The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion is an American garage rock band, which was … Read Full Bio ↴The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion is an American garage rock band, which was formed in New York in 1990. Singer Jon Spencer was previously the leader of the noise punk band Pussy Galore before hooking up with Judah Bauer (guitar) and Russell Simins (drums) to form the Blues Explosion, a band that was part of the 1990s alternative rock boom. This bass-less combo had their breakthrough in 1993 with the album "Extra Width" on Crypt Records. In 1994 "Orange", a more accessible album followed along with a growing base of fans.

1996 they released an album which is regarded as their masterpiece, "Now I Got Worry". An unwieldy mess of an album, Now I Got Worry, starts with a series of piercing screams and never stops confounding until the end. Featuring the legendary Rufus Thomas howling and barking on Chicken Dog, and The Dub Narcotic Sound System on Fuck Shit Up, Now I Got Worry was a glorious celebration of what an open mind(s) could do with white trash rock and roll.

Touring endlessly, JSBX gained a small but enthusiastic global audience. Subsequent albums were "Acme" (1998), "Xtra Acme USA" (1999), "Plastic Fang" (2002), "Damage" (2004) and the earlier "Crypt Style" (1992) and "Jon Spencer Blues Explosion" (1992).

Jon Spencer as well as the other members of the band had several side-projects. They recorded an album together with The Dub Narcotic Sound System. Jon Spencer played together with R.L. Burnside ("A Ass Pocket Of Whiskey"), David Holmes ("Bow Down to the Exit Sign"), The Honeymoon Killers ("Hung Far Low") and other artists. He is also a member of Boss Hog, along with his wife Cristina Martinez. Together with Matt Verta-Ray of Speedball Baby Spencer formed a rockabilly revival band called Heavy Trash which has released three albums. The band has also been associated in various ways with The Beastie Boys, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and others.

On the Blues Explosion's album "Damage" (2004) they left out the "Jon Spencer" prefix of the band's name to show that they are a genuine band.

Cowboy
The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Cold gray buildings where a hill should be.
Steel and concrete closing in on me.
City faces haunt the places i roam alone.

Cowboy, cowboy, can't run, can't hide, too late.
To fight now, to die to try.

Winds that once blew free now scatter dust to the sky

Cowboy, cowboy, can't run, can't hide, too late.

To fight now, to die to try.

Overall Meaning

The opening lines of The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion's song Cowboy present a dreary and bleak image of the cityscape, which is represented by "cold gray buildings where a hill should be" and the suffocating presence of "steel and concrete closing in on me." The lyrics depict the isolation and loneliness that the singer experiences while wandering through the city, haunted by the sight of people's faces, but unable to connect with them. The repetition of the word "cowboy" seems to refer to the singer's feelings of being an outsider, a lone ranger in a world that he doesn't belong to.

The next stanza continues with the melancholic tone, as the singer describes the winds that once blew free but now only scatter dust to the sky, perhaps indicating the passing of a time that he remembers fondly. However, the chorus interrupts these thoughts, bringing the sense of urgency and the realization that it's too late to run or hide. The use of repetition again emphasizes the futility of any action, as the singer is unable to find a way out of his predicament.

Overall, the song presents a vivid image of a person trapped in a hostile environment, no longer able to find refuge in the symbol of freedom and independence that the cowboy once represented.

Line by Line Meaning

Cold gray buildings where a hill should be.
The landscape has been shaped by humans with structures replacing natural features.

Steel and concrete closing in on me.
The urban environment is becoming suffocating and oppressive.

City faces haunt the places i roam alone.
The singer is surrounded by people but still feels alone and isolated.

Cowboy, cowboy, can't run, can't hide, too late.
The artist feels trapped and powerless in their current situation.

To fight now, to die to try.
The only options left are to struggle and potentially die fighting for change.

Winds that once blew free now scatter dust to the sky
The natural world has been degraded by industrialization and pollution.

Cowboy, cowboy, can't run, can't hide, too late.
Reiterated feeling of being trapped and powerless.

To fight now, to die to try.
Reiterated notion that struggle is the only option left.

Contributed by Ava J. Suggest a correction in the comments below.

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