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TAPE 1 OF 4 · WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO RECORDS
Critter's Gonna Critter
Self-titled. Self-explanatory. 300 copies pressed from the truck.
- 01Critter's Gonna Critter
Whitfield has said this was the last song written for the record and the first one they knew was finished. It was cut in two takes. The second take is the one on the album; the first is faster and Whitfield has described it as "trying."
Words, as sung
I have never won an argument with weather I have never talked a river out of rain You can stand out in the parking lot and holler It will do exactly what it was gonna do again Critter's gonna critter That's the whole of what I know You can love it or you can leave it sitting Either way it's gonna go My daddy fought the Bay for thirty summers Built a dock the water took in three He rebuilt it. Took it twice more after. Said the water wasn't doing it to me. Critter's gonna critter That's the whole of what I know You can love it or you can leave it sitting Either way it's gonna go It is not a thing you beat It is not a thing you lose It is a thing that's gonna happen And you get to pick your mood There's a kind of peace in knowing what a thing is There's a kind of rest in letting it be true I have made my peace with damn near every critter Working on the last one. That'd be me.
- 02Raccoon at the Merch Table (The Incident)
The band has always maintained that every detail in this song is accurate. The archive has cross-checked it against three separate accounts and found one discrepancy: the ear notch is remembered on the left by Whitfield and Tran, and on the right by Kowalczyk. The song sides with the majority.
Words, as sung
Came up from the drainage ditch a quarter after nine Reddish-brown and heavy, and he took his time Notch cut through his left ear like he'd been somewhere before Walked right past the four of us. Never looked once at the door. Mike said that's a professional, he has done this work before You could tell it by how comfortable he was He started on the cassettes and he worked them one by one Tipped the cooler over, let the ice go where it does And we stood at the edge of that lot Fifteen minutes, maybe more Nobody hollered, nobody moved That is what standing there is for Ate the price list off the paper plate, the whole thing, ink and all Looked at us about a second when he'd finished with it all Then he went back where he came from — didn't hurry, didn't run And Jimmy said four words, and that was that, and we were done And we stood at the edge of that lot Fifteen minutes, maybe more Nobody hollered, nobody moved That is what standing there is for Critter's gonna critter Bobby said what are you gonna do Mike waited about thirty seconds Said: he'd done that before. He knew.
- 03Mobile Bay Decides It's Done Traveling
Written on the causeway. Whitfield has said he pulled over because he did not want to lose the second line, and then sat there for forty minutes because he had nothing to write on and had to keep saying it out loud.
Words, as sung
The river comes down out of Alabama Past the paper mill and past the pine Been running since somewhere north of Selma Carrying whatever it could find Then it gets to Mobile and it widens And it slows, and it lets the current go Mobile Bay decides it's done traveling That is a thing worth learning slow Everything it carried, it puts down here Silt and stick and forty kinds of clay Builds the ground this whole town's standing on now Out of all the things it couldn't take away Then it gets to Mobile and it widens And it slows, and it lets the current go Mobile Bay decides it's done traveling That is a thing worth learning slow I have known men who ran until they couldn't I have known men who never left at all I don't believe that either one was wrong exactly Water gets here either way. That's all. Nothing about it looks like arriving Looks like spreading out and going still But you stand at Fairhope on an evening And you will see it arrive. It will.
- 04Not On the Way to Somewhere Else
The booking agent has never been identified. Whitfield declines to name him and has said only that the man was not wrong, and that being not wrong was not the same as being right about them.
Words, as sung
Nobody drives through Mobile to get anywhere You come here because here is where you're going Interstate will take you right on past us if you let it Most folks let it. We are fine with the not-knowing. We are not on the way to somewhere else Never have been. Don't intend to be. This is not a stop along the highway This is just exactly where we are. Had a booking agent tell me in eighty-nine Boys, you ought to move on up to Nashville, get seen I said, what is up in Nashville. He said, everybody. I said, that is about exactly what I mean. We are not on the way to somewhere else Never have been. Don't intend to be. This is not a stop along the highway This is just exactly where we are. Bobby's people came down out of Ohio Mike's came further than that, and further back Everybody here came here from somewhere else once Difference is — we all unpacked.
