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You Never Even Called Me by My Name

"You Never Even Called Me by My Name"
Single by David Allan Coe
B-side "Would You Lay with Me"
Released June 1975
Format 7" single, airplay
Genre Outlaw Country, Country & Western
Length 5:16
Label Columbia Nashville
Songwriter(s) Steve Goodman
John Prine (uncredited)
Producer(s) Ron Bledsoe
David Allan Coe singles chronology
"Would You Be My Lady"
(1975)
"You Never Even Called Me by My Name"
(1975)
"Longhaired Redneck"
(1975)
"Would You Be My Lady"
(1975)
"You Never Even Called Me by My Name"
(1975)
"Longhaired Redneck"
(1975)
"You Never Even Called Me by My Name"
Single by Doug Supernaw
from the album Deep Thoughts from a Shallow Mind
B-side "State Fair"
Released August 1994
Format CD single, airplay
Genre Country
Length 4:04
Label BNA
Songwriter(s) Steve Goodman
John Prine (uncredited)
Producer(s) Richard Landis
Doug Supernaw singles chronology
"State Fair"
(1994)
"You Never Even Called Me by My Name"
(1994)
"What'll You Do About Me"
(1995)
"State Fair"
(1994)
"You Never Even Called Me by My Name"
(1994)
"What'll You Do About Me"
(1995)

"You Never Even Called Me by My Name" is a song written and recorded by Steve Goodman and John Prine, and recorded by country music singer David Allan Coe. It was the third single release of Coe's career, included on his album Once Upon a Rhyme. The song was Coe's first Top Ten hit, reaching a peak of number eight on the Billboard country singles charts. The song, over five minutes long, is known for its humorous self-description as "the perfect country and western song."

The song is a satirical response and kiss-off to the country music industry in Nashville. Coe was an ideal choice to convey Steve Goodman's message to the country music industry due to his non-conformist ("outlaw") style; Coe had little love for the Nashville industry.

The country music industry of the era blatantly refused to acknowledge the writers' and artist's fringe style; Goodman, despite success penning the folk-pop crossover "City of New Orleans," was still considered an outsider and neophyte. Coe's and Goodman's response to Nashville was not to sell out; the song name-drops Waylon Jennings, Charley Pride and Merle Haggard (as well as his song "The Fightin' Side of Me;" Coe also uses loose impersonations of each artist in doing so) and also makes reference to Faron Young's "Hello Walls" in the background vocals, noting that "you" (industry executives) "don't have to call me" any of those names anymore. In the third verse, Coe notes "the only time I know I'll hear David Allan Coe is when Jesus has his final Judgment Day," noting that he never expected the industry to recognize him by his individual merits.


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