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TAPE 4 OF 4 · WHAT ARE YOU GONNA DO RECORDS
One More Show
There were several more shows after this. The title was aspirational in the wrong direction.
- 01One More Show
Whitfield has repeated the distinction in this song's final verse in every interview he has given. The archive has honoured it throughout.
Words, as sung
Nobody quit. I want that understood. There was not a meeting. There was not a fight. Bobby went to Biloxi in the fall of ninety-four And that was not a leaving. That was just a night. One more show That is all it ever was Never was a career, never was a plan One more show. Because. Mike went the next year, and then Jimmy Neither of them ever said that they were gone I kept booking. Kept the name up on the marquee. Kept saying one more show. And I went on. One more show That is all it ever was Never was a career, never was a plan One more show. Because. People want a breakup. People want a reason. Something with a date they can write down. We did not break up. We ran out. There is a difference, and I would like it written down.
- 02Stopped Showing Up
The four chairs are confirmed by Broussard, who saw them set up at The Sandbar in 1995 and has said she did not mention it.
Words, as sung
It is not dramatic when a band ends Nobody throws a drum kit off a stage Somebody has a thing on a Tuesday And then somebody has a thing again They just stopped showing up One at a time, across two years Nobody ever said a word about it Nobody ever does I would set up four chairs out of habit Long after there were four of us to sit Took me until about the middle of ninety-five To quit doing it They just stopped showing up One at a time, across two years Nobody ever said a word about it Nobody ever does I do not hold it against a one of them Every one of them had somewhere they should be And if you want to know which one of us left first The answer is: not me.
- 03The Last Full-Band Show ('94)
The forty is Whitfield's estimate. The venue's own record for the night says thirty-one.
Words, as sung
Early ninety-four, in Mobile, on a Friday It was not announced as anything at all Played the set we always played, in the order Closed with Saturday Night, the way we always did After, I said I thought that we had probably Played about what we were going to play Bobby said that is a hell of a way to put it Mike said nothing. Jimmy said okay. That was the last full-band show And nobody in the room could tell Not the four of us, not the forty of them It looked like every other night as well I have gone back over it a hundred times Looking for the part where it went wrong There is not one. It was a good night. That is the part that took me longest.
- 04He Didn't Say Why (Bobby Left for Biloxi)
Kowalczyk has been asked. He has said it was a thing in Biloxi.
Words, as sung
Bobby called me on a Sunday in October Said he had a thing in Biloxi he should take Did not say a job. Did not say a woman. Said a thing. And I did not ask him to explain. He did not say why And I did not make him Twenty years of standing to my left And I let him go without a reason Everybody says I should have asked him Everybody says that is the thing to do Bobby would have told me if he wanted Bobby did not want to. So he did not. So I knew. He did not say why And I did not make him Twenty years of standing to my left And I let him go without a reason He plays down there still, I hear. On weekends. Somebody said a wedding band. Some said a bar. I have not called him and he has not called me And we are, so far as I know, exactly what we are.
- 05Three More Cassettes (Sold by Mail)
The Kansas City correspondent has never been identified. Whitfield still has the reply letter and has declined to let the archive photograph it.
Words, as sung
Got an envelope in April, ninety-five Kansas City. Man I never met. Said he heard us on a tape a friend had taped Asked me was there any of them left Three more cassettes, sold by mail Twelve dollars and a stamp That is the whole of the fifth year of this band Three more cassettes, sold by mail I made them on the deck in my own kitchen Wrote the track list out by hand on every one Took them to the post office on a Tuesday Mailed them off to Kansas City. That was done. He wrote back. Said thank you. Said he liked the third one. Said the bass was good — which I have heard. Different man. Different rain. Same four words. And I sat at my kitchen table for a while.
- 06Thank-You Notes, Unsigned
Thirty cards were mailed between 1994 and 1996. The archive has located four. All four owners have declined to sell them.
Words, as sung
Put a note in with every one I mailed Just a card. Just a couple lines. No more. Told them thank you, told them where we played Never signed a single one of them Thank-you notes, unsigned Not a one of them It was not modesty and it was not shame I just did not know which name to put on them Dale Whitfield is a man in Mobile, Alabama Critter's Gonna Critter was the four of us And by ninety-five there was not four of us So there was not anybody left to sign it as Thank-you notes, unsigned Not a one of them It was not modesty and it was not shame I just did not know which name to put on them If you have got one of those cards, it is from me And I would like the record to say so now Thirty of them went out. Unsigned. I am signing them here. This is how.
- 07The Sandbar (Charlie's Room)
Broussard still operates The Sandbar. She has confirmed the booking records. She has confirmed nothing else.
Words, as sung
Charlene Broussard runs a bar in Biloxi Been there since a long time before us Booked us the first time in eighty-eight on nothing Booked us the last time when there was not a band The Sandbar. Charlie's room. Fifty chairs and a stage the size of a truck Everybody plays it on the way to somewhere Charlie stayed. And so did I. She has never once told me that we were good Charlie does not say that kind of thing She has told me what night I could have and what it paid And that is a whole other way of saying something The Sandbar. Charlie's room. Fifty chairs and a stage the size of a truck Everybody plays it on the way to somewhere Charlie stayed. And so did I. Last one I played there it was me and a guitar She did not put it on the sign out front Told me she would rather people came in not knowing And a few of them did. And that was that.