- 05Seventy Percent Tarp
The tarp was retired in 1994 and is, according to Tran, still in a shed in Theodore. Kowalczyk maintains that he was right about it. Whitfield has never conceded this.
Words, as sung
Eighty-four Ford, bed full of gear Tarp over the top of it, been there four years Works about seventy percent of the time Which is a number I have come to call fine Seventy percent tarp Thirty percent sky Everything I own is under there And most of it stays dry Bobby says get a new one — has since eighty-six Bobby says my merch table's uneven, and it is It is uneven and it holds up what I set on it And that is about the size of how a lot of things is Seventy percent tarp Thirty percent sky Everything I own is under there And most of it stays dry A hundred percent is a thing they sell you On the radio, in a magazine I have never met a hundred percent of anything And I have been most everywhere between Seventy percent's a passing grade in most of what I've done Seventy percent's a marriage and a truck that mostly runs I have never once been dry the whole way down to Biloxi And I have never once turned around and not gone.
- 06A Dollar Sounded Nice
The Pascagoula show is the lowest attended in the band's records. It is not, according to Whitfield, the worst one.
Words, as sung
Charged five dollars at the door in Pascagoula Three came in. That is fifteen for the night. Split four ways after gas comes to about a dollar And a dollar sounded nice. A dollar sounded nice Not much. But it sounded nice. I have played for less than that and called it even I have played for nothing twice. Man came up and asked me what we're charging for the tape I said four. He said, would you take three. I said I would take three. He said he'd think on it. He came back at the end and handed me a four. A dollar sounded nice Not much. But it sounded nice. I have played for less than that and called it even I have played for nothing twice. Everybody wants to know what we were after Like there is a thing behind the thing you see We were after Friday. Then Saturday. Then gas money. And a dollar. And a dollar sounded fine to me.
- 07Truck Bed Gospel
Fontenot has said that he was awake for the entire drive described in this song and that he has never told Whitfield.
Words, as sung
Two in the morning outside of Pensacola Bobby's driving, Mike is in the back Jimmy's got his head against the window And I am watching mile markers go past This is the only church I ever needed Four men quiet in a truck that mostly runs Nobody preaching and nobody pleading Everybody heading where they're from I don't know that I believe in much of anything That would hold up if you leaned on it too hard But I believe in the four of us at two a.m. And a tarp, and a tailgate, and the yard This is the only church I ever needed Four men quiet in a truck that mostly runs Nobody preaching and nobody pleading Everybody heading where they're from When they ask me what the band was about, I tell them: nothing. It was four guys and a truck. They think that I am being modest, or I'm hiding something. I am telling them the truth. That was the whole of it.
- 08Mobile Alabama Saturday Night
Closed every set the band played from 1988 until the last full-band show in 1994. The bar with the tarpon has never been identified. Three people have described it. No two agree on the name.
Words, as sung
Sun goes down about eight in the summer Heat does not go with it, heat stays put Everybody's on a porch or in a parking lot Nobody's in a hurry to get anywhere but here Mobile, Alabama, Saturday night Nothing much is gonna happen and that's all right Bar's got a tarpon mounted up above the door We will be here till they do not want us anymore Girl at the bar has been here since Thursday She will tell you so herself if you ask Tells the same three stories in the same three orders Everybody listens. Everybody laughs. Mobile, Alabama, Saturday night Nothing much is gonna happen and that's all right Bar's got a tarpon mounted up above the door We will be here till they do not want us anymore Somewhere there's a city where it is all going on Where it matters who you know and what you wore I have been there twice. It was fine. I came home on a Sunday and I locked the door.