern Rock Opera, The Dirty South was a concept album. The Dirty South further explored the mythology of the South, with songs focusing on Sam Phillips and the Sun Records crowd, John Henry and his hammer, and a three-song suite about Sheriff Buford Pusser.
After touring throughout 2004 and 2005, Drive-By Truckers found their way to the Fidelitorium Recording Studio in Forsyth County, North Carolina during late 2005. These recording sessions, once again produced by David Barbe, resulted in the band's seventh LP, A Blessing and a Curse.
Released on April 18, 2006, A Blessing and a Curse showcased Drive-By Truckers' ability to branch out into new territory, and can be seen as the band's attempt at shaking labeling by critics, detractors, fans, and followers, particularly the Southern rock label that has haunted the band since Southern Rock Opera. The album sounds less like Skynyrd, and more closely resembles the bare-bones British rock of the early 1970s such as The Rolling Stones and Faces. Tom Petty's influence on the band's sound is more prominent on this album as well.
In 2006, Drive-By Truckers reunited, both on-stage and on-record, with Athens-based pedal steel guitarist, John Neff. Neff first played with the band on their 1998 debut LP, Gangstabilly, and played pedal steel on three subsequent albums, 1999's Pizza Deliverance, and 2003's Decoration Day. Neff was featured heavily on the 2006 release, A Blessing and a Curse. During the next year, Neff began touring with the band as an unofficial sixth member.
On April 5, 2007 Jason Isbell announced that he was no longer a member of the band. The following day, Patterson Hood confirmed the break on the official site. In his letter to the fans, Hood described the parting of ways as "amicable" and expressed the hope that fans would continue to support Drive-By Truckers as well as Jason's solo efforts. In the same letter, Hood announced that John Neff would become a full-time member playing both guitar and pedal steel.
Shortly after Isbell's departure, on April 20, 2007, Patterson Hood announced via the band's website that a longtime friend of The Hood Family, Spooner Oldham, would be joining the band playing keyboard for a string of acoustic performances called The Dirt Underneath Tour.
Drive-By Truckers performed as backup musicians for Bettye LaVette's 2007 album, The Scene of the Crime. The album went to #1 on Billboard's Blues Chart and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Blues Album. Partly as a result of this collaboration, the Truckers went on to act as the backing band for Booker T Jones for his first recording in more than a decade. The album, Potato Hole, was well received by critics and it resulted in numerous shows together.
On January 22, 2008, the Drive-By Truckers' eighth album, Brighter Than Creation's Dark (named after a line in a Cooley song entitled "Checkout Time in Vegas"), was released in the US and went to #37 on the Billboard 200 album charts. Once again, David Barbe produced the album and artist Wes Freed provided the artwork. The album has nineteen tracks and features the first song contributions from bassist Shonna Tucker.
The band's ninth album "The Big To-Do" was issued on March 26, 2010 on ATO Records, the label founded by Dave Matthews and home to such artists as My Morning Jacket, Radiohead, The Whigs and Brendan Benson.
Self Destructive Zones
Drive-By Truckers Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
When the news of revolution hit the air
The girls hadn't even started taking down our posters
When the boys started cutting off their hair
The radio stations all decided angst was finally old enough
It ought to have a proper home
Dead fat or rich nobody's left to bitch
About the goings' on in self destructive zones
The night the practice room caught fire
There were rumors of a dragon headed straight for Muscle Shoals
"Stoner tries to save an amplifier"
And it's like the dragon's side of the story is never told
When the dream and the man and the girls hang around long enough
To make you think it's coming true,
It's easier to let it all die a fairy tale,
Than admit that something bigger is passing through
The hippies rode a wave putting smiles on faces,
That the devil wouldn't even put a shoe
Caught between a generation dying from its habits,
And another thinking rock and roll was new
Till the pawn shops were packed like a backstage party,
Hanging full of pointy ugly cheap guitars
And the young'uns all turned to karaoke,
Hanging all their wishes upon disregarded stars
My Grandaddys shotgun is locked in a closet
And it never shot a thing that could have lived
An old man decided that you couldn't choose your poison
Till you're nearly old enough to vote for him
They turned what was into something so disgusting
Even wild dogs would disregard the bones
Dead fat or rich nobody's left to bitch
About the goings on in self destructive zones
The Drive-By Truckers’ “Self Destructive Zones” is a song that explores the themes of rebellion, disillusionment, and the decline of rock and roll culture. The song is set in the late 1980s and early 1990s when the fervor of revolution was still palpable in the air. The opening lines describe how the news of revolution had hit the air, but instead of leading to change, it led to the boys cutting off their hair and the girls not even taking down their posters. The song centers around the idea that no one is left to fight against the self-destructive tendencies that have come to dominate rock and roll culture.
