My Top 1000 Songs #819: Used To Be A Cop

[I've been writing up my Top 1000 songs on a daily basis--you can see them all in descending order by hitting the All My Favorite Songs tag.]

Patterson Hood takes the Drive-By Truckers deep into the American underbelly...

...on a LOT of songs...

...but this one goes particularly dark. "Used To Be A Cop," off 2001's Go-Go Boots, offers a true-to-life film noir tale of a troubled, violent ex-cop, bemoaning his fall while staking out his ex-wife's home from the shadows. It's not pretty, the addiction and psychosis right in your face, but it feels incredibly authentic, helpfully buoyed by a snaky bass riff given supple bounce by Shonna Tucker, a steadily percolating gallop you wish would go on forever, with yearning slide guitar wafting on top. There's a momentary reprieve, a brilliant pivot from minor to major key as our narrator recounts his early peak as a high school football star who aces the police academy exam, before it all crashes down.

Live:

Ok, just one more...