2000 Great Songs #1266: Thoughts And Prayers
Besides being one of the truly great American bands of the past quarter-century, the Drive-By Truckers are, without hyperbole, the most thoughtful purveyors of protest music since Bob Dylan. And while their pointed everyman concerns, most often expressed by co-leader Patterson Hood, are frequently wrapped in exquisite storytelling (see, e.g., the out-of-work widower in " Puttin' People On The Moon ," the family landowner facing foreclosure in " Sink Hole "), sometimes they take a more direct route. "Thoughts And Prayers," off 2000's somber (first) Trump-term The Unraveling , is an unvarnished take on gun culture and school shootings, as devastating and brutally honest as the subject deserves. (And, yeah, what can be more American than the need for multiple songs about school shootings?) It's an explicit Fuck You to the right wing thoughts & prayers crowd who view dead children as a fair price to pay for unfettered access to unlimited fir...