The song also touches on the decline of youth culture, as the hippie generation gives way to a newer generation that sees rock and roll as something new. The song talks about the pawn shops that are now packed with ugly, cheap guitars, and how the young newcomers are no longer trying to create something new but instead just trying to emulate their heroes. The song suggests that the music business has become a self-destructive zone, where the dreams and the people hang around long enough to make you think it’s coming true, but it is easier to let it all die as a fairy tale than admit that something bigger is passing through.
Overall, the song is a lament for the loss of creativity and the sense of possibility that once drove rock music. It suggests that the culture has become stagnant and self-destructive, and no one is left to fight against this trend.
Line by Line Meaning
It was 1990 give or take I don't remember
The year isn't important, but it was a time when revolution was in the air
When the news of revolution hit the air
There was a general sense of upheaval and change in the world
The girls hadn't even started taking down our posters
The world was changing so fast that even the things in our own lives were becoming irrelevant
When the boys started cutting off their hair
People were abandoning the traditions and symbols of the past
The radio stations all decided angst was finally old enough
The mainstream was starting to take notice of the music and culture of rebellion
It ought to have a proper home
This new sense of rebellion needed to be channeled and harnessed
Dead fat or rich nobody's left to bitch
No one is left to complain about what's happening
About the goings' on in self destructive zones
The chaos and destruction are happening in our own backyards
The night the practice room caught fire
A pivotal moment in this era of rebellion and change
There were rumors of a dragon headed straight for Muscle Shoals
There was an air of mystery, danger, and excitement surrounding this event
"Stoner tries to save an amplifier"
The stories and legends that grew out of this moment, perhaps exaggerated or distorted
And it's like the dragon's side of the story is never told
We only hear one version of the story, even though there were many perspectives
When the dream and the man and the girls hang around long enough
When a fantasy or ideal persists for too long, it can start to seem real
To make you think it's coming true,
We can convince ourselves that our dreams are becoming a reality
It's easier to let it all die a fairy tale,
It's easier to give up on our idealism and go back to the status quo
Than admit that something bigger is passing through
It's hard to accept that the world is changing in ways that we can't control or understand
The hippies rode a wave putting smiles on faces,
An earlier generation had its own culture of rebellion and idealism
That the devil wouldn't even put a shoe
Their movement was so innocent and optimistic that it seemed almost divine
Caught between a generation dying from its habits,
The generation after the hippies, caught between the optimism of the past and the darkness of the present
And another thinking rock and roll was new
The new generation was obsessed with music, but they didn't have any new ideas of their own
Till the pawn shops were packed like a backstage party,
Music had become a commodity, something to be bought and sold
Hanging full of pointy ugly cheap guitars
The instruments that had once been symbols of rebellion were now mass-produced and sold to anyone
And the young'uns all turned to karaoke,
Young people no longer wanted to create their own music, but instead imitated what they heard on the radio
Hanging all their wishes upon disregarded stars
Young people idolized musicians who were no longer relevant or even alive
My Grandaddys shotgun is locked in a closet
The old traditions and symbols of power are now hidden away and forgotten
And it never shot a thing that could have lived
The old ways of doing things were never really effective or successful
An old man decided that you couldn't choose your poison
The older generation had imposed their own values and ideas on the younger generation
Till you're nearly old enough to vote for him
Young people were expected to follow the values of the older generation until they were old enough to participate in the political system
They turned what was into something so disgusting
The ideals and values of the past had been distorted and corrupted
Even wild dogs would disregard the bones
The symbols and artifacts of the past were now meaningless
Dead fat or rich nobody's left to bitch
No one is left to complain about what's happening
About the goings on in self destructive zones
The chaos and destruction are happening in our own backyards
Lyrics © Peermusic Publishing, Hipgnosis Songs Group
Written by: JOHN MICHAEL COOLEY
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind