A Farewell to the Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy

Outlaw Country legend David Allan Coe passed on April 29, 2026. I’m not strong on obituaries, but when I learned that DAC had finally left us, I felt I had to say SOMETHING on this blog.

Today’s the last day of August, so you can tell it took me a LONG time to come up with something I feel might be even remotely appropriate.

Let’s face it, DAC was as crazy as they come. After they made him, they broke the mould. I guess I’m not exactly your average Joe, but this guy? There’s nothing I could come up with in this post that could do him remotely justice.

He wrote lots of great originals, but for some reason one song that especially stuck with me is his cover version of Dave Loggins’ PLEASE COME TO BOSTON.
Recorded during the Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy sessions in 1974, it is included in most newer digital releases but was not on the original vinyl album. It was first released as a B-Side of his Willie, Waylon, and Me 7“ in 1976.
For me, the sentiment, the longing, and the emotion he manages to put into this song are unmatched. His version still puts tears in my eyes every time I play it:

In 1976, he reinvented himself as THE LONGHAIRED REDNECK (a song he co-wrote with Jimmy Rabbitt). The sentiment is still there (this is country music, after all), but this time it feels more like crocodile tears. Needless to say, this one also has a permanent spot in my personal Eternal Top 100 Country Songs.

In his younger years, he was what we might call a ‘sharp dresser’. This photo was taken in the early 1970s, when he was still touring as the ‘Mysterious Rhinestone Cowboy’:

DAC adopted a lot of roles in his life. He had an amazing talent, and while his voice may come as an ‘aquired taste’ to some, once he had grabbed you, he would never let loose again.

I don’t even remember the first time I listened to a DAC recording. Like Johnny Cash, Willie, Waylon, Kris, and so many others, it seems he was always ‘just there’.

Truth be told, great talent that he was, modesty was never his thing. Let’s face it, in the end he was always his worst enemy. Those two X-Rated albums he released independently in 1978 and 1982? Ouch. He was never in good standing with the country music establishment, but, to put it mildly, this stuff certainly did not help.

The X-Rated albums also earned him the ‘racist’ label that stuck for the rest of his life. I don’t know about that. Among other things, the guy had a black drummer in his band. In the 2000s, he frequently distanced himself from this term on stage, asking people to ‘walk in his shoes’.

In the end, I guess he hated pretty much everybody, regardless. He also blamed everybody else for the fact that he never got the full recognition he deserved.

To quote the man himself, ‘AND IF THAT AIN’T COUNTRY, YOU CAN KISS MY ASS.‘

Farewell, David Allan Coe. There’s a Postercowboy in Berlin who will remember you fondly for the rest of his life.