Album: Copperhead Road
Year: 1988
. . .
Like the man himself at the time, Steve Earle’s early discography is a bit of a mess: his earliest singles — including the original version of “Devil’s Right Hand” — came out on Epic, but his first album, 1986’s Guitar Town, came out on MCA. Guitar Town was a surprise success, topping the Country Charts and making #90 on the Billboard Albums chart, and so Epic put out all of the earlier songs he’d recorded for them as Early Tracks, because that’s what record companies do.
In any event, nobody was fooled, and when Earle made his first full-out blend of country and rock with 1988’s Copperhead Road, he re-recorded “Devil’s Right Hand,” an anti-gun song on the level of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s immortal “Saturday Night Special,” opening with just Earle singing over a kickdrum and acoustic guitar.
About the time that Daddy left to fight the big war
I saw my first pistol in the general store
In the general store when I was thirteen
Thought it was the finest thing I ever had seenI asked if I could have one someday when I grew up
Mama dropped a dozen eggs, she really blew up
She really blew up, I didn’t understand
Mama said, “The pistol is the devil’s right hand”
Naturally, the full band has kicked in at this point, still mostly acoustic with some electric guitar in the back, but the cool thing to me is how easily Earle uses the same phrase at the end of the second line of each stanza to start the third verse, an incredibly great use of repetition that gets doubled down upon during the chorus.
The devil’s right hand
The devil’s right hand
Mama said, “The pistol is the devil’s right hand”
Of course, who listens to their mama, right? Mine told me to not to look into the eyes of the sun, not understanding that’s where the fun is, and Earle also ignores his mom, because before the next chorus, he’s got himself a Colt .45, and after a guitar solo, he’s used it to shoot a guy he things cheated him at cards, as you do.
My trial was in the morning and they drug me out of bed
Asked me how I pleaded, “Not guilty,” I said
“Not guilty”, I said, “you’ve got the wrong man”
Nothing touched the trigger but the devil’s right hand
A novel defense, to be sure, but somehow I don’t think it got past a jury of his peers, though Earle doesn’t say one way or the other. Anyways, as arranged by E. Street bassist Garry W. Tallent, “Devil’s Right Hand” was a highlight of Copperhead Road, a album that got enough airplay on country stations to go to #7 country and #56 pop — the last time Earle would chart that high in the 20th century, as he was on the verge of derailing his career, and his life, via drugs & alcohol. We’ll talk about that more tomorrow.
However, “Devil’s Right Hand” was one of those songs that got covered a lot: Waylon Jennings put out a version in 1986, and Bob Seger did another one in 2014. An in between that, Doc taught it to Joseph, Shawn and I, making “Devil’s Right Hand” one of the few covers we did in the ill-fated Evil Twin project in 1989. The early version of Sedan Delivery also worked on it, though we never played it live, probably because it still had Evil Twin stink all over it.
“The Devil’s Right Hand”
“The Devil’s Right Hand” Farm Aid, 2014
“The Devil’s Right Hand” Live Acoustic in London, 2012
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je8xzQd6YEo?t=2m26s
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