25 years and about a week ago we lost a great american voice. Steve Goodman, most famous for penning "City of New Orlean" (what some consider the greatest train song ever penned), died on Sept. 20th 1984 of leukemia at the age of 36 (a disease he had been suffering with for 15 years). Discovered together with friend and contemporary John Prine by none other than Kris Kristofferson in 1971 and propelled to fame in 1972 when Arlo Guthrie had a hit with "City of New Orleans". Legend has it that Guthrie agreed to listen to Goodman's song so long as Goodman bought him a beer and he would only listen as long as it took him to drink the beer. Well the song he played for Guthrie was "City of New Orleans" and the rest....as they say...Steve Goodman is also known as the writer of "You Never Even Called Me By My Name, made famous by David Allan Coe who added the infamous "the perfect country and western song" ending refrain. On this recording here, the ever smartass Goodman adds his own "perfect country and western song" ending refrain which is not to be missed.
The sound on this is pretty good. The beginning intros of both the concert and the radio show are kind of annoying but easy to get over.
Posts